Week 24* - Anita

Sociable. Intelligent. Bossy. Funny.

Treasured possession: a cushion cover to accompany a baby mat made by Anita's sister

Anita’s home is newish and bright.  Located in the south of the lake suburbs; a townhouse between the more common three bedroom houses.  The TV is on but the sound is off.  ABC News is playing in the background with the ribbons at the bottom of the screen scrolling through local and international news.  The Coalition have just broken up in wake of the last election.  Leaders of the both the parties are being interviewed by all channels.  Anita makes me a tea and we settle down to chat about knitting.

Anita is currently working on a Fino Scarf and a mobius strip scarf.  She is at pains to point out she does not do anything complicated any more as she always goes wrong and has to pick it back to the mistakes.  The mobius strip looks like it has too many twists in it and will have to be sorted out by a friend of hers, who also knits, later in the week.  “I know I will have to knit when I am more awake.”  Anita used to choose patterns for their interest, now she uses simple patterns but the yarn she uses carries the design.  She sticks to scarfs and baby blankets.  

Anita learnt how to knit in the boarding house her mother ran.  The boarding house was specifically for Chinese students who lived in Papua New Guinea but attended boarding school or university in Sydney.  ‘There is a long history between the Chinese and PNG’, she states. Her mother had been one of these students herself, attending boarding school in Maitland after WWII when she was liberated from an internment camp run by the Japanese.  Once liberated the young people who had their education interrupted were sent to Australia to finish.  Anita tells me her great grandfather was sent to New Guinea by the German colonisers to be indentured labour on Manus Island.  It was only men who were sent.  He had a relationship with a local women.  Her grandfather was born on Manus. Anita is not sure how her grandmother moved from Canton to Manus but suspects it was something to do with the trade between the British (who governed the islands after WWI) and the island.

The young women who stayed in the boarding house would knit and it was something that Anita just picked up through them.  

When Anita was pre-school age she was sent to live with her grandmother in PNG.  Both her Cantonese and Tok Pisin, the language of PNG, improved.  She thinks of herself as a native English speaker but she spoke both Cantonese and Tok Pisin before English.  Her English came from the childcare she attended while her parents worked.  

Time around other people and listening to them speak assists her in remembering the other languages she does not use every day.  One of the Facebook groups she belongs to has Cantonese recipes of older generations at its heart.  She sees written expression of words she knows but they are not always right.  Anita has discovered an American You Tuber, married to a Hong Kong Chinese man, who gives lessons on how to improve Mahjong.  Anita thinks she is a good teacher, not just of Mahjong but of language too; the spelling she uses is phonetic and clear so Anita has learned the correct way to spell words she has puzzled over.

Anita became a teacher and spent some time teaching at the International School in PNG.  She uses Facebook to keep up with her old students, who are now in their 60’s.  As a user of FB Anita came across the Canberra Knitters and Crocheters group.  She gets a virtual connection, inspiration and ideas with other crafters.  She investigated the Saturday face to face group but has not felt the need to go back.  She did reach out to Lee Shu Ying who put out a call for orphaned earrings to incorporate into her hand crafted shawl pins.  Anita visited her stall at the Old Bus Depot Markets Wool Show at the weekend.  

Anita does like to do things with other knitters.  She is planning on attending the Crafty Cinema next month: an afternoon watching a film in a cinema with the lights turned up just enough to be able to knit, crochet, draw or do stitching.  Anita also plays percussion in the Victoria Street Brass Band.  The instrument manager is a keen knitter and will be the person asked to help with the mobius strip.  It is going to be a busy weekend as the Crafty Cinema is the same weekend as World Wide Knit in Public Day, this year at the National Arboretum.  

The best thing Anita ever made was a summer sweater.  She loved it so much she made another for her mother in law.  She thinks there must have been cotton in the yarn as it was cool on the skin.  The three-quarter sleeves added to its appeal for a summer outfit.  The yarn was made more attractive by small slubs.  She knitted it while she lived in Brisbane; the garment now lost through moves and age.

Anita has lived in a number of different places over the years but has held onto a couple of things.  Her sister, ‘fantastic crocheter’ and sewer made a baby blanket for Anita’s daughter.  This has been saved to pass on ‘if and when’ her daughter has children.  She also holds onto precious jewellery handed down from her mother.  The many moves Anita has made have decreased the amount of stuff she holds but there is still evidence of a large life on the piles of papers and books on the dining table.

As Anita eyes the pictures of whats unfolding today in the Gaza Strip, she clicks the button on the remote.  ‘I can’t concentrate watching that’ she says.  

By the time I leave Anita’s neat, small house, the temperature has dropped a couple of degrees.  I am glad I brought my long and thick puffer jacket.  The autumn leaves are swirling around in little eddies as I walk across the bridge traversing the drainage channel along the main road.  That wind has a touch of the Antarctic today.

*I interviewed Anita and wrote this post in Week 24 but it has taken a while to get it to publication, for a variety of reasons.