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

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.

Oriana sends in some images of her installation ‘Old Lady Bomb’:

She says, “My first tag was the old lady statue just outside Stanley Park, at Denman and Cordova. Sorry for the horrendous quality of the photos (camera phone), but it made me feel special. Thank you for bringing this into my life!”

This statues often sits with flowers, picked from the Stanley Park flowerbeds, in her arms but this is the first time that I’ve seen someone make it look winter-chic. Way to go, Oriana!

Something has been going on in London. First, I see a short BBC piece about women dressing Covent Garden in yarn. Then I see photos of a colourful knitted phone booth near the London Eye. Suddenly  I find myself looking at a twitpic and falling in love with the cutest and creepiest looking creatures left around London…then I’m looking at photo upon photo of knitted lemons and oranges hanging from trees…

What is this all about? Who is doing this? A group of crafty and clever ladies who go by the group moniker Knit the City. We asked these unusual suspects the usual questions and received some very unique answers: 

Tell us about yourselves…..

We’re Knit the City. The Knit the City Yarn Corps consists of six lone woolly wolves who banded together to knit their city and beyond. We’re Londoners at heart but we grew up all over. Like some kind of itchy rash.

Deadly Knitshade: If I told you all about me I’d have to kill you. I generally don’t like killing. It gets the yarn all bloody.

The Purple Purler: I am a distant relation of the Scarlet Pimpernel. I grew up in the arse-end of nowhere, and moved to the Metropolis over 2 years ago. I’ve now become quite a face (behind a mask) at a lot of society’s key events. If I get to do the Viennese Waltz with some vampire then I consider it a bloody good night! I’m too old to be the child I think I am, but too young to retire!

Bluestocking Stitcher: I grew up in the grey suburbs and escaped to London.  By day, I am a frustrated academic. It’s rude to ask a lady her age.

Shorn-a the Dead: I’m a mutant hybrid of Wales and New Zealand, land of the ovine zombies. In sheep years I am 112.

Knitting Ninja: Avenger of crimes committed against non-knitted landscapes. Language teacher by day.

Lady Loop: A writer of words, a knitter of yarn and, above all, a Lady.

How did you get into textile graffiti?

Deadly Knitshade: After a near-tragic accident on the London Underground, involving the dreaded ‘tube sanitiser’ I very nearly met my death. Fate smiled in the furry form of some very helpful tube mice. Since that day I’ve been cursed to walk the earth blighted by ‘knitblasts’ I can’t control. Terribly embarrassing at parties.

The Purple Purler – Having discovered exactly what my distant cousin, the Scarlet Pimpernel used to get up to, I thought it only right to release the knit, my true love, from the acrylic-hoarding clutches of grannies up and down the country! I moved into releasing crochet when I realised it’s fate was just as perilous!

Bluestocking Stitcher: I was sitting in the library one day, reading an old manuscript of the Canterbury Tales. I found a scribbled out section of prologue. The nun’s priest was complaining about how drab and boring Southwark was, and was wanting to get away as soon as possible. As I left the library, I looked around me and saw that the streets were still drab, there was still no colour. At that point I decided to add touches of colour to make it a bit prettier.

Shorn-a the Dead: I was high on sheep dip one winter’s night and it seemed like a good idea. Originally the plan was to mummify the entire city in a cocoon of possum-merino blend, Sheepra style – but logistics got in the way so yarnstorming it is.

Knitting Ninja: I first learnt the importance of the needle at Assassin School, where we had to make our own clothes.

Lady Loop: Twas those blasted underground knitting bars. Gah, how they lure you in with their colourful yarns and sweet, sweet smiles.

How long has your crew been together? How did the members meet each other? 

Deadly Knitshade: Officially February 2009 on the South Bank in the company of the infamous PolyCotN of Knitta Please. Though we’ve been insulting each other and fighting over cake for far longer. Unofficially and closer to the truth we were lured into the London sewers by a mysterious giant knitting rat. He said simply “I tire of teaching turtles. Sit with me and I will show you the way of the yarnstorm”. We followed him into the darkness and we’ve never looked back.

What sort of materials do you work with?

Purple Purler: Anything I can get my hands on…actually considering spinning (naturally shedded) cat hair…it’d be free!

Bluestocking stitcher: My tools of choice are brightly coloured acrylic, a 4mm crochet hook and a Dymo junior embosser.

Shorn-a the Dead: My weapon of choice is a shuriken-like Thread Cutter Pendant with concealed teeth for snipping effortlessly through yarn when on the move. Anything that is portable and can be worn around the neck or over the shoulder is the way to go.

Lady Loop: I have a penchant for blues, pinks and greens. It’s the colours of the family shield, don’t y’know.

Deadly Knitshade: I’m ever so fond of eyelash yarn. Really. It’s lovely to work with. And so elegant. Honestly. No really. Why are you looking at me like that?

Tell us how you go about the act of bombing. Do you knit or crochet, or do both?

Purple Purler: I’m a jack of all trades…at the moment I favour crochet because it’s so much quicker!

Deadly Knitshade: I knit. It isn’t because I can’t crochet. I just don’t want to crochet. Yes, that’s it.

Bluestocking stitcher: I mostly crochet. But sometimes use other crafts such as daisy looms or knotwork.

Shorn-a the Dead: I am a knitting fundamentalist.

Knitting Ninja: Knitting is my first name.

Lady Loop: One has just discovered the joys of the crochet. But those knitting needles aren’t gathering dust (like Daddy’s collection of stuffed geese) just yet.

Do you use other materials?

The Purple Purler: Pipe cleaners and felt are the order of the day at the moment. I also like to use shredded t-shirts…

Lady Loop: I might throw the odd diamond or two in for good measure.

Knitting Ninja: I’m a purist, sticking to just needles and yarn. Just as my masters taught me.

Deadly Knitshade: I’m quite liking buttons at the moment. They’re just so…buttony, y’know?

What are your favorite objects to tag? 

Knitting Ninja: Anything that looks like it needs a piece of skilfully constructed knitting on it.

Lady Loop: Things that look dull.

Deadly Knitshade: Anything that screams London in your face. Places tourists pronounce wrong when they ask for directions. Museum signs. I like my knitblasts to have something to look at when I leave them. They get bored so easily.

Do you have a signature style? 

Deadly Knitshade: I stripe everything. There was a major overdose of Dr Seuss when I was a tiny Knitshade. I’m also a fan of beady eyed creatures. They’re hard to leave behind though. My Whodunnknit tag is essential too.

Purple Purler: you can tell it’s one of mine by the purple flower I’ve tagged it with. I like to tag areas of touristy importance…the more sights I can get in the photos at once the better! I also like garish eyelash yarns which are awful to work with and look bloody hideous! I like to be able to moan a lot when I create…

Bluestocking stitcher: My normal style is small scale and designed to blend in to make people do a double take. My current favourite is to find railings with bushes poking through and attach small flowers to the railing so they nestle among the leaves. I tend to attach a little dymo tape label to each piece I do.

Knitting Ninja: Mine often involves knitted ladybirds.

Lady Loop: One is all about uneven striped pinks, blues and greens. It’s a tag, just like those dastardly graffiti kids.

How do you attach your tags?

The Purple Purler: It’s really a closely guarded secret, but we know you won’t tell anyone…we use cable ties of many colours! Mine are purple (SHOCK!).

Lady Loop: With the fine art of whip stitch.

Deadly Knitshade: With the power of my mind. And cable ties of green.

What time of day do you tag?

Purple Purler: Whenever I get round to it…

Bluestocking stitcher: All day and all of the night (as Ray Davies said).

Deadly Knitshade: I am considering asking Knitting Ninja to do me a chart of the most auspicious time to tag.

Lady Loop: Under the cloak of darkness. The daylight hours are spent hitchhiking back up to the English countryside and siphoning wool from the rare-breed sheep of private estates.

How do you get your inspiration for tags?

Deadly Knitshade: We’re inspired by our city and its dark and twisty history. By the kooky and spooky (huge fans of Tim Burton’s bulgy eyed beasts and Neil Gaiman’s spooky stuff). By cake and the promise of pear cider.

Does your family know you do this? Do your co-workers know?

Bluestocking stitcher: They know nothing. I am able to retain anonymity even when in full view. I may have perfected mind control – “You will forget you ever saw this”.

Knitting Ninja: I am a ninja. Stealth is my middle name.

Lady Loop: Daddy would never approve…

Deadly Knitshade: I can’t seem to resist the urge to announce my graffiti knitting at gatherings of more than three people. On a bus, queueing to use the ATM, dentist’s waiting room. I’m considering sending a memo around the office.

The Purple Purler: My excitable nature means I have yarnstorm tourettes and I end up blurting it out. Thankfully I wear a mask to work, so no-one knows who I am…

Have you ever been caught in the act yarn-bombing? What did you do?

Shorn-a the Dead: explained sweetly to the police that it was a ‘craft project’. Ahhh craft, it’s so snuggly and innocent-sounding.

Lady Loop: One scallywag once said I was a “knitting vandal”. A swift blow to the knees sorted that one out. Then there was this policeman. He was rather taken with our knitted phone cosy – he even took a photograph for his wife. But then he got silly. The gastly man gave me a Stop and Search slip! Criminal? Me? Pah.

Deadly Knitshade: We got served. I was so proud I nearly wept.

How did the idea for the telephone booth come about?

Deadly Knitshade: We’re London lovers and we’re lucky because London has so many objects that are just so…Londony. We decided a phonebox would ring that Londony bell in people. Especially one in the Parliament Square shadow of Big Ben. You couldn’t get more London if you tried. Unless we threw some roast beef and a picture of the Queen in there.

We’re not just about the Phonebox cosy. We’re equally proud of our Web of Woe. A 13-foot spider web of 44 horrified insects and one hungry arachnid. It dominated London’s Leake Street graffiti tunnel for all of 24 hours before it got pinched. Yarnstorm stealing swines!

What is Yarn-storming? What’s wrong with a little bombing? 

Deadly Knitshade: Knit the City ‘yarnstorm’ rather than ‘yarnbomb’ as a move away from terrorist associations, being of a gentler disposition. The Yarn Corps feel a bit sheepish about being labelled as dastardly yarn terrorists. We live in a city where ‘bomb’ is possibly not the best word to bandy about, even if it is woolly. But everyone likes a storm. Yarnstorm is a little bit steampunk too. Gotta love a bit of steampunk, eh?

Shorn-a the Dead: ‘Storm’ is more London-centric – people are obsessed with talking about the weather so meteorlogical metaphors are, uh, the bomb.

Deadly Knitshade: I can’t believe you just said that. *shakes head*

Do you have any other words of wisdom for Yarn-Bombing readers?

Deadly Knitshade: If a yarnstormer yarnstorms in the forest and there’s only a family of rabid squirrels and an angry badger to see it, does that still count as a yarn storm?

Bluestocking stitcher: Put a full glass of water beside the bed before you go out on a night of heavy drinking to avoid dehydration. (Is that the right sort of wisdom?)

Shorn-a the Dead: Don’t eat the yellow snow.

Lady Loop: Don’t visit the Needle and Craft to the left of the tunnel in the East End. Of course, you’ll have to find the pub first …

Knitting Ninja: If you find something you like, buy a lifetime supply, because they will stop making it.

All photographs courtesy of Lauren O’Farrell 

Photo by Craig Sinclair,

Installed at the corner of Main and Hastings, Jana used her own handspun, hand dyed Merino wool. 

She says: I was a little nervous at first and then surprised when the city worker just got out, swept around me and proceeded to explain that he often gets asked what the strangest thing he’s ever seen on the job is. Apparently this is it.

Too funny. For those who do not know Vancouver, Main and Hastings is a pretty lively intersection – so it delights me to think that yarn graffiti seems unusual. Janna works in social work in the neighbourhood, so its nice to think that her handmade piece is bringing a bit of cheer to those in the area. I particularly like the ruffle around the top!

In other knit-graffiti news, check out Grrrl + Dog’s installation of a public lavatory in Australia: The Knitted Convenience

And, OutDoor Knit’s beautiful Hearts on Vivian fence project. More photos here. Beauty!

(If you haven’t noticed – we’re updating our blog and just moved servers – all missing links will be reinstated soon!)

Images courtesy of Knit The City. Please contact them for permission if you intend to repurpose these for your blog.

London has never looked so colourful! I love those classic red phone boxes but I think that Knit The City has made them both cute and cuddly.

Knit The City has been ‘yarn storming’ different parts of London over the last few months: St Paul’s Cathedral, the Tate Modern, the Thames river, and now this!

I can’t wait to see what group members Knitting Ninja, Deadly Knitshade, Bluestocking Stitcher, The Purple Purler, Lady Loop, and Shorn of the Dead get up to next! We’ll be interviewing them soon.

Quick snaps of an installation in my neighbourhood – yarn bombing at the community garden at Davie and Denman. A little birdie tells me it is the work of Jessica Glesby, creator of the Identity School. We’ll be posting an interview with Jessica in the weeks to come on the school. She has been teaching the art of knit graffiti to school kids in East Vancouver.

I spotted this from the bus on my commute home from work on friday night. Everyone I know seems to have mentioned it to me in the last few days. I love how wild, wooly, and colourful this piece is – perfect for these rainy Vancouver days that we’ve been having!

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!

Formed by weaving yarn into chainlink fences, the bold colours and geometric patterns used are reminiscent of quilt blocks and children’s crafts. With each motif standing several feet tall, the installation plays with scale in a really lovely way.

I like the idea of forming images this way, using the grid of a chainlink fence like a needlepoint canvas. It offers one advantage over other forms of yarn graffiti; it’s possible to make large, bold visual statements without a huge investment of time!

The women of Art Yarn are launching a new project, and they’d love for you to participate. Here is their call to action:

ArtYarn invite you to knit or crochet decorative strips of yarn for the installation ‘Yarn Forward’ at the Manchester Craft and Design Centre.

To accompany the UK Craft Mafia’s exhibition, ArtYarn will be installing a yarn wrapping round the 1st Floor banister of the Manchester Craft and Design Centre to celebrate the many versatilities and techniques of knitting and crochet from around the world.

How to take part:
- Knit or crochet your knitted strip to measure 7cm wide x 40 cm long. Any colour, yarn and technique is accepted, the brighter and wackier, the better.
-Write a small note stating your name and location. Each knitted strip will house a small label stating the maker’s details.
- Send in your yarn strips to the following address (or drop them off in person to the craft centre office on the 1st floor) :

Manchester Craft and Design Centre
17 Oak Street,
Northern Quarter
Manchester,
M4 5JD
England UK

Deadline to receive yarn strips: 25th April 2009

If you would like your yarn strips to appear as part of the instillation for the UK Craft Mafia’s exhibition-opening event, please make and send them by March 17th 2009.