The final day of One Week, One Pattern was mainly spent on a plane to Alice Springs. To make sure my knot top wouldn’t get gunk on it in transit I changed when I got there. So we are blessed with a photo of my phone in the hotel mirror, apparently missing an arm.

One unexpected bonus of OWOP – a limited range of choices easily answered the ‘what do I wear for a conference presentation’ question!

OWOP Day 7 - a blurry photo of my phone

What else did I learn from OWOP?

• I really enjoyed putting on a dress the next day – it wasn’t so much I didn’t want to wear the knot tops again, but that I was bored with my bottom half options. Something to consider for wardrobe gap filling.
• I tend to recycle the same outfits over and over, especially for work.
• I need a new casual cardigan, and a new work cardigan. The black one I wear continually should have been replaced quite some time ago.
• I have enough knot tops to take me half way across the country and back.
• Plain and neutral colours are boring in photos.

A huge thank you to Tilly for all her coordination and enthusiasm about this idea. Oh, and the pie charts too!

Post OWOP – a little sightseeing around Alice Springs

After the conference finished and before my flight home, I walked down very early on Sunday morning to the local market which is held fortnightly. I had a good coffee and waited while the stall holders turned up and set up their stalls.

Silk scarves at the market

The Mekong Silk stall of silk scarves caught my eye and a two-toned one had to come home – it is wide enough and long enough to make a soft gathered or pleated skirt for dressy dinners. The darker colour is like the one in the second column from the left, five from the top – a brick red blending to a medium pink. I’ll use it like a border print. Would go beautifully with my white linen knot top

I see now from the website that the owner sources her products directly from the weavers in Laos. That makes me feel even better about my beautiful scarf/skirt-to-be.

The Todd River in Alice Springs, Northern Territory.
It’s been a wetter than normal past 18 months apparently, explaining the green growth of the grasses along the river bed. One of the bridges across the river into town was not more than about 20cm/8inches above the sand. I’ve been told it’s rare to actually have water in the river so I was interested to see from the patterns in the sand that there were remaining marks from waterflow. Yeah, and footprints.

Todd River, Alice Springs