Yarnbombing

Photo from Strickbombe (Germany) ‘Do what it says on the label / Einfach die Anleitung folgen Read. Pretty obvious concept. I put this tag up outside a charity secondhand book shop. Grosse Erklärungen erübrigen sich, oder? Ich hab’s vor einem awo-Bücherladen aufgehängt.’

Check out more about this tag at http://strickbombe.blogspot.com/2010/01/read.html. She talks about her favourite knitting books, reading, and knit graffiti.

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A new year is well underway (hello 2010!), and I’ve been seeking out new knitting inspiration – luckily the internet and the world of knitters, crocheters, and blog writers always provide. Here’s the latest round up of yarn graffiti links:

• New photos of yarn graffiti at the National Gallery of Australia: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalgalleryofaustralia/page25. (scroll down)
• Cute indoor yarn bombing with flowers and pom poms: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sbristow/4293458441
• St. Louis represents: http://www.flickr.com/photos/artfinder12-2/4285661744/

Waldorf school image from Ourhub.com. Provided by: Nancy Taylor

• Wow! A Waldorf school in Denver created a yarn bombing project with students, and it is a beauty: http://denver.yourhub.com/Denver/Stories/School-News/Story~718191.aspx.
• A yarn bomb on Westminster Bridge: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22360009@N07/4284652489/
• Nifty slideshow over at the Pattern Project: http://patternproject.tumblr.com/post/344683594/living-in-a-city-that-the-average-temperature-is
• Another knitted motorcycle, this one cute and colourful, over at the University of Portsmouth: http://www.flickr.com/photos/create_up/3635734971
• If you are looking at attempting knit graffiti for the first time, Instructables has a set of step by step instructions to get you started: http://www.instructables.com/id/Yarn-Bombing. I really love the last photograph of the knitted shopping cart.
• And, if you are looking around for silly things to hide about in, I’d suggest that you consider the Skeletoque, aka the Skeleclava (http://www.instructables.com/id/Skeletoque-aka-the-Skeleclava/).

I’m feeling really inspired by the patterns that people have been knitting from the Yarn Bombing book, such as:

1. Weird and Twisted’s rectangular tags and mushrooms: http://weirdandtwisted.blogspot.com/2010/01/more-yarn-graffiti.html
2. New Zealand’s Fibre Alive has made tons of tulips and mushrooms for the Greytown Arts Festival and our annual Garden Party at Scarlet Oak Cottage: http://fibrealive.typepad.com/fibre_alive/2010/01/another-year-is-dawning-oremus-hymnal.html
3. A version of our tree sweater created by the staff of 88 Stitches in Langley, BC: http://www.88stitches.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=113&Itemid=39

I love how that even though the pattern is the same, every knitter brings their own colour choices, tension, and personality to each piece.

Submission Calls

Art Gallery of Peterborough submission call

The Elegant Spider Knitting Circle is going to yarn bomb the Art Gallery of Peterborough and they need your help!

To celebrate the current art exhibit which includes Knitting Sprawl by Yarn Bombing book contributor Robyn Love, The Elegant Spider is calling all knitters and crocheters to create pieces to adorn the pillars outside the gallery (The pillars are two different sizes: 35” and 38”.)

Bring your family and finished pieces to Family Day at the Art Gallery of Peterborough on February 7, 2010 at 1:00pm to have them attached to a pillar and participate in an art exhibit: This will be Peterborough’s first mass public yarn storm. We invite you to add pieces until the end of the exhibit run on March 7th, 2010. To donate yarn for this project or to obtain yarn for your creation, please contact Kate Siena at ksiena@cogeco.ca

firstsite yarn bombing

Image from firesite Centre website.

If you live in the UK, get your yarn bomb on in Essex at the firstsite Centre in Colchester Currently home to an exhibition of the amazing UK Hyperbolic Crochet Crochet Reef, Firstsite is having an event on Saturday, 30 January. Find out more about this workshop and others via their website: http://www.firstsite.uk.net/coral_reef.html (click on the Coral Reef Events PDF in the left hand navigation column).

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We’d like to thank the Vancouver Museum for having us at their event last week. We had a great time meeting so many crafters, and catching up with Yarn Bombing contributor KnitGirl! Check out her photos of the event over at Strathcozies: http://strathcozies.blogspot.com/2010/01/diy-night-at-mov.html. I wanted to dive straight into that big pile of yarn.

Image courtesy of the Paper Button Blog

The days have been dark and long, and I’ve been chewing lots of vitamin D myself, so I was pleased when I came across this fuzzy tree. Kari, a fine arts student at Northern Illinois University, created this luscious work in her 3D Forms and Fibre Class.

In her artist statement, she says:
For my self-diagnosed Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), I often resort to my own remedies of eating dark chocolate, swallowing extra Vitamin D pills, and turning up the heater in my home. But instead of focusing on myself, I decided to create a public art piece that displayed to other Northern Illinois University members with “winter blues,” colors to intrigue curiosity and a discovery of triumph over their depression. Therefore, I named this piece “Defeat the Sorrow” to prompt the viewer, even though they may not be aware of it, to forget their sorrows and depression during these shortest lighted days of the year and to accept that there are still bright, encouraging, and colorful objects in their surroundings. With gray and dull images spread throughout the NIU campus like dead grass, bare trees, and departing animals, it is encouraging to see one tree that still bears resemblance of life.

To read more about the work, visit her blog post on the project or read about her other work on her blog The Paper Button: Handmade Items that Hold You Together.

Thanks to everyone who joined me for the Stitch and Bitch at the Davie Street Book Warehouse last week. It was fun to knit and chat on a rainy night. We made a bunch of tags that will be going up around the city and I’ll be sure to post photographs.

This week I was sent some snapshots by two friends. First, my friend Kat (aka the thrifty and crafty Junior Deluxe) visited Austin, Texas and came across this tag at the Alamo Film House (which leads me to wonder – why does Canada not combine cinema and beer like the US?):

She also spotted our book Yarn Bombing in Book People with a sweet handwritten review!

Susannah, another artistic friend, sent me photographs of more yarn bombs in downtown Vancouver:

Seawall pink on a bench memorial.

Crochet flowers on Burrard – I wish I could read the tag in the photo so that I could tell who made it.

Submission call:

The JafaGirls are looking for contributions to the second Knit Knot Tree (the first one is featured in our book). Find out how to contribute here.