Yarn Collecting and Occasional Knitting
Long time readers will recall this project from last spring.
Sadly, my friend’s bike was stolen. Thieves stink. But, it inspired my friend to make a little tribute video/commercial of the project with footage she took during our consultations and fittings!
Check it out…
It’s great, right? Someday maybe it’ll even run on the local access cable channel…a girl can dream! Bwahahahahahahaha.
Back in the day, when I was doing a lot of yarn bombing, I had two rules: No Trees and Nothing Politics. Well, needless to say, given the political strife of late, I’ve relaxed one of those rules.
Last week’s bike rack cozy was my first political yarn bomb. It went on the bike rack just outside my local watering hole. This is the same pub that hosts my weekly knitting group. I’ve yarn bombed this particular corner quite a few times. Both of these lasted more than a year:
So imagine my surprise when my hot pink political statement was gone in 4 days!
I wasn’t particularly happy with the lettering. It’s duplicate stitch turned on it’s side. It was weird. It stretched funny. I don’t mind that it’s no longer on display.
I’m not even that mad it got taken down so quickly. Knowing I pushed someone’s button enough to see it and then return later with scissors to cut it off, I enjoy that bit. Especially because I already had another yarn bomb ready to go.
I tried a lot of different methods for the lettering. Ultimately I decided on this free hand, skewed back stitch. I didn’t follow a chart so it went fast. I just kinda winged it, making sure all my lines had a slant to them. I did this to keep the letters from falling into the ditch between stitches. They would get completely lost so this was an attempt to fix that.
Not only did I fix the problem, I improved the situation, if I do say so myself. I really like it. It’s accidentally punk! It’s got a bit of edge. It’s not just cutesy and soft. It’s an homage to the graffiti ancestors that inspired it.
So, Random Neighborhood Trump Lover, thanks for cleaning up my trash! This second one is even better! Now, lets see how long it lasts.
I have a feeling the third one (let’s face it, there IS going to be a third one.) will be even better because, nevertheless, I persist.
Yesterday was World Wide Knit in Public Day! I knit in public constantly so I decided to show my dedication to fiber craft another way…
With a new yarn bomb! I proved the old adage true and returned to the scene of my last crime. I yarn bombed this same stand of bike racks, last year. It didn’t stick around as long as I would have liked. Someone complained and the city removed it. I may have returned with a chip on my shoulder. At least it’s a cozy yarn chip!
Hopefully the city worker who gets tasked with removing this one will have a laugh and enjoy my attempts to bring job security to the city’s graffiti abatement team.
I think my next one will say ‘egregious vandalism’ :)
It’s one of those rare double FO weeks! For all the complaining about projects that seemed to never end, it really pays off in weeks like this! Add in last week’s vest completion and I’m feeling super accomplished this week! Yay for yarn therapy! Better living through knitting, indeed!
Today’s FO is the yarn bomb project!
I started with this:
added it to this:
and got this!
So much better!!
If you want to see it in person, it’s on Valencia St between 18th & 19th, in front of Mission Bicycle!
And here’s my 15 minutes of fame, on local blog, Mission Mission! Check it out for more pictures!
If you want to see more of my yarn bombing, check out this post for some of my greatest hits!
I finished up my yarnbombing this morning! I took some pictures and you’ll get to see them…eventually! But first, a little trip down memory lane! I was looking at a few old pictures this morning, they’re still worth sharing!
Yarnbombing and I go way back, we first became friends in 2010! It came about when a story of yarnbombers in Cape May, NJ went viral. After holding out for years, I was relatively new to facebook. Naturally, everyone wanted to share this great knitting story with their knitting friend…ME! After the first few links, I ran out of responses. There’s only so many ways to say ‘yeah, thanks, I know.’
‘yeah thanks, I know and I’ve done it’ seemed like a much better response!
So I did it…
and did it…
and did it.
I didn’t limit myself to bike racks but they were my favorites, form and function together!
Some were barely noticeable…
Some were gone in less than 24 hours…
Turns out the city doesn’t like statues being ‘tampered’ with.
Some were far away…(like this one I did in Reykjavik, Iceland!)
and this one in Upstate NY…
Mostly though, I marked my territory. (This was the local watering hole back then…)
A neighbors lawn ornaments. (I’m sad they moved away…those flamingos had a wardrobe change for every season, I was hoping to add more…)
This is not a return to my yarnbomb heyday but it was a fun project…
and perhaps, it’s time to mark my territory, once again. KnitLife4EVA!
(If you’re inspired to yarnbomb yourself, the only thing I’ll say is…STAY AWAY FROM TREES. Mother Nature made that shit. It does not need improvement! Pick something man made to cozy up! Chain link fences need yarn love, trees do not!)
I’ve started on bike rack cozy 4 of 5! Another project that is dragging on, hopefully coming to a close this week! I’m tentatively scheduling installation for next week!
I had a few other ideas for hidden Easter Eggs but the colors weren’t quite right so those ideas were abandoned. I have found a few unintentional patterns though…
This one reminds me of candy corn. I’m not a fan of candy corn so once I saw this, I kept trying to avoid this color sequence. LOL!
In my attempts to avoid candy corn, I apparently started making Irish flags! I like that better!
I can’t wait to see these out in the wild, mostly though, I can’t wait to stop knitting with Red Heart Super Saver. It’s perfect for this project but I’ll admit it, I’m a yarn snob and I’m ready for it to be over!
I’m officially halfway through this project! And I got to the Easter Egg I’m most excited about. Charlie Brown is highly recognizable, barely an Easter Egg because it’s so obvious. (For those who haven’t heard this usage of ‘Easter Egg’…it’s referring to something hidden, a joke or just a reference hidden within a video game, a dvd, a comic book. Or in this case, a yarn bomb!)
This Easter Egg is for a very specific audience. Inspired by my high school BFF, back before BFF was even a thing, when we all smelled like Teen Spirit. Seriously, that was actual a thing. This is my Ode to Kurt!
I have a feeling Kurt would not approve the neon green, but that’s as good as it gets. I had to nix the Freddy Kruger Easter Egg because they colors didn’t work. Hopefully this will still be recognizable to few and they’ll have a moment remembering 1994. I have!
