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.

We have received a ton of email lately full of yarn-related goodness and we’re having a hard time keeping up so here is a round-up post of knit (and crochet) graffiti goodness of late:

A Call for Assistance!

Too shy to put your own tags up? The Calgary Artbomber has an international yarn bomb submission call out to warm up her chilly city.

The Knitting Ninja of the Purl Gurls on TV

Image from the Purl Gurls Blog

Another Canadian yarn bomber, the Knitting Ninja, will be appearing on the WipeOut – a crazy relay-race extreme elimination show. It looks like she had the chance to bomb a few things ‘canuck’-style between races.

Image from the Purl Gurls blog.

Project: Chase the Chill
This yarn bomber gave away 41 scarves in 14 hours – read her post. Her enthusiasm is contagious.

The Twisted Knitters have landed
The Twisted Knitters, based in Herefordshire, UK have been up to all sorts of hi-jinx. Purl Punk, one of the seven knitters, emailed me to tell me about their first yarn hit:

Our first hit was covering our local cheese shop with knitted mice by the cover of night. It was fantastic, the cheese shop totally got it and as it was the world cup they made little England shirts for the mice to mock up a football match with the cheese. We have also been amazed at how quickly people nab our knitting, even before 0830 in the morning big ratty got taken home by someone and our hat got nicked off the Elgar statue before 9am even with a 6ft fence round it!

They also recently hit their local museum with some buzz bombs:

Twisted Knitters

Twisted Knitters photo

Fadenmonsters

Brifrischu has been keeping the bollards in Aachen, Germany and Nottingham, England warm. She calls her cozy creations ‘FadenMonsters’. Cute and creepy!

Image courtesy of Brifrishchu.de

Danielle of DeeDee’s Devotions, has been adorning trees with little creatures. She says:

I decided to do crocheted butterflies so I dug around online and found a simple pattern. I swear all I do is make butterflies these days. I think by the time I finish yarnbombing butterflies I’ll have made about 110. I put up about 50 today.

Props to Danielle’s dad who also has helped her install the butterflies. This picture makes me smile:

Dad and I also went to Central Community Park and pinned up a bunch of butteflies there. Dad was surprised by a lady who shouted “Is that Yarn graffiti?!” ha ha! He said it was so she hopped over the fence and grabbed one of the butteflies. Apparently she heard about yarn bombing on the CBC and by the way she jumped and waved at me (Dad told her I was the one who crocheted them all), she was pretty darned excited about it!

In other news,

KnittaPlease has posted a submission call for knit graffiti photographs for a new book that will be coming out next year (found via the Subversive Yarn Network)

There will be a Yarn Bombing Stitch and Bitch event at the Davie Street Book Warehouse this thursday evening. Come one, come all!

On twitter? Don’t forget to use #yarnbombing so that we can find your knit graffiti posts!

Photograph from the BBC

I’ve been waiting to see how the Stitches on the Bridge project would turn out for months now.

Participants were called to knit or crochet items to be  joined and mounted on the bridge in order to create a colourful display of knitted pieces from around the world. All pieces will eventually be sold to raise money for charity.

A short news piece with the taggers in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMRG_QieMbw

And in Scots Gaelic with better photos and interviews:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymxVvPinxjc

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!

Just when I think I’ve seen (heard?) everything, I find this. Yarn Bombing has a soundtrack – the ‘finest deep minimal techno mix’ presented by DEEP MIX MOSCOW RADIO.

In other news, Magda Sayeg (recently interviewed here by the Gothamist) is at it again with another community project in Brooklyn, NY that you can contribute to:

69 Meters: A Public-Art Project on Montague Street

The Montague Street BID and artist Magda Sayeg, of Knitta Please, will be installing knitted artworks on all 69 parking-meter poles along a three-block stretch of Montague Street, the main shopping district in Brooklyn Heights. Community members are invited to participate. If you can knit, you can contribute art! (And if you’re a non-knitter, you can help install the artwork.)

Magda Sayeg’s Instructions for Community Knitters

Each piece is a rectangle of knitted material. (Then we wrap it around the pole and attach it with tiny clear zip-ties.) Instructions are as follows:

Pattern
Since each piece is a simple rectangle, there’s not a detailed pattern. To make the prototype in the photo to the right, here’s what I did:
- used three strands of 4-ply yarn held together
- cast on 10 stitches
- knit 110 rows in stockinette stitch (knit 1 row, purl the next row)
- bind off loosely, tie in ends (the pieces will be attached to the poles using zip ties, so no need to leave any dangling strands of yarn on your piece)

My finished pieces are about 39 inches long and 6 inches wide (resting). When they’re attached to the pole, they’ll stretch out to 9 inches around, and that will cause them to shrink up to 36 inches high, which is the height of the meter pole.

Needles and Yarn
• US 19 needles
• 4-ply worsted-weight yarn
• acrylic or blend
• green, blue, yellow, and pink only! Pick any shades, in any combination, as long as they’re in those four color families Suggested brands include Red Heart “Super Saver” or Hobby Lobby’s “I Love This Yarn”. Other yarns can be used, but keep in mind that results will vary: for example, Sugar ‘n Cream yarn is much lighter than Red Heart Colors and Designs
• please use darker shades on at least one end – that end will be installed on the bottom of
the pole, where it may get more attention from dogs, etc.
• use any designs or pattern that you like – I love stripes, but do what you like best

Deadlines
• ASAP: Go to www.montagueBID.com, follow the registration link, and let us know how many pieces you can commit to knitting. That’s the only way I’ll know how many pieces I
still need to knit!
• May 5: All pieces must be received at the BID office (address to the right) by May 5th.
• May 13: Installation! More details as we get closer to that date!

Questions?
Contact Chelsea Mauldin at the BID at 718-522-3649 or info@montagueBID.com

Spinners: Robyn Love has an invitation for you to join her in New York City:

Spindle 7 – Guerilla spinning comes to the #7 train! Watch for it – any day, any time!

Spindle 7 is an ongoing performance in which Robyn Love brings her drop spindle on the #7 train during its run in Queens. As she spins wool, she invites other passengers to comment and participate, teaching them how to spin and giving out homemade spindles and fleece along the way. Part counterpoint to the sea of iPods, iPhones and other electronic gadgets on the train, part conversation starter among the diverse communities who use the #7, and 100% fun, Spindle 7 is funded, in part, by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funding from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

On Sunday, April 19th from 10:30 am onward, filmmaker Marcia Connolly, will be documenting Spindle 7. Spinners and anyone who wants to learn to spin are welcome to join Robyn on the #7 (the last car). Fill up the train with fiber! Let’s teach people this technology that is almost as old as humankind. Ride between Main Street, Flushing and Times Square and generate some serious yardage.

The crafty ladies behind ArtYarn have done it again – they’ve started a Yarn Bombing DIY Flickr pool to collect work from UK artists (though I notice some names from North America too – so it looks like it is evolving into an international project)

Check out the pool – I love this add on to some of Banky’s stencil work by KPdalston:

Very clever!

If you would like to to join, here is their call for entries www.ukdiycraft.com

The ArtYarn team will be selecting their favorite yarn bombs to appear in print at the UK:DIY exhibition at the Turnpike Gallery, Leigh UK, so the brighter and wackier the better!

These ladies constantly amaze me. A while back I wrote about their call for submissions for a shed jumper (that’s a sweater for a shed). Here is the completed product:

Photo courtesy of Art Yarn

Art Yarn, we’re awed, humbled, and amazed by your work.

Knit graffiti related: a YouTube video (made by RubyMellon) of Aliza from the DIY Baltimore blog. Aliza demonstrates knit tagging and reflects on what knit graffiti means to her.

Last chance: Today is our final day for submissions for patterns for the Yarn Bombing book – so if they aren’t in yet – send them fast (okay, okay – we will probably take a few through the weekend). Mandy and I will be making decisions on the patterns in the next few weeks and be in touch with everyone who sent submissions to us.