Radical Cross Stitch

As some of you know but probably most of you don’t, I live in what’s considered to be the poorest neighbourhood in Melbourne. The suburb is formerly an industrial area and is still pretty heavily dominated by industrial land. It was also formerly predominantly state housing. There was a big sell off during the Kennett years (I think) but there’s still a lot of public housing. And a lot of the housing that was sold off was bought by the people living in it.

It’s also a suburb with a significant proportion of immigrants specifically refugees. There’s a high proportion of African and Vietnamese residents (and a few kiwis!).

This suburb has a pretty bad history of neglect. There is a very high unemployment rate and low education rate. So of course substance abuse is a significant issue round these parts. And of course flowing form that is a pretty high rate of drug related theft, mostly theft but occasionally violent crime.

Despite all this, we have a lot of good stuff going on round here. The Maribyrnong River runs along the side of the suburb and there’s some lovely walks to be had along the river. We have a few good parks with lots of growing trees and good playground equipment. Our major park is undergoing a major upgrade which will see a heap more trees, more sport facilities and an indigenous welcome area.

We also have an amazing community centre which provides a space for exercise classes, playgroup and childcare, health care, community gardens, computer education and access, a tool ’shed’ (biggest shed I’ve ever seen!) and tool library, craft groups, cooking groups, you name it we’ve probably got it.

But of course being a smaller, poorer suburb, we don’t get the investment in services that some of the bigger, richer suburbs get. So some of the older women in our community use their amazing craft skills to make items to sell to raise money. Unfortunately the small table they have in the reception area of the community centre doesn’t get much foot traffic so they don’t get seen much. So I decided to grab some and put them online.

First off I’ve got a pile of gorgeous wee baby jerseys which are all hand knitted and designed to stretch really well so they’ll last baby a while. Here’s couple but I’ve got a heap more so keep an eye on the store for more. And if you’re interested in a specific colour let me know and I’ll see what’s in stock.

I think at $15 they’re very reasonably priced, and all profits go straight to our local community.

See more in the Radical Rags Etsy Store