The mermaid in Vancouver’s Stanley Park keeps warm. Photo courtesy of Mary Alice Elcock.
While we’ve been having so much fun working with Historic Joy Kogawa House and putting together their knitted cherry tree, my in-box has been filling up with worthwhile yarn bombing causes. While I promise to post more cherry blossom photos soon, today’s post is dedicated to other projects that you may want to consider getting involved with.
Calling knitters in East Vancouver
I received an email from Craig who is calling guerilla knitters to help save some historic East Vancouver elm trees. He’s hoping to find some interested crafters who would be willing to yarn bomb the trees. He says:
When signs went up along East Sixth Avenue notifying residents of imminent tree removal, the overwhelming sentiment in the area suddenly became akin to a “Nightmare on Elm Street”. Thirty magnificent Siberian Elms, which for over 70 years have defined the character of this East Vancouver neighbourhood, are slated to be fallen. In fact, historic street trees such as these are recognized by the Vancouver Heritage Foundation as one of the city’s top 10 endangered sites. With little consultation by the City to date, residents are calling on the public for support.
Guerilla knitters, you can get involved! Although a second arborist consultation to determine the level of safety and disease of the trees is still impending, meaning the tree trunks and branches cannot be covered entirely, knitters can create locks and chains to adorn the trees, symbolizing that they are not going anywhere anytime soon.
The trees in question are between the 1500 and 2200 block of East Sixth Avenue, between Grandview Highway and Nanaimo. Of the roughly 150 trees present, the 30 speculated for removal are mostly found between Commercial and Victoria drives.
For more information about the cause, visit: http://saveourelms.wordpress.com or http://www.facebook.com/saveourelms
Calgary Art Bombs
The Calgary Art Bomber, who we mentioned a few weeks back, has extended her submission call to March 25th. She needs caps which are knit to be 44″ in circumference and 14″ from top to base. Find out more via her blog at
catmap.wordpress.comCanadians: Vote for an National Guerrilla Knitting Festival
Kelta is political science student at the U of A. She is heavily involved in NGO work and is up for a grant to have a national Guerilla Knitting (or Yarn Bombing ) Festival. The grant is worth $5000 to provide materials, and to pay experts to run public workshops across Canada. Her success relies on voting through Pepsi Refresh. You have to log in to vote for this idea. If you’d like to support her, you can
vote here.
An Open Call for Yarn Bombing in Santa Monica, California for locals and international artists.
Official press release details:
A yarn bombing event is in the works for in and around the 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, California for June 18th, 2011… This is a two-fold exhibition, and will also include a more traditional wall display inside the gallery. We are looking for all types of yarn art, and encourage both novice and expert crafters with open arms. We’d love to see work that may be humorous, functional, expressive and use unusual materials and/or push the knit/crochet envelope. Recycled knit and fiber materials are encouraged.
Space is available on a first come first serve basis. We will keep accepting new applications as long as space remains available. A map of reserved sites can be found on http://yarnbombing18th.weebly.com/gallery.html. We’ll hold monthly stitch ‘n bitch gatherings every 3rd Saturday of the month at the 18th Street Arts Center. Interested parties may claim available spots and propose a site specific project during these meetings. We encourage the participants to share work in progress and exchange ideas, techniques, materials during these meetings.
Out of town/ international applicants – Due to the site specific nature of the work, local participants should visit the space at least once before submitting a proposal. But exceptions can be made for highly enthusiastic parties who live outside of Southern California but would like to work out a way to participate. We would like the proposal to include a digital image of the location/item you want to tag and a brief paragraph describing your idea. You may visit http://yarnbombing18th.weebly.com/gallery.htmlto view some images of the space for inspiration.
Contact information: Yarnbombing 18th Street, 1653 18th Street, Studio #5
Santa Monica, CA 9040
Email: yarnbombing18@gmail.com Website: http://yarnbombing18th.weebly.com/
Support International Yarn Bombing Day!
Help make International Yarn Bombing Day happen! The Knitting Ninja is promoting June 11th as a day where all things should be knit. Join the facebook group and find out more:
Whew, time to get out the needles and hooks and get to work!
