Sunday, March 8, 2009

Yarn Bombing

Oh my goodness. What fun!

I've been planning this "yarn bombing" experience for a little less then a week since I saw the idea in the Vancouver Sun... I've been loving every minute of it.

What is Yarn Bombing, you may be wondering?

Its Yarn Graffiti! It's crocheted or knitted pieces sewed onto poles, trees, benches, etc. Its a statement, that's for sure. The world is an ugly place in general and this is a way to make it a little brighter.

Our target today was Wellington Avenue (between Yale and Mill). I've been crocheting the needed pieces by guestimation for the better part of a week and just last night, Jill and I went (under the cover of darkness) to measure various poles, trees and benches. I would have gotten carried away had it not been for Jill "Enough! You don't need to cover the entire street in yarn!"... I think the police car that drove past us slowly made her antsy. I laughed but was a little anxious, too. I'm sure it looked odd - two girls out at 10:30, measuring a park bench!

I settled on eight pieces and made tags that say "Guerrilla Crocheting: Making the world more beautiful one stitch at a time" with our code names "The Crocheted Capers" on the back along with the website http://www.yarnbombing.com/ I recommend you check that site out - lots of good ideas.

We were pleased to have the company of two of Jill's friends! Lots of pictures were taken and here are a few:

This is the best picture of our work... The bit above the bus stop sign, the bit on the lamp stand, the bit above/to the left of the lamp stand (on the canopy arm), the bit on the bench arm. These are four of the eight pieces we sewed on tonight!


This is our group "The Crocheted Capers". Robyn, Jess, Jill and Deedee.

It has been said that this is a waste of time and yarn. I would disagree wholeheartedly. I crochet enough for charity - toques, scarves, pneumonia vests. I wanted to do something that would make people stop and wonder about my sanity. I know some would disagree with our tags - that this doesn't make the world a more beautiful place. Well, fooey on them! (fooey is a place in China, anyhow!)

That's me, sewing on a fun chevron-style light stand-sweater! This is actually my favourite of all the pieces - its very fuzzy!
I had all the tags pre-attached and a dozen pre-threaded darning needles, all wound-up in a plastic container. I figured it wouldn't do for me to stand there like a fruit-loop, trying to thread a dozen needles in the freezing cold while loosing valuble time!

Jess used her sewing skillz to attach this bike-rack cozy. Good use of said skillz.




This bus stop sign post looked cold. Jill looks cheeky (as usual?)... or maybe she's making that face because its freezing outside. (It snowed earlier!)

We were all concerned that the police would be called but we decided to take it slow and act like we were supposed to be there. Lots of people drove by but no one even talked to us, asked us questions. Talk about a relief.

Robyn had the right idea - toque and mitts! That would have been a brilliant idea for the rest of us. Brrr.

I had a whole explaination ready for the cops. (I thought it would be handy to have something ready in my mind in case one came upon us like they did last night). I was going to apologize, explain the purpose of Yarn Bombing (without using the "Bomb" word) and then beg their indulgence while we put them up, took pictures and then took them down. No such explaination was needed!

One last hurrah before packing up and heading for indoor heating. Jess bodysurfing on Deedee and Jill.

So there you have it folks. It was a great evening... full of shinanigans. If any of you are interested in crocheting/knitting squares and rectangles for this project, just let me know! If you don't knit or crochet and still want to take part that's great! The more people we have on hand to sew, the quicker it can get done and the quicker we can get outta there! Give me a week to recouperate but I'm already itching to get out there and do it again. And if nothing else, have a walk down Wellington and tell me what you think!

Hope you enjoyed yourself.

Talk to you soon!

5 comments:

  1. you guys are bad ass LOL! and I LOVE it. enjoyed the photos, looks like you had fun while sharing joy one stitch at a time.

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  2. A good time was had by all, for sure! Can't wait til the next hit!

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  3. Hi there - found this blog through a link from the yarnbombing website. Thanks for sharing your adventures!

    fyi, the above comment (in Chinese) is a bunch of links to pornographic and erotic sites. Thought you might want to know so that if you feel this is at odds with your "attempt to live a life faithful to God," you can delete it.

    ~hamsterlaugh

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  4. OH MY GOODNESS. Yes, I'll be removing that. Yikes.

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  5. Not quite removed, are they?

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