Keep sending in the blossoms! Mandy and I are really excited about the contributions that we have received from makers near and far for our cherry tree project.  (To find out more about the project, visit the Historic Joy Kogawa House website). Every time we open a package of blossoms, we marvel at how unique and special each flower looks. Our contributors have ranged in age from nine to seventy, and it has been such an honour to see so many people contribute to a cause that I think is so worthy. At last count, we had several hundred blossoms, and we think that the tree is going to look beautiful!

We have decided to have one more cherry blossom knit-in/yarn bombing talk here in Vancouver. The event will be held at Vancouver City Hall on Monday, February 28th from 7 pm – 9 pm. Needles and yarn will be provided and we’ll be showing our favourite images of yarn bombing.

Here are the official details:

Knitters to Take Over City Council Chambers

Yarn Bombing Event to Raise Awareness for Historic Joy Kogawa House

When: Monday, February 28, 7 to 9 pm

Where: Council Chambers, Vancouver City Hall, 453 West 12th Avenue, Vancouver

You are invited to come and knit or crochet pink blossoms for the Joy Kogawa cherry tree. Meet knit-graffiti  artists Mandy Moore and Leanne Prain, authors of Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti, and help them create an art phenomenon at one of Vancouver’s favourite literary landmarks: Historic Joy Kogawa House, 1450 West 64th Avenue. Blossoms will be sewn onto the tree on Sunday, March 6, 2 to 3:30pm, and will be in place throughout the month of march. Drop by to help or just to watch the magic happen!

If you are local, we hope to see you on the 28th or on March 6th at the house when we decorate the tree! Rumor has it that some well known Canadian fiction writers will be there to assist us with the decoration.

Thanks to everyone who came out last weekend to make cherry blossoms for the Historic Joy Kogawa House Yarn Bombing. We had a great turnout of enthusiastic crafty-types and Historic Joy Kogawa House has been receiving lovely pink blossoms in the mail. We can’t wait to sew them all together and onto the tree!

Here are a few photos last Sunday’s event:

A plethora of crocheted cherry blossoms from North Vancouver!

Mandy gives a knitting lesson.

I talked about the global movement of yarn bombing and showed some of my favorite photos of knit graffiti.

Everybody knitted with pink yarn!

Poet and novelist Joy Kogawa was present too,  if only in cut-out format.

After a day of knitting, we measure the beloved cherry tree in preparation for the yarn bombing on March 6th.

If you are local and couldn’t make it out last Sunday – please consider joining us in making cherry blossoms on Saturday, February 5th between 2-3:30. If you don’t live in the Vancouver area, you can still contribute by mailing in blossoms to Historic Kogawa House. We will take blossoms of any style and any type of yarn – as long as they are pink!

(A special thanks to photographer Jeff Christenson for capturing the afternoon.)

Knit Graffiti Round-up

My mailbox has been heavy with new yarn bombing feats – while we have much to post in the way of interviews and new yarn bombers trying their odds at sneakiness, here are a few noteworthy links of late:

You can now read Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti in German! The book has been translated by Droemer Knaur.

We’ve been giddy about Olek’s winter yarn bombing of the great brass bull on Wall Street in NYC and we hope you are too. While the knitting only lasted one night, videos are forever. If you haven’t seen this video, it is a must watch.

Speaking of large mammels: a yarn-bombed Hippo in Berlin (via the industrious KnitHacker)

More cozy trees in Brooklyn.

Lovely video of Dot Vile yarnbombing in Philly.

Genny’s birthday is coming up, and rather than pub crawling, she is inviting her friends to yarn ‘crawl’ aka bomb. Nice!

80 year old woman may or may not know that she is yarn bombing. What do you think?

Also via KnitHacker, I am absolutely charmed by this variation of the Chelsea Gunn’s monster foot pattern from our Yarn Bombing book: http://knithacker.com/2011/01/24/dragon-foot-yarn-bomb-spotted-in-saarbrucken/. It is the cutest monstrosity that I have ever seen.

Enough about us. Rebecca sent us this wonderful wrapped post from Fremantle, Australia.

Rebecca reports: Hulbert Street in Fremantle, Western Australia about two weeks ago. Yarnbombing has been going off here in Perth, I’ve been seeing more and more! A local yarnbomber (Captain Plaknit) has also been asked by the local council to yarnbomb and entire street for a festival at the end of this year – I’ll bet he’s busy.

Thanks to Rebecca for taking the time to send this – and kudos to Captain Plaknit – his ‘yarn blooms‘ are impressive! I’d love to see more yarn bombers experiment with wooly typography like the Captain.

W2 Media Centre

Mandy and I will be giving a brief reading from the Yarn Bombing book at the W2 Writers Series tomorrow night:

Date: Wednesday February 24th
Location: W2 Culture + Media House 112 West Hastings Street across from the  Woodwards Building.

Doors open at 6:30
First Reader 710ish
Hosted by Sean Cranbury & Hal Wake

Program:

Opening Remarks: Sean Cranbury

Introducing Honoured Special Guest Michael Nichol Yahgulanaas who will showcase a video/interactive discussion about his work.

From there we will go to a streamlined line-up of 5-7 minute readings from our writers including two breaks.  Like this:

Rhonda Waterfall
Weldon Hunter
kc dyer

Break

Steven Galloway
Leilah Nadir
Alex Leslie
Caroline Adderson

Break

Leanne Prain & Mandy Moore aka The Yarn Bombers
McKinley M Hellenes
Timothy Taylor
Brad Cran

Here’s a video about the series: http://realvancouverwriters.com/2010/02/19/cool-video-about-w2-real-vancouver-writers-series/

Plus, there will be prizes, a cash bar, and  great art and photography on the walls.

PS: This event is B.Y.O.H.A.N.Y (Bring your own hooks and needles and yarn).

The Ladies Fancywork Society, who kindly allowed us to interview them for the book and provided photographs of their beautiful crochet fancyworks, will be hosting a incognito book signing this coming Friday, September the 4th at Fancy Tiger Crafts in Denver, Colorado. If you are in the ‘hood, be sure to check it out! Mandy and I sure wish that we could be there!

For those closer to Vancouver, Canada, Mandy and I will be having the official Yarn Bombing book launch at Three Bags Full knit shop on Main Street on September 17th, beginning at 5:30 pm. There will be yarn bombing stories, tasty snacks, and lots of mayhem! We hope that you can join us. More details to come on the launch soon.

If you happen to be in Surrey, BC this weekend – drop by the local museum and meet us! (By the way, that’s in Canada – I don’t want to confuse our readers across the pond) Mandy and I will be speaking about our book and knit and crochet graffiti at 3 pm at the Surrey Museum.

Our talk is part of a day of yarn related events. Here is the official press release of the museum:

Join a summer picnic of knitters, crafters and suppliers in the Surrey Museum.

Entrance to Museum galleries by admission fee.

We will also be signing copies of yarn bombing – get yours fresh off the press!

As I mentioned last week, Mandy and I will be in Abbotsford tomorrow taking about our book and yarn graffiti. Here is the official press release:

The Art of Knit Graffiti
With Leanne Prain & Mandy Moore
Sunday, May 31 1–3 pm $16/1 session

The Reach Gallery Museum Abbotsford
32388 Veterans Way

Just what is yarn-bombing? Tea cosies on buses, park bench warmers, toques for fire hydrants? Writers Leanne Prain and Mandy Moore are not only engaged in this worldwide phenomenon, they are writing a book on the subject entitled Yarn Bombing: The Art of Knit Graffiti scheduled for released this fall by Arsenal Press. They will be presenting some excerpts from the book, Sunday May 31 at 1 pm at the Reach Gallery Museum Abbotsford.

Mention knitting and a lot of people think grandma’s knitting basket and cozy afghans but the practice of “yarn bombing,” takes it to a whole other level. The process involves bedecking public space in fibred splendour, photographing your tag and posting on the internet. It’s hard not to get all warm and fuzzy when confronted by a piece of yarn art – and you don’t have to paint over it.

Prain says “There are quite a few people who do this who consider themselves craftivists. They show themselves as activists through something that is handmade” The craftivists’ manifesto, according to Moore and Prain, is “world yarn domination.” They blog about knit graffiti at her site www.yarnbombing.com. The two have interviewed yarn bombers from the Netherlands to Texas. In addition to interviews the book will contain patterns for yarn bombing.

Local artist Barb Pearson will also be on hand to show some basic knit and crochet stitches to get you started. Find out how to get involved in an upcoming community project planned by The Reach. For more information please call The Reach at 604-864-8087 or email kwahamaa@thereach.ca

We will be part of a workshop with artist Barb Pearson at The Reach Art Gallery in Abbotsford on May 31st from 1 to 3pm. We hope to see some of you there!

If you don’t live in British Columbia, or Canada for that matter – there are two great projects that you can contribute to this month:

PS122 Gallery in New York City is running YARN THEORY

As part of the upcoming Yarn Theory exhibit at the PS122 Galleryin New York City’s East Village, we’re inviting knitters and crocheters of all stripes to tag the big old wrought-iron fence that rings the building with knitted or crocheted “knit-fiti”.The building has been scaffolding-ed up for years, and it needs beautiful crafty people like you to pretty it up. Please join us in festooning PS122 with yarn! The fence-decorating has already begun. We hope to have a lot more done before the show opens on April 25. In order to do this, we need you to add to our project! We have supplies, generously supplied by Lion Brand Yarns. All are welcome to participate any time between now and May 17, when the show closes. If you’d like to join the fun, please contact organizer Karen Eubel, keubel at hotmail.com, or DanielYuhas, daniel.yuhas at gmail.com

And, the ever lovely women of Art Yarn (UK) have started a new project called Knitted Nature.

Artyarn invite you to take part in the Knitted Nature project, an installation work at Touchstones Rochdale Art Gallery, for UK DIY. We are now collecting knitted and crocheted leaves and flowers from around the world which will contribute to a hanging installation to be displayed in the En Plan Air exhibition from June 2009. You can use any leaf or flower pattern you desire, any colour
and texture you wish. Make sure you include your name when you send them to us as you will be credited alongside the installation.

Now there, no excuses – get thee to the hooks and needles!

She will be giving a talk about her work, and the work of three other artists: Elaine Reichek, Janet Morton and Barb Hunt, at Lion Brand Studio (34 West 15th Street in Manhattan) this Thursday, May 7th. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and seats are first come, first served. The talk begins at 6 p.m.

If you wish to attend, RSVP at studio@lionbrandyarn.com, as space is limited

Here is Robyn in action: