2012 Show time.

As the next step in my poorly thought out plan for Crochet World Domination, I entered crochet in the Melbourne Show craft competition. It is my fiendish plan to stop the production of pastel baby blankets, boring lacy table cloths and freeform crochet bags of dubious quality. To this end I have entered such things as a crochet dalek and a dinosaur, hoping that someone will see them and realise that crochet isn't just about lace and grannie squares. This may be happening in the crowd, but so far the judges have remained unimpressed, (I can't believe the dalek was beaten by a tablecloth.)

That is until this year. Mwahahaha! I entered my Lace Invaders Handkerchief edging into the Own Design category. By using the traditional technique of filet crochet to create pixel art space invaders, I was able to convince the judges that this was just an ordinary hankie. It was awarded first place! Take that freeform crochet bag.

However there was a slight hitch in my plan. Although the hankie did win it's category it was beaten to the overall crochet prize by a doiley. Fortunately the doiley was made by yours truly, the Evil Crochet Genius. Another part of my plan for Crochet World Domination is to subvert the traditional art of doiley making. Instead of submitting another white lacy confection, I use colour in this case blue. (Okay so it's still a lacy confection, but at least it doesn't have ruffles.)

So my dastardly plan has quite a way to go. There are still more lacy old fashioned fripperies that interesting crochet pieces at the show. But I think there is a change coming. For one, there was a tractor covered in crochet in the centre of the Craft Pavilion. Yarn bombing at it's best.

And have a look at second and third placed doileys. (Not too closely because my camera is having trouble focussing.)

They may be old fashioned, but they are in colour. My dastardly plan is beginning to take effect Mwahahahaha!

Retrenched

3 and a half years ago I got retrenched. Totally out of the blue, one minute I was working on an character design, the next I was called into the meeting room and told, "Don't come in Monday." It sucked.

I wasn't the only one fired that day. In all ten animators and designers lost their jobs. The lucky ones got told that day, the unlucky were still on holidays and didn't get told (via e-mail) until the day before they were due back at work.

To get through this I did the only thing I knew how to do. I crocheted. I made amigurumi for all the animators who got retrenched with me.

It turned out that the company was in massive financial difficulty and being retrenched was one of the luckiest things to have ever happened to me. Everyone who stayed ended up being stood down without pay about three months later.

By now the truth was starting to come out. Basically the company had not been paying any outside contractors, who were understandably angry and threatening to call in their debts. The program we had all worked on was critically panned and no overseas network wanted to touch it.

People were angry and venting their rage on Blog pages and Facebook. You won't find many of these left online, as threatening legal letters followed shortly after any comments were posted. When I found out my Superannuation hadn't been paid I decided to get my revenge. Quietly so as not to get sued.

This is what I made.

Disclaimer: This amigurumi bears absolutely no resemblance to anybody living, dead or animated. The fact that it looks a shady character in the animation industry is completely coincidental.

(This may have been the point where I became the Evil Crochet Genius.)

To cut a long story short our former employer was reported to the Australian Tax Office and they eventually re-united me and my colleagues with our missing money. The company is liquidation and our former boss is being pursued for 9 million dollars. Most of my colleagues have found work either in animation or unrelated fields. Occasionally we all catch up and reminisce about the good old days, when we all worked together as a team. And then we all stick pins into the doll.