Celebration of hat draws thousands to the Red Centre, writes Pamela Wade.
What are the odds? There are 5000 beanies on display at the Araluen Arts Centre in Alice Springs, sent here from all over Australia and from as far away as Britain, the US and Japan, but the first one I pick up has been made in Stewart Island.
I read the label and imagine Helen Bissland taking a ball of fluffy brown wool one wet, wintry night and, sitting by her fire in Halfmoon Bay, knitting this soft and cosy beanie, then decorating it with a handful of gold buttons.
And now here it is, plumb in the middle of Australia's parched Red Centre, to be tried on, admired and, at some point over the next four days, bought by one of the nearly 9000 people attending this quirky festival.
It all started in 1997 with a party, but instead of Tupperware or naughty undies, it was beanies, cheap and simple to make, that were offered for sale as a way to give employment and income to women living in remote Aboriginal communities like Ernabella, 400km away along a dusty desert track. Already skilled in traditional methods of weaving and spinning, the women adapted easily to the new techniques of knitting, crocheting and felting shown them by people like Adi Dunlop and others who came to call themselves "beanie-ologists".
