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…

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.

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.

One Tiny Yarnbomb in San Francisco

Hello loves,

On our way to NZ, we got to spend the day in SF and had a great time.  We took the BART from sfo to Embarcadero and walked around from the Ferry Building to Fishermans Wharf.  We had lunch at The Plant and enjoyed some really tasty treats at the fancy little bakery in the Ferry building.

I really wanted to see that big red bridge and one of those gigantic hills that the city is so famous for, but no luck.  But, I did get to see Alcatraz which was neat and WAY closer to the mainland than i would have thought.  It was Labour Day Monday, so the area was packed with tourists – I had only one of my little magnetic knitted flowers on me so placed that with a view of Alcatraz in the back.

The visit in sf was fun but fast with only 6 hours or so to bum arNow we’re in Auckland and I think tomorrow I’ll get to do a bit of knitifying…  we’ll see how it goes.

knitified* out.

Last Knitification for a few weeks in Vernon

Hello loves,

Yep, that’s right.  For the next 5 weeks or so, any posts I put up will be in the “knitified* out of town” category.  This is the last yarnbomb in Vernon for the next few weeks.  It’s a cute little crocheted fishnet and it’s at Okanagan College –  Kalamalka campus on the upper parking lot.

So in the next few weeks, I have plans to knitify San Francisco, Honolulu and large swaths of New Zealand.  Right now I have no idea how when or often I’ll get to post these knitifications, but I’ll do as soon as I can.  Subscribe for updates or check back often.

knitified* out.

New Yarnbomb in Vernon

Hello loves,

Well, there they are.  Riot on the Roof isn’t until Saturday night, but I’ve installed early.  Hopefully they make it until then.  It’s only 50 hours away…  Also, I think I made a good impression on the lady from Nighthawk security.  She was doing her rounds and as I pulled out the camera to snap a few shots of my fancywork, she came over and asked why I “put that there?” so I told her about the event that the youth ambassador at the VPAG has put together and she said, “Oh yes, that’s right!  I thought maybe that’s what you were up to, but I thought i should check” and she introduced herself and we shook hands, had a little chat and wished eachother a nice evening.  Nice lady.

This little yarnbomb comes with a challenge.  THINK.  And so now the parkade is cozied and I’m sad that I’ll miss the event.  I think it’s going to be really fun!  Like I mentioned in my last post, if anyone is at the event and happens to get some pics of my little cozy during the event, I’d LOVE to put them up here.  Sending them to knitified (at) yahoo (dot) ca would be very much appreciated.

In other news, I occasionally talk about music, because in addition to my knitting compulsion, I’m also a music freak.  And quickly, I just have to tell about my end of summer party.  We called it “See Out Summer With the Cool Kids” and we were lucky enough to be able to host Aidan Knight who wooed us with his melodic, dynamic and soulful tunes.  I was a huge fan of Aidan’s already – I saw him play with Dan Mangan in Kelowna earlier this year – but talking to him, he’s such a nice guy and so talented and of course his song Knitting Something Nice proves just how cool he really is.  (Moni, I know how sad you are that you couldn’t be there! You were in my heart all night long.  TO is a long way away…)  Seriously great guy and his band guys were awesome too.  I’m going to knit them all mittens.  I figure I can get 2 pairs done on the flight to New Zealand and holy fuck it just occured to me that I could guerilla knit on the plane ride!!! (I think I’ll stay away from the term “yarnbomb” when planes are involved… yea, good plan.)  But back to Aidan: if you don’t know his music, look it up.  Thanks be to Aidan, Dave, Olivier and Collin (if I remember correctly) for a great night and to all the lovelies that came out to support independant music and a good time.  Um, and if anyone has any good pictures from Monday night, send me some.  All mine suck.  Mostly I blame the absinthe.

knitified* out.