Archive for the ‘Taggers’ Category

January Round-up: Part 1

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

It’s time for a January Round-up where I go through my inbox and send you links to amazing things that have been floundering in the shallows of my email archives. Here are the beauties that I have unearthed today:

Joann spotted these statues at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby (Canada) today and send these photos of the adorned “At the Beach” statue today:

Margaret send this image from last year’s Austin Limits Festival:

Lois sent me this image from Ogden Park:

She says: ‘Here is a little story of my brush with yarn bombing. In June of this year I met a woman called Patricia on the VIA train as we travelled from Vancouver to Edmonton… Anyway, this woman was knitting a curious item that would be installed on a bridge near her home in Southern California the same day, that she would arrive back home a couple of weeks from our meeting. That was my introduction to this happen’ thing. In July I was driving through to Jasper Park (I spent too much time in Northern Alberta this summer) and stopped at a viewing place in Mt Robson Park. Well! wasn’t I surprised to see a knit graffiti item on one of the support of the view’s sign.

Then when at Ogden Point in Victoria I found two more of these creations very near to one another. This is as much fun as geocaching seems to be. I’m about to give that a try. Maybe knit bombing sites need to be geo mapped, what do you think?

NIkki sent me a photo of her very first yarn bomb, and it is so pretty! She says:

‘I’ve wanted to yarn bomb something for ages, problem was working up the courage. Recently, I was teaching myself entrelac. As I knitted up my first square while visiting my grandmother she asked me what I planned to do with it. “I dunno,” I said, “Probably tie it to a tree or something.” She either didn’t hear me or thought I’d gone slightly round the twist because she didn’t question it. Here it is.’

And, other notable news of late:

A knitting project to cover Clitheroe Castle.

A ‘yarn bombing and geek’ exhibit at Lafayette College.

Val has created the amazing LEDFlower project which is yarn bombing project where she makes up kits of LED lights and yarn to send to knitters all over the world. The LEDFlower project combines social networking, regular old mail, and google maps to share tiny episodes of yarn bombing fun internationally and put them on a map. What an incredible idea! I wish I’d thought of this first.

Bali Twilight Taggers, in Melbourne Australia, are creating a public installation and running a series of workshops.
Yarn Corner

She says: ‘In January we are embarking on our biggest project to date. We will be covering all 12 trees in City Square [Cnr Collins and Swanston Streets, Melbourne] with yarn to promote summer in the city and also to bring more coverage of crafts in Victoria. The yarn bombing installation date is Saturday Jan 21 and on Sunday Jan 22 we will hold learn to crochet and knit workshops. We estimate that we will remove it one month later. We have close to $20,000 of sponsorship [mainly in yarn] [we were given $15,000 in yarn from Yarn Barn!!] for the project so it’s a big deal. Anyone wanting to help us out must sign up to the Yarn Corner facebook group [or if they don't have facebook then they can email me] and they can pick up their yarn from myself. If they are not local to Melbourne they can still join in but will have to pay for postage themselves or use their own yarn.

And in other news, I have scored a partnership between Yarn Corner and Spotlight [the biggest craft department stores in Australia] for 2012. We will be hosting two events for Spotlight. One in February will be to quietly open their new 2012 yarn lines. And a larger event in June 2012 will be to open their winter yarn season. We will be attempting two Guinness World Record attempts for yarn bombing [details still to be determined]. So it looks like 2012 will be a stellar year for Yarn Corner and yarn bombing.’

January Round-up: Part 2 will be coming soon!

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Yarn bombing Public Transit!

Sunday, December 12th, 2010

Andrew, a local yarn bomber here in Vancouver, BC, contacted us with a few picture of his recent bright orange tags!

I’ve been crocheting for about 5 years now and sewing for the past year. I totally support the arts and am going to be yarn bombing all over Vancouver, so hopefully you can spot some of my bombs, mainly going to be downtown and on public transit. I’m going to only be rocking a hot orange yarn for my signature to make them stand out, and for orange being my favourite color, ha ha. Just on the way downtown to the library today I did 3 bombs, 2 mini ones on the bus and Skytrain, and I’m in the works on covering a bench arm rest at the library. Here are some shots!!

We appreciate his daring -he’s managed to tag public transit here several times, which is no small feat, as it is heavily patrolled during hockey season. And his work has been spotted all over the Vancouver Transit System – we’ve been getting many reports of sightings.

Andrew was kind enough to take some time out from tagging to answer some questions for us. Some details have been changed to protect his identity:

Tell us about yourself. What’s your name (or code name)? Where do you live in? How old are you? What’s your day job?

Hello all you yarn-bombers out there. My name’s Andrew and I am from Vancouver, Canada. I’m 20 and a full-time business student. I like to think of my employment as crocheting
and sewing. I like to call it a little side project, but I’m in the works of starting up a custom skimboard bag company since all I do, breath, and dream about is skimboarding. I also sell toques* and have
been crocheting for 5 years.

How did you get into textile graffiti?

Funny enough, a friend showed me some pictures of knit/crochet graffiti a while back and didn’t think much of it. After doing a custom crochet project with Complex (graffiti associated) , which was dubbed “The Fray Project”, he told me yarn-bombing was happening right here in Vancouver. I couldn’t believe it and had to get in on the action. I just started yarn-bombing, doing little tags on transit, and covering an arm on a bench at our DT public library, which is still there haha. I mainly do it alone since I don’t know any other yarn-bombers, and am usually on the go.

I’m trying to get a few friends together and do some big missions and get creative, but so far it’s been all talk and no walk.

Where do you create your tags?

I do my tags on the spot in broad daylight, full view for bystanders to see. Typically they are small, going as fast as I can for 15mins on a bus or skytrain with a 7mm hook around a pole isn’t that easy I found out. I plan to only use red-heart orange yarn, as my signature color, since I’m a red-head. I plan on doing some big pieces soon, so watch out for those orange Yarn-Bombs!

I scope out my spot, making sure no authority is present, or anyone who I think would intervene and get to it. I crochet only. I plan on tagging a lot of skytrain and bus poles, just to jazz them up and bring some life to their cold hard surfaces.

I tag whenever I feel the need to crochet or whenever I feel like doing it, lately school has been running my life so I try to do it once in a while.


How do you get your inspiration for tags?

I love seeing what other people do on this blog. I would even be more stoked if I saw some yarn-bomb’s in my city.

What is your craziest yarn graffiti fantasy?

To yarn-bomb a cop’s gun handle while it’s right in its holster!

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

Yes, I’ve informed them and my mom think’s its rad. I don’t have any co-workers but I’m sure they would want in no doubt.

What do you say when people ask you what you are knitting?

First of all, I tell them it’s crocheting, big difference. Secondly, I tell them I’m making art. If they continue talking, I do the head nod until they stop since they usually take away time from my precious yarn-bombing.

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

Not yet. But if I was, I’d run I think….

Do you document your work? Do you photograph it or keep a blog?

I always try to take photos of all my yarn-bombs. I just usually upload them to Facebook to my “sweatshop” album where I do all my craft. Keep up the yarn-bombing everyone, especially all you Vancourites!

Thanks Andrew – for answering our questions. We’ll be keeping an eye out for your bright orange tags as we move around the city!

*If you are interested in sporting some of Andrew’s hand crocheted work; he sells his toques at Complex, El Kartel, and
Headquarter in Downtown Vancouver.

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November Round-up

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010

Hola yarn-bombers!

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:

Knitted Bees

Twisted Knitters

Knitted bees

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!

Fadenmonster

Image courtesy of Brifrishchu.de

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Interview with the Knitorious M.E.G.

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

The Knitorious M.E.G. of the KI D2 crew in Richmond, Virginia answers my pesky questions.

First Anniversary Pom-Bomb, K1-D2, 2010


How did you get into knit graffiti?

My father passed away few months after we’d learned to knit and formed K1-D2 [Knit 1, Drink 2].  As a tribute, the other members secretly teamed up and knit a lovely prayer flag piece for my porch.  Not too long after this, one of our members underwent a serious surgery and so we all chipped in to make a tree cozy for a little cherry tree in her new yard (inspired by Carol Hummel’s library tree).  After that, there was no stopping us – quickly making yarnbombs for happier and more random occasions.

I often do solo pieces since I’ve never been one to play well with others.  So being in K1-D2 is good medicine for me like that…and I have enjoyed our collaborative work a lot.  This collection of ladies is definitely some of Richmond’s finest.

Tell us about your crew.

In January 2009, my friend (and K1-D2 co-captain) Purl Scout got 2 friends to take a knitting class with her.  I tried to sign up for the class but it was already full.  So instead I asked a mutual friend – and the only knitter I’d ever known – (K1-D2 lynchpin) Slip Yum Yum to teach me how to knit.  Yum Yum and I would get together and watch bad TV as she taught me the basics while picking up my dropped stitches.  After their class was over a few weeks later, the trio started meeting with us to knit…and K1-D2 was born.  Almost immediately, we were pushing knitting to our friends and soon brought in several new members and taught them to knit.

K1-D2 runs like a television show – starting in September and ending in June, 1 night a week.  And each season we have cast changes – keeping it friends of current members.  Season 1 we started with 5 members and had 13 by the end.  We’re nearing the end of Season 2 now – went from 13 members to 19 and ending with 16.  Season 3 we will be bringing in a little new blood.

Membership was halted when we hit 19 members, so we then started holding a monthly Newbie Nite.  This is where members can bring a friend and teach them to knit – or to add to the repertoire of a newer knitter.  It’s called The K1-D2 Underground and is held in the basement of our headquarters.  We didn’t want to let our maximum capacity to keep friends from learning how to knit.  There have been 2 Undergrounds so far – resulting in 8 new knitters around town, so we already consider it a success.

Where do you create your tags? What sort of materials do you work with?

Usually I knit from home but sometimes in miscellaneous places, too – like when I travel.  For example, I did a lot of ‘Purpole’ in the backseat of a Mini Cooper going to NYC.

My favorite thing to tag is something that once served a purpose but now doesn’t, like a signpost with no sign.  I will often use purple in my tags and I always hand-sew to attach.  I am not a fan of cable ties – that makes the pieces too easy to put up or to remove.  You should have to work a little for that part, I think.  Although, we do have an ambitious project planned for this winter that we will probably have to use cable ties for speediness.

How do you get your inspiration for tags?

Inspiration is the easy part – what’s difficult is having the time to make it all…

What parts of the world have you tagged? What is your craziest yarn graffiti fantasy?

I’ve only been yarnbombing since Summer 2009 and most of it has been in RVA, but I have left tags in both NYC and Savannah.  There is a K1-D2 cross-country road trip planned for this summer when a couple of us are going to help Slip Yum Yum with her move to Portland.  We’re gonna leave our mark across the US!

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

Yes, but we keep it undercover in general because RVA cops don’t mess around.

What do you say when people ask you what you are knitting?

“A cowl-scarf thing.”

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

I have had a few people go by, but no one has ever said anything to me.  I just keep busy and keep my head low.

What’s the best piece of knitting graffiti you’ve ever executed?

My favorite is ‘Purpole’ – but mostly for the story behind it.

Purpole, Knitorious M.E.G., 2010

Do you document your work?

Absolutely – especially since it usually disappears quickly. We just started to blog earlier this year: http://www.k1d2.com. And I’ll be launching my own website later this month: http://www.wontonpower.com.

Have you gotten feedback from your community on your work?

Everyone we’ve heard from has responded positively.  The park we pom-bombed on our first anniversary actually emailed us to say that they hope we hit them again sometime.

Often times, we won’t leave our name or any sort of identification on the bombs.  We’ve poked around and found a few local blogs who had seen these yarnbombs and were like, ‘What is this all about???’  We’re finding that a lot of Richmonders have not heard of knit graffiti before and K1-D2 is enjoying giving them an introduction.

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Long time, no see….

Sunday, April 25th, 2010

Wow, yarnbombing.com has been quiet this past month. Sorry about that folks…Mandy has been busy with loads of knitted design work and I have been getting ready to write a new book….if you are into embroidery, check out my submission call at www.unexpectedembroidery.com.

Onwards to actual yarn bombing news:

Nice little interview and pictures of Magda Sayeg’s latest project in Austin Texas via FullyFlummoxed.

A Brooklyn knit tagger caught in the act via camera phone.

Opportunities to get involved

Einav, who writes the blog ‘girl with a crappy camera’, is making a yarn bombing documentary! She’s currently in Tel Aviv, and expects to eventually make it to North America. Check out this short clip from the film on yarn bomber Veronica Darling. Grrl+Dog will be in the film as well! If you do knit graffiti, you should get in touch with her.

Alisa is creating a yarn bombing installation at the Textile Museum of Canada, and wants you to contribute: If you are interested in submitting knitted, woven, quilted or crocheted items such as flowers, swatches, granny squares, amigarumi, etc., please mail them to the address below by May 15th!

Check out the teaser yarn bomb that she created last week. A beauty:


More information here: http://fibreperson.blogspot.com/2010/04/yarn-bombing-at-textile-museum-of.html

Corporate yarn bombing

The Vodafone offices were hit in Maastricht yesterday by ConnieLene. Funny, because Vodefone Ireland was the company who created knit graffiti cell phone commercial (seen here via Knit Hacker). I know a lot of folks in the UK were choked that knit graffiti had been co-opted this way, but in my North American perspective, as you’d never see such anything so risky and fun here, I find it charming. Maybe it’s just my love of cute accents.

There has been a bunch of knitted adverts around lately including this natural gas commercial which is beautiful and cinematic and very European (you can also watch the making of the commercial here.).

Oh wait, I stand corrected that you’d never see knit graffiti commercially co-opted in North America. PixieKnit just sent me this from Montreal:

She says:

It’s an advertising campaign for Le Lait,  the dairy farmers. They organized a ‘soirée réconfortante’, so a comforting evening at the old port. They served hot coco and played a classic children movie outdoors called ‘La Guerre des Tuques’. Don’t you think that the winter hats totally coopted knit graffiti?

Definitely not hand-knit.

Knit graffiti as an advertising medium, is this the beginning of a trend?

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Simply Unpredictable

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010


Work by Banksy.

I’ve given a lot of interviews in the past year about our book Yarn Bombing and the knit graffiti movement and there is one question that every reporter asks me:

“What is the future of yarn bombing?”

Each and every time this question stumps me. All I can say is that the future of yarn bombing is only limited by the imaginations of knitters, and crocheters, and those who work with yarn and that it constantly surprises me, and delights me…and just when I have it figured all out – it confounds me again. For example:

Jessie Hemmons in Philadelphia’s work has been getting a lot of attention: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_left_story/20100325_Philadelphia_s_anti-graffiti_knit_work.html?page=1&c=y

The Yarn Bombing Facebook group (no affiliation with Mandy or myself, except that I’m a member) has 300 members.

Here’s a nice little pattern for a heart-shaped tag via the Fibre Squad (Albuquerque, NM): http://fibesquad.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/a-heart-for-you/

Stellar pink camo bike, via the Cabinet Shop http://thecabinetshop.blogspot.com/2010/03/yarn-bombing.html

Knitters in Newcastle, UK get to work: http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-evening-chronicle/2010/03/15/guerilla-knittters-drape-work-round-newcastle-72703-26035067/

Yarn Bombing in Toronto and the photos are stealthy http://qknit.wordpress.com/

Those infamous Kitten Mitten Knitters in New Jersey who have been getting tons of attention on the interweb and who have been busy hitting up West Cape May might be asked to purchase a city permit for their tagging exploits. Say whaaaaat? Thank goodness for the city residents who have put up signs in their windows that encourage them to keep on knitting.

And, lastly because it is funny, obscene, and Canadian; the knitification of Vernon, BC: http://knitified.blogspot.com/. Trailer Park Boys intarsia!

So what is the future of yarn bombing? You tell me.

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Wool on wheels

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Machine knit 2010 mittens

(Mitten photo courtesy of Lady Ducayne) Machine knit Vancouver 2010 mittens are worn by lots of folks, including dinosaurs (why is this image not licensed under Creative Commons? I need it).

Oh yeah, did we mention that we’re living in the middle of an Olympic city? In addition to some knitting controversy, the Olympics have brought many transportation changes – Vancouver has a new underground train, we have a temporary street car, and many streets have been shut down to accommodate pedestrians only. One of the strangest additions to these foot-friendly streets are the pedicabs that seem to have popped up overnight. The crowds are so thick, I honestly can’t see how anyone can cycle through them. Just as one would expect of a city filled with Olympic sponsors, our pedicabs are adorned with corporate advertisements and not much else.

Our transportation needs some yarn. Take a look at what Carol Hummel has been decorating in Nepal:

She says:

When the rickshaw driver walked up and saw me “bombing” his rickshaw, he stood there as if it was like any other normal event of the day… when I finished, he stood back, looked it over, approved it and then rode away on his bicycle rickshaw… As he pedaled away the yarn blended into the colorful surroundings as if it was just another patch of the Nepali fabric of (very colorful) life… And then another bicycle rickshaw pulled up and gestured me to do his rickshaw, too!

Beautiful. Vancouver needs to bring out the hand-knitting (and crocheting). Who is with me?

Read more of Carol’s adventures here.

Robyn Love Exhibition

And speaking of transport, Robyn Love who created the Knitted Mile which is in our Yarn Bombing book will having a show of the knitted mile in Brooklyn:

TRANSPORT – Phase II at Proteus Gowanus, (543 Union Street, Brooklyn – enter on Nevins St.). The Knitted Mile, and accompanying photographs of the 90 knitters who helped make the project possible, will be on view as part of this year-long exhibition exploring the theme of transport. An opening reception for Phase II will be held on Saturday, February 20th from 6 – 8 p.m.
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A Flutter of Butterflies

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

If you are driving around the Fraser Valley (that’s in British Columbia, Canada),  you may notice a flutter of woolen butterflies.

Crochet-Capers-001

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.

Crochet Capers 006

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

Crochet-Capers-003

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!

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Stitch and Bitch in Vancouver

Friday, October 30th, 2009

We’ll be stitchin’ up a storm at the Davie Street Book Warehouse on November 5th from 7 pm–9 pm. Come by and get us to sign a book or just hang out and knit and crochet! All tags made will be added to Jessica Glesby’s installation at the Davie Village Garden.  Hope to see you there!

StitchandBitchInvite

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

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Stitches on the Bridge

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

Volunteers attaching knitting to Skye bridge

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

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