International Yarnbombing Day

Hello loves,

I just found something so, so, very, very interesting… and fun!  I’ve got a great project in the works for International Yarn Bombing Day on June 11th.  Read up on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/International-Yarn-Bombing-Day-June-11th-2011/104441312968198?sk=wall or on the official blog: http://iybd.blogspot.com/

I think this is a great idea and I encourage any knitters in Vernon who want to get a little rogue to get some scraps out and get ready to make Vernon COLOURFUL!!!  (Speaking of which – it was explained to me the other day that Hospital hill is quite grey to walk along.  Plenty of opportunity for more colour there…) I’d love to organise something to make Vernon colourific.  Let me know if you’re interested!

knitified* out.

We Don’t Knit for Hate – Yarnbomb Documentary

Hello loves,

This is just a quick post to let you know about something really cool.  There’s going to be a yarnbomb documentary coming out!  You can learn more about it and donate help the team fund the project here:

http://www.indiegogo.com/Yarn-Graffiti-Documentary

I will definitely be sending in a donation after my paycheck comes in…  and I encourage everyone who loves art, street art, knit graffiti, indie films, the propagation of culture to donate too.  If you have just $10, you can help. Or, if you can’t donate cash, then tell all your friends!  Tweet it, email it, facebook it (if you’re like that), share it with everyone you know!  You never know who may have a few extra dollars to help finance an indie film.

“Yarn Bombing is an art form blossoming right now.  Imagine being in San Francisco when Ginsberg kicked off the Beat movement by reading Howl, or standing next to the Lumiere Brothers as they shoot the first motion picture. These are the defining times of Yarn bombing. It is only with the continued knowledge and appreciation of this movement, that it may continue to grow and someday move to the next generation.” – We Don’t Knit for Hate.

Knit or Die, bitches.

Hello loves,

Sunday night was amazing.  Stucer and I drove out to Kelowna and had such a great night.  Yummy dinner and then the concert…  I’m short on words to describe it.

We were a bit late, arriving part way through Kingdom Cloud’s set.  I’d never heard of them but am SO GLAD that I caught what I did of their set.  I gotta say that the drummer was the best part – that girl was smiling the whole time as she worked her percussive magic.  Fun to watch and fun to listen to.

Aidan Knight was next up with the Friendly Friends (Julia, Olivier, Dave and Colin) and they fully blew my mind.  This group of people is so talented it makes my sick.  I’m already a huge fan of Aidan and his music (and so is Swimmy, evidently, as he swims around in my belly enthusiastically anytime I put Aidan’s music on) and I’ve seen him play three times, and each time it only gets better.  I love his music for all the complexities and intricacies, the instrumental nuances.  And the TRUMPET!!!  I get goosebumps when I hear Altar Boys.  But I have to say that my Very Favourite Part of their set this time round was Aidan’s friendly shout out from the stage before Knitting Something Nice For You, “this song is dedicated to my friend in Vernon and everyone else who loves to knit or bake or any craft that’s considered socially marginal.”  Rad.

Said the Whale was next and I loved every minute.  Their set seemed really short, but maybe that’s just because I was having a great time.  Awesome stage energy, great live show.

We Are The City closed the night and were also really awesome.  High energy and lots of fun.

Stucer and I rounded out the evening with a little yarnbomb I created just for the night.  I thought it was quite apropos.

From the yarnbomb hinterlands

Hello loves,

I know it’s been a little while.  Okay, a long while.  I’ve been pretty busy these days… But to reward you for your patience, I have lot’s of news to tell you about.

First, I was super happy to catch the call to fibre artists from microRevolt to create armbands to commemorate the 146 victims of a textile factory fire in NYC in 1911.  On March 22, they held a march in Boston where volunteers wore the armbands.  It looks like it went off really well.  You can read the post here. And I think – I think you can see my 167 armband in one of the pictures of the march.  Check out the man in the blue jacket.  Looks like my 167 anyway.

Segundo… This Sunday I’ll be in Kelowna at the Community Theatre with my girl Stucer to see Aidan Knight, Said the Whale and We Are the City and I’m so FREAKING excited about it.  So I’ve got a little yarnbomb up my sleeve for that…  Not saying much on it yet though.  Stay tuned, kids.  Pics will be up early next week.

In other, totally unrelated news, I may have to start a new blog.  Don’t worry – not to replace this one… just to have a place for a different topic.  Knitting for babies.  Yes, that’s right.  If the grapevine is particularly thick where you are and the news hasn’t come through yet, I have a bun in the oven.  Well, I guess that’s not totally unrelated news – actually, Swimmy’s the reason I haven’t been doing much yarnbombing these days.  I’ve been knitting baby stuff instead.  So, yea, there might be a new blog on that.  I’ll keep you posted (in my fashion).

So, short post today, but more coming soon.

knitified* out.

ps- one more thing…  Polson Park is getting torn up around a few of my old  yarnbombs, so once the construction is all done, I’ll have to replace them.  So far they’ve taken out a tree and a banister with my work on them…

Charting the Sweater

Hello loves,

Happy New Year.  I’ll post again soon, but this is just a short one.

This post is a bit less knit graffiti and a bit more about my grossly overdue Christmas presents.  I was just having some rather geeky fun charting the pattern for the vintage-inspired Moto Guzzi race jacket I’m making for my Dad.  Thus far, I have knit up the the armpits on the back and still hadn’t put much thought into how the chart would fit in, so this morning I sat myself down and made me chart it out.  It needs to go over the shoulder blades in the trapezoidal shape between the raglan shoulders so it’s not too low on the back, and I was having a few problems figuring out how to get it centred and looking good.  What I ended up doing was charting the GUZZI part, cutting it out of the paper, then charting the decreases on the back and laying the pattern chart over top of the decrease chart and moving it around until I was happy with where it was.  Like this:

 

 

 

So now I can start the colourwork on the back and finish that section off.

Also, I have to say that I love working with the prairie wool.  The lanolin makes my hands feel really nice.

knitified* out.

 

 

Gingerbread Zombies Invade Christmas!

Hello loves,

Let me start this long-overdue post with a disclaimer:

MOM, DAD and GRAMMA, IF YOU ARE READING THIS, PLEASE WAIT UNTIL AFTER CHRISTMAS. (It’s only a few more days!)

With that out of the way, I will now give excuses as to why I haven’t been doing much in the way of knitification…  First,  this has been keeping me really busy:

Her name is Kailee and we adopted her the week after we got home from New Zealand.  She’s German SheppardxWolfxLab and the BEST PUPPY EVER!!!

And I’ve been working on making gingerbread zombies with the Man.  Gingerdead men, if you will.  It took us a whole day, and we finished by being too stuffed full of cookie dough and candies to want dinner, but I cooked a proper meal and made us eat it anyway.

So you can see we took some inspiration from 28 Weeks Later (I think the screaming man running through the back yard being chased by the armless zombie is Robert Carlyle, and the one of the roof, doomed to either being eaten alive or jumping from the roof and risking a broken leg is his wife.  Either way, she’s as good as zombie.  And okay, the “HELP” on the roof is probably more likely a reference to 28 Days Later (end scene), but whatever.  My favourite part was the Man turning to me after I finished decorating the lady on the roof and saying “You’re better at this.  Can you fix my gore torso?”  Then we proudly displayed that carnage by the front door.  And oh do we ever have ideas for next year’s gingerbread house… Stay tuned, boys and girls.

The other thing keeping me busy has been my Christmas knitting.  I finished a lace shawl for my mommy.

I’m very proud of it and managed to keep it a secret until right this very moment, when she came up behind me at work and said “Oh that’s pretty, did you make that?”  Me: uh, no… I found it on the internet.  Her: “Well it’s very pretty, I sure like the rainbow colours”  At least I know she likes it!

Also I’m working on a Cowichan sweater for my daddy.  So, it won’t be ready for Christmas (I haven’t even bought the yarn yet, but I have to go to Kelowna) but I’ll draw him a nice picture of it.  And it’s not really a Cowichan sweater in the traditional sense.  I’m using a vintage pattern as a template, but it’s going to be a cross between a Cowichan and some vintage Moto Guzzi race sweater that exists on the internet (and in some cool book my dad has) but which I can’t find just now.  I still have to alter my graph a bit, so there’s not much to show right now…

The last thing I have to knit up is a tea cozy for my Gramma.  It’s my own design inspired by the Mason Dixon dish cloth (tea towel?).  I’ve only cast-on this morning and I have to make a place holder toque for my dad, so I hope I get them done in time!

Well, I guess that’s it for now.

knitified* out.

best before (passed) & a yarnbomb for the weekend

UPDATED WITH PICTURES!!!

Hello loves,

First, let me apologise for this long overdue post.  I’ve been working on all sorts of things, including a pair of socks that just won’t finish, Stompin’ Tom and a knitted city.  I think all will be great when they’re finished, but it hasn’t left me much time to post shenanigans from 2 weeks ago.

It is at this point of my writing that I notice that my camera has EATEN the photos I took of what follows.  Yes.  They are gone.  So I’ll describe as best I

can and see if I can draw some illustrations or something.

 

Meemats and I got up to some random guerrilla art in the Nature’s Fare

parking lot.  She made these great handbills for underneath the windshield wiper blades of parked cars.  A public service announcement, really.  She’s wonderful. It was a vintage looking mustachio awareness campaign. “Don’t let them happen to you – or the ones you love” great shit, really.

After that we headed off to do some stitchery and bitchery and then, you may have noticed, if you’ve driven PV Rd over the past 2 week,s that the penis tree has once again been adorned by a cozy.  But this time, it’s decidedly more G-rated. It’s a simple blue snugglie that says “STOP” on it in bright red.  Not too certain why, but it’s cute.  I’ll get some pics tomorrow when I got into town.

This weekend I’ll be “on vacation” in Kamloops (Camel Poops) to visit my B and I have a little yarnbomb planned for that… so I’ll post it as soon as I can.

In the meantime, this was so oddly tangential that I had to share.  Wordpress gives me the Top Searches on the stats page for my blog, and I don’t know what this is supposed to mean, but they are all somewhat related and yet not at all to what I post about here. I found it funny.  This is what it said today:

Top Searches

knitting for shits and giggles, (knit shit)

famous knitted art embarcadero, (yarnbomb in SF)

evacuate a building, (Auckland… ‘nuf said)

christchurch parking ticket, (Chch yarnbomb)

aidan knight (because he rocks and sings about knitting and everyone should become familiar with his music and go to shows and buy lots o records from this friendly chap.)

With that, I bid you all a good night and I promise pictures soon.

And now, for your patience, a bonus picture of something really great we found in the PV area.

knitified out.

Retrospective Yarnbombs of En Zed.

Hello loves,

Best intentions, right? Of course I’ve been home for 10 days and just now am I posting the yarnbombs I did in NZ.  Oh well.  We had a great time and though I didn’t get to post while I was away, I’ll be doing lots of posting this fall and before it gets too freeeeeking cold this winter.

I only did two wee yarnbombs after Auckland (that I could find pictures of – I thought there were more, but I can’t find evidence in my camera…) So here is one of my little magnetic flowers in Welly and a woogy warm fishnet by the Avon in Christchurch.  And a bonus couple of pix from Dunedin & Chch – not exactly yarnbombs, but I really loved Dunedin and wanted to share how steep it is and I really loved Chch and wanted to share the Coolest-Lady-Who-Makes-Amazing-Work-in-Felt-at-the-Chch-Art-Centre-Market-

Whose-Name-I-Failed-to-Ask.  She was rad and posed with the Meemats Monsters that I carried through NZ with me.  And we talked about Amelie and our shared love of that beautiful French movie.

So, maybe another post later this week…  I’m working on some little projects to

ease the autumn chill here in Vernon.

Knitified* out.

On My Way Home…

Hello loves,

I know it’s been a while. Not only have i been a busy bee travelling around NZ’s gravel roads in snowstorms and fording creeks in our little rental car, internet has been expensive and sporadically available.  So this is a quick post to let you all know I’m still alive and on my way home.  (I write this from the business class lounge in the Auckland airport as I wait for my flight to Honolulu.)

Anyway, I’ll be home in a couple of days and will post about the yarnbombing I did after Auckland (hint: Welly, ChCh). I now make promises of pictures and stories of how small the world really is.  Also: I am really excited about stitch and bitch on Tuesday…  It’s been far far far too long.

Missing you from the deepest parts of my deep, deep heart,

knitified*

Yarnbombs, Fire Alarms and Randoms from the 19th Floor

Hello loves,

Auckland was beautiful.  It’s a gorgeous city with lots of park spaces and funky little avenues and tall buildings and old trees and statues.  We left the city a few days ago and have made our way to Welly over the last few days via Coromandel and Rotorua.

We spent quite a bit of time in Albert Park on the way to and from our hotel and town, so I wanted to leave a little something there.  Two little yarnbombs – a sexy pink fishnet and a sassy pink flower.

I’ve only been in NZ for a week (I think…) but I’ve already learned a thing or two, cheif among those things is that fire alarms sound different here from at home.

This was a lesson of Auckland at 3:30 am when big brother came speaking at us through the ceilings and walls “The fire alarm has been activated in another part of the building.  Please stand by for directions.  The fire alarm has been activated in another part of the building.  You may evacuate if you wish.”  He repeated this for about 3 minute and then, “The fire alarm has been activated.  Please evacuate the building.”

So there we were, marching down 19 flights of stairs (me with my crocheted monkey and our passports) and out into the rainy night with all the other hotel guests and renters.  And there were 7 fire trucks.  And this is where I noticed that I had forgotten my knitting… slight panic hit me, I won’t lie.  And when they had it all cleared, we had to march our sleepy asses back up to the 19^th.  That was fun, because by the time we got back up there, although we wereexhausted, our hearts were beating and our (my) adrenaline was racing and I couldn’t fall asleep.  So instead I listened to Auckland on a Saturday night.  Lots of laughing and crying and even a random haka.

More posts coming soon…

knitified* out.