KNITTING FIJI

One of the best things that I brought with me to Fiji are my knitting needles. At the time, mum thought I was a bit crazy because who, in their right mind, would ever knit in the steamy hot Fijian conditions. Funnily enough, it gets "cold" enough here that people wear beanies, scarves and gloves when it gets down to about 20 degrees.

I knit so much that my housemates have grown accustomed to the odd bits of wool cut-offs that are found in various locations around our house. Bits of wool can be found around the dinner table, on my bed, somewhere on the floor in someone else's room and in the washing machine.

During the school holidays, someone had been handed a flyer advertising a "bra art" competition. In a bid to raise awareness about breast cancer, the Fiji cancer society were about to hold their annual bra-art competition. Each year the response to the compeition has been growing - probably to the size of about a DD. Towards the end of the school holidays, I was getting rather bored. When I get bored, I become slightly silly. Lauren, Luke and myself were sitting at our bright red "Rups Big Bear" dining table. We were coming up with whacky ideas as to what we'd put on a bra design. We thought of silly things like crabs with claws pinching nipples, bras covered in dalo leaves (but then your breasts would probably be itchy from handling the dalo), the Fiji flag on a bra and of course, the coconut bra. I joked that I should try and knit a bra. It was at this point that Luke had another one of his lightbulb moments: why didn't I just knit the Fiji flag on a bra? We all looked at him as if he had just invented the wheel.

Now Luke thought I was being sarcastic when I told him that it was a brilliant idea. It wasn't until I had started downloading pictures of the Fiji flag and complaining loudly to Lauren that there weren't any good knitted bra patterns on the internet that he knew that I was actually serious.

I'm not sure how many of you have checked recently, but there aren't that many patterns for a basic knitted bra on the internet. So I started drawing one up myself.

Then I went on a quest to buy coloured wool which they call "kula". I got blank stares when I asked for wool/yarn/the balls of string that you knit/crochet with. You have to ask for "kula" and then people know what you're talking about. They use them here to decorate the ends of their pandanus mats. Then I started knitting....



And knitting....



And embroidering details........



Bought a $2 bra from Rups Big Bear to extract the foam bra cup out of it (no one sells the bra cups by themselves in Fiji...I think the idea of using them to pad out dresses or making bras is just a ludicrous idea here)

Until.....



Qo!

Handing it in was also a bit of an issue. I was told that I could hand it in to any Westpac branch. Given my luck, I had to choose the branch which hadn't had ANY entries submitted yet. Of course, they had no idea what to do with it, tried to charge me $5 to enter the competition when it was free and then wanted to be given the entry form when it clearly says that it needed to be pinned to the bra itself. I was really skeptical as to whether or not it would ever be entered at all.

Judging day came along and I was slightly nervous. I went after school one day to the place where I thought all the bras were going to be displayed. As I walked closer to the display, it was quite apparent that there was not a single bright blue entry that was modelled on the display units. I hadn't won anything. These were the winning entries:



It was at this point that I was really starting to think that it hadn't ever been entered. The staff at the bank were not the most helpful and seemed completely clueless as to why I was giving them an over-decorated bra despite the clear advertisement that they had on their window. By now, I didn't really care if it won or if it was judged to be the ugliest bra in the whole competition. All I wanted was for my knitted bra to be on display for someone else to appreciate.

Apparently the rest of the bras were being displayed at Prouds (another shop in Fiji). Emily thought that it was only right that I should at least have a photo with my bra being proudly displayed at Prouds. So she accompanied me to Prouds, only to find that the display room was shut. We peered through the window through cupped hands against the glass like children drooling over lollies that they didn't quite have enough pocket money to buy. Again, we couldn't see any bright blue shapes in the darkened room and I was really thinking that my bra entry was still sitting at the Westpac branch.

Then, I received an email:

"I'm so sorry about the late notice, but your bra has been selected to be shown in a choreographed performance at Fiji Fashion Week. Kind regards, Helen"

I think I literally jumped out of my seat. All of my housemates were in bed by this time so I had no one to tell. Lauren came out of her room to make her nightly tea and I exploded with my news. Eventually, all of my housemates were informed and we all agreed that there was only one action to take: buy a ticket to fashion week.

However, I was still convinced that there must have been a mistake and that my bra had been entered but they had sent me the email by mistake. I also dreamt that there was a wardrobe malfunction and that my bra couldn't be worn anymore. I had crazy ideas that the model who was assigned to wear my bra would be come horrendously sick and no one else would be able to fit into it so it would be left out off the catwalk.

Then, the fashion show was due to start. I was nervous. Really nervous. It was as if I was watching my own child at a dancing concert. This bra IS my child. I made it, I loved it and I even gave it its first bra. I am so glad that I have such supportive housemates. They all came along with me to see my bra on show. They were also fantastic at telling me to stop being stupid and calm down. Of course it was going to be shown.

The lights went down and the next show was announced: a sample of the Fiji Cancer Society bra art compeition. In the darkness, I could see two long lines of girls walking along the catwalk to take their places, seated on the sides of the stage. Then the music started and a spotlight was shone onto the back of the stage. There, in the middle of the spotlight was a model wearing my Fiji flag knitted bra. A fellow male dancer lifted her up into the air and my heart lifted with her. It made it! It wasn't sitting at the Westpac branch and nor was it lying in a pathetic heap in the "too ugly to show" pile.



What an amazing feeling it is to see your work on the catwalk under bright lights.