Yarnbombing » Vancouver

Fuzzy Parking Meter

leanne — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:28:55 +0000

Peter Regier sent me this great photo taken in Vancouver’s Chinatown:

This wooly meter only lasted for a day, so I’m glad that he managed to capture it! I wonder if it was done by Janna?

There’s lots of yarn bombing happening on the Western half of Canada. There have been a series of yarn bombing events in Regina, and the Calgary ArtBomber is adding to the Calgary landscape. A yarn bomb that is embroidered with the words ‘yarn bomb’ makes me giggle.

The weather is getting cooler – bring out those needles and hooks!

W2 writers series

leanne — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 03:27:46 +0000

W2 Media Centre

Mandy and I will be giving a brief reading from the Yarn Bombing book at the W2 Writers Series tomorrow night:

Date: Wednesday February 24th
Location: W2 Culture + Media House 112 West Hastings Street across from the Woodwards Building.

Doors open at 6:30
First Reader 710ish
Hosted by Sean Cranbury & Hal Wake

Program:

Opening Remarks: Sean Cranbury

Introducing Honoured Special Guest Michael Nichol Yahgulanaas who will showcase a video/interactive discussion about his work.

From there we will go to a streamlined line-up of 5-7 minute readings from our writers including two breaks. Like this:

Rhonda Waterfall
Weldon Hunter
kc dyer

Break

Steven Galloway
Leilah Nadir
Alex Leslie
Caroline Adderson

Break

Leanne Prain & Mandy Moore aka The Yarn Bombers
McKinley M Hellenes
Timothy Taylor
Brad Cran

Here’s a video about the series: http://realvancouverwriters.com/2010/02/19/cool-video-about-w2-real-vancouver-writers-series/

Plus, there will be prizes, a cash bar, and great art and photography on the walls.

Wool on wheels

leanne — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:22:29 +0000

(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?

The Lady Bomb

leanne — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:18:31 +0000

The Olympics comes to Vancouver. Our city is awash in corporate advertising, tourists, scary black vehicles, athletes…and yarn!

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!

Woo-tastic

leanne — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:39:02 +0000

I was running errands with my partner Jeff this afternoon, and we walked pas the Davie Street Village Garden (home of Jessica Glesby’s knitted wall)… I looked up, and suddenly it was raining cats and dogs…literally….

A delightful parade of little cats and dogs encased in crocheted raindrops.

The handiwork seems to be by WooWork. Howie – you are a master of amigurumi and yarn bombing cuteness! In a city where it rains so hard, your work is a delight. It definitely made my day and that of many others.

Be sure to check out the following via WooWork.com:

The edible cat

The shark fin soup

and, the crocheted spy wear.

“Um, this guy is kind of awesome,” said Jeff. Yep, I agree. Howie, we can’t wait to see what you get up to during the Olympics!

A fugly love letter

leanne — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:49:18 +0000

Sweet! KnitGirl knit up a fugly tag. Check out her post here.

Mandy and I are appearing at the Vancouver Word on the Street festival today to talk about our book. Come by and check us out at Word Under the Street (the Zine and Comix room) between 1-1:45. We’ll be making a classic 80′s BMX warm and fuzzy.

How we like to party

leanne — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:42:52 +0000

Now that the Yarn Bombing book is on bookshelves across North America (and headed over to the UK and Australia), it is time to celebrate!

The Ladies Fancywork Society, who kindly allowed us to interview them for the book and provided photographs of their beautiful crochet fancyworks, will be hosting a incognito book signing this coming Friday, September the 4th at Fancy Tiger Crafts in Denver, Colorado. If you are in the ‘hood, be sure to check it out! Mandy and I sure wish that we could be there!

For those closer to Vancouver, Canada, Mandy and I will be having the official Yarn Bombing book launch at Three Bags Full knit shop on Main Street on September 17th, beginning at 5:30 pm. There will be yarn bombing stories, tasty snacks, and lots of mayhem! We hope that you can join us. More details to come on the launch soon.

Hurray for wooly parking meters!

leanne — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:03:05 +0000

Three cheers for Janna and her fuzzy parking meter!

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!)

identity school

leanne — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 05:06:03 +0000

Images courtesy of identity school

Jessica Glesby is the creator of the knit graffiti classroom project identity school. With identity school, Jessica has taught the skills of knit graffiti to grade 9-12 classes at University Hill Secondary in Vancouver, Canada.

A graduate of Emily Carr University in Bachelor of Media Arts, Jessica has dabbled in film and video. However she found the greatest satisfaction in creative writing, bookbinding, collage, textiles and performance art. Most of all she enjoys interacting with the public and having discussions with strangers. She has just completed a Bachelor of Education, specializing in Art at UBC.

Jessica says that identity project was inspired by a morning walk:

“I was on my way to an early morning course at the beginning of my degree and I found yellow yarn on the ground. Thinking to myself that it was definitely going to get dirty in Vancouver rain, I wrapped it around the nearest pole. The ride to school was glorious as I went over and over my first tagging experience. When I arrived at school, I discussed my experience with my friend Kathryn, and she pointed me in the direction of the yarn-bombing group Knitta. I couldn’t believe that others who were as excited about this idea as I was.

identity school is an idea that I have been developing for years, [it was] created as a response to my own educational experience.

At a time when the definition of art is constantly transforming, a well-rounded education in art history, conventional techniques, conceptualization and contemporary practices are essential to knowledge building. While I am fascinated by how learning is becoming post-institutional, and by how do-it yourself (DIY) culture generates unconventional learning experiences, with so many courses, lectures and learning materials now readily available online, how do I define my role as an educator?

It is important to bring DIY into the classroom (examples of DIY units I have taught in the past include graffiti knitting, independent publishing/zines etc). I have seen how it can make a student grow (and then grow their community) confidence in creating and developing. Students need to be able to increase their complex literacy skills to think outside of the box and I believe DIY can do that.

Identity school is an umbrella or vehicle to house my activities for the public and lesson plans/units for my students. The unit plan posted, so far, on identity school is “i-knit, u-knit”.

In a graffiti-knitting installation unit (“i-knit, u-knit”) I taught forty-seven mixed gender students how to knit and its history. I designed this unit to take knitting out of its traditional domestic context so that the students explored contemporary knitting transformations while challenging stereotypes about knitters and graffiti-artists. Empowered by their ability to revive and expand environments, the class successfully hijacked public spaces with non- permanent urban graffiti installations. They juxtaposed nature with nurture, altered urban landscapes by transforming cold spaces into warm inviting ones, and forced viewers to reconsider the cultural soma around themselves. This classroom project sparked impromptu conversations amongst participating and non-participating schoolmates and teachers alike, eventually becoming fodder for discussion throughout the neighborhood. Graffiti, usually viewed as pure vandalism, and knitting, usually viewed as a craft, had been successfully fused into the realm of art.

Students had a quick learning curve, learning how to cast on, cast off, and garter stitch in three classes. The best parts of those classes were seeing the students helping each other. I then introduced knitting with different materials such as plastic bags, cloth, and even hair.

A challenge we had to work around was that the students during school hours represent the school. After visiting with the principal it was decided that the unit had a green light, but that students had to have permission before they installed their pieces. This led to further classroom discussions of the legalities of using public and private space + whether the assignment and graffiti knitting was an effective social intervention if we had permission. While some students were disappointed, one incredibly bright grade nine student asked a Safeway manager if she could install plastic knitting on their shopping carts, to remind shoppers how many plastic bags are wasted daily.

Ninety-nine percent of students responded positively to graffiti knitting, enjoying the studio time that built community in the classroom, as well as their new ability to graffiti (knit) their neighborhoods with temporary materials/installations. The one percent of students who responded negatively to the project either had problems digesting men knitting (despite videos shown in class on the subject) or didn’t want to do the work (and therefore had someone else do it for them- eep!). Both student guardians/parents and the surrounding community responded positively to the unit, visiting the school to see final results and student’s artist statements.

I started every class showing students different creative forms of knitting to get them inspired. Sometimes this was a PowerPoint full of other graffiti, knitting, and graffiti knitting images, and other times it was youtube videos to draw students back into the unit and away from social studies class, math homework, and anything else weighting on their minds, for the next hour.”

The Book is Here!

Mandy Moore — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:13:24 +0000

photo by Janice Beley

When Leanne and I went for a meeting with our publisher on Monday afternoon, we never suspected they’d surprise us with a stack of our books! We thought it was still being printed, and that we wouldn’t see it until September. We’re so thrilled with how it turned out, it’s absolutely beautiful!

It will soon be widely available, but you can buy a copy today from Arsenal – they’ll include one of the cute yarn bombing buttons Leanne designed.