Yarnigami

Yarn Bombing

I had lots of fun with the pieces I put up at the Zephyr last month.  The LED lights on the main lamp post were a verson of LED Throwies that I made.  I took a watch battery and attached an LED light that had a resistor on it.  This was wrapped in electrical tape.  I bent the LED leads so that I could hot glue the battery to the back of the crochet piece and have the light come out at a 90 degree angle out the front of the crochet in the middle of each of the dots on it.  The lights should stay lit for at least a few weeks.

Even without the LED lights though this is my favorite piece so far.  I was really pleased with the design and the color and happy to say that it looks like I had pictured it in my head.

I just need to learn some more electronics now if I want to top that one!

Today I put up the bick rack at Kent Cycle.  This time I played with some of the new reflective yarn.  It has a reflective string or fiber that runs through the yarn.  It is only in the orange part and it will depend on whether lights hit it or not for it to reflect.  I am planning on making a few more verticle spokes out of the orange and adding it next week.

On to planning the next one!

As the yarn bombing at Scribbles is winding down, I am excited to be working on my own projects again.  This week I got an email from the Knitting for Those in Need group that one of the owners of Scribbles got an email and a call from the city lawyer that said they must take down the yarn bomb on the tree out front and might be liable for damages to it.  Though it was due to come down in May - it was taken down that night.  My guess is that someone complained about it loud enough for the city to react.

Funny though, I had a tree covered on Main Street for almost a year and never heard a peep.  I took it down myself at that point because I did not want the tree to have any lasting effects and the yarn was getting worn and faded at that point as well.

Another photo was posted on facebook under "You Know you are from Kent if/when..." and 144 comments later people have had great discussions again about art and Kent and community.

The best thing about yarn bombing is the conversation.

This has been an exhausting and interesting week that has just gotten better and better.  It started last weekend when I spent a lot of time working with the group Knitting for Those in Need.  We yarn bombed Scribbles Coffee to raise awareness and connect with more people.  I had a lot of fun creating pieces to put up.  The most fun was piecing together the tree outside.  It is made from scrap panels that were either donated to the group along with yarn or pieces that were worked on as someone was learning to knit or crochet.  It has a lot of oddly shaped pieces that had to be patched together to put around the tree.

The second thing that happened is that The Burr magazine came out with their April issue.  They had tracked me down and interviewed me and then decided to put me on the cover as well.  I was happy with the article and grateful to them for keeping my name out of it and hiding my face so that I could remain somewhat anonymous.

The third thing to happen this week delighted me even more.  Someone posted a picture of the yarn bombing outside of scribbles on the Facebook group 'You Know You Are From Kent if/when...'  and there were 262 comments on it with arguments raging back and forth about whether it was art, whether it was not, and whether it was damaging to the tree.  I love that it got people talking and arguing.

The fourth thing is that apparently Thursday night at the Zephyr two friends had a big argument about whether the yarn covering the lamp post on the patio was art or not.  The two friends got very angry - one of them ended up cutting a big chunk of the yarn off the post (he was asked to leave).  The other friend was so mad he even left his info and offered to come back the next day and sew it back up.  I took some photos tonight and saw that someone had used large paperclips to try and piece it back together and hold it up.

I love that the pieces have given some people something to talk about and discuss.  I love the questions and the controversy.  I do not love the anger but I love the passion.

This is Art?

During the winter I take time to work on other projects.  I love making afghans and I usually have one in the works at all times.  I also like learning new things and working on a variety of projects.  This winter I discovered the group Knitting for Those in Need.  I had heard of it before as a group on the KSU campus but now they have community meetings as well.  With help from the people there I have learned how to do loom knitting to make hats and scarves.  I really enjoy making things that will be useful to other people and I have found that I love loom knitting as much as crocheting as well.  I have found good company and a comfortable place to share ideas and learn while helping others.  Check them out on Facebook to find out about their variety of meeting places and times - and give them a Like too!

Yesterday I spent about six and a half hours sewing on bike racks. The weather was good but chilly and windy. We started at the city offices first. I hadn't looked close enough but I did suspect that is was partly buried in the ground. It was buried and anchored so I couldn't get the yarn around the lower parts. We wrestled it on, stretching it across the ground on the lower parts. This one was designed to be twisted, and in twisting it I found that it didn’t stretch as much… so it ended up being too short. I almost took it down right then. I realized that ideally it should be made in three separate parts (maybe I’ll make a new one).

Next was the rainbow in front of the Kent Co-op. There I learned not to stitch my seam with such large tight stitches – it didn’t want to stretch around the curve! Then I moved up to the Kent Stage. This one worked out well but I was getting so cold by that time I was feeling miserable and thought about quitting. (I took a break after that one and drove around in my car with the heat on high for a bit.) Back to work I got the black one in front of Last Exit books done pretty quickly. The coral snake down the street from that one went well. We had to briefly move a sign that had been taped to it for a sale. It was smooth sailing for the green one next to the Pufferbelly and finally my favorite one in front of the Zephyr Pub.

I prepared for the day by taking to ibuprofen in the morning…but by the end of the last rack I was ‘working through the pain’ and I’m still feeling it in my back and hands today. It is always wonderful to have the support of my husband. He checked on me and helped me through parts of the day. My friends at the Zephyr were also great – cheering me on as they came in to work. The nicest and most surprising thing about the day was the number of people who walked by as I was finishing and said thank you. It made me feel a little less crazy.

I had a lot of fun covering the pipes at Taco Tonto's yesterday morning.  I almost had a big problem when I realised that one pipe was slightly bigger than the other one.  I hadn't accounted for that in making the piece and I was afraid that it wouldn't fit at all.  Luckily I was able to stretch it enough (with my husband's help) and get it to fit around the pipe.  It made the piece look a bit more like lace because it is stretched out so much.  Luckily both pieces were long enough since they shrunk up by being stretched so much.

On to the next pieces...

Today I took down four yarn bombs. It is still amazing to me that all the the yarn pieces I have put up have remained in place unless I took them down myself. Today I took down the sign vine that has been up for almost a year and a half, the tree on a tree that has been up for just over a year, the morse code kent Ohio and the newest Fence 2013. The fence came down because it was meant to be very temporary. I actually attached it with twist ties instead of sewing it on with yarn. A huge thanks to my supportive husband who helped secure the ends of all the twists. The sign and the tree came down because it was time for it (or past time). The morse code might have stayed up another week or two but it had gotten fairly saggy. The main reason for it's removal was that someone took one of the dots. It probably happened yesterday at the Kent Heritage Festival when there were lots of people out there watching fireworks. The remains of the zip ties were on the ground where they cut it off.

As I always say...they are meant to be temporary. Now on to planning the next one...

I always look foward to International Yarn Bombing Day because it makes me feel connected to other yarn crazy people around the world.  I have such fun putting up my projects!  This morning was perfect for my Kent Ohio project.  I can't thank my husband enough for supporting me and my projects.  He helped hold the pieces while I zip-tied them to the fence.  It took about an hour to get them all put up and then secured down with more zips.  Of course I had to walk down to the park below and take lots of pictures to record it.  I don't know how long this one will last.  I am wondering how it will hold up in the rain and I am wondering if this one will get removed.

Happy Day!

I have been experimenting with stiffening some pieces for my next yarn bomb project.  I did a little research and started with a spray craft stiffener but it did not stiffen as much as I wanted.  I did a little more research and decided to use white glue and water because it seemed the most permanent.

I started by mixing about 50/50 glue and water and soaked the piece and layed it out flat on some plastic.  It took DAYS to dry and was not quite as stiff as I wanted.  So for the next one I used a ratio that was heavier on the glue.  I did not use exact measurements but kept in mind one website's advice that it should look like whipping cream.  (mine probably wasn't that thick)

That one took a good 5 days to dry but it was nice and stiff.  Tonight I did three more pieces soaked in the glue mixture.  It sure soaks up a lot of glue!  I wring them out but you don't want to do that too hard because then it stretches out the shape of the piece too much.

I did two more pieces using a paintbrush to dab the glue mixture on.  I was hoping that this method would use less glue.  I can see that with this method I might have to flip it over after has dried a bit and do the other side too.  But maybe the glue will soak through to the other side?  I will have to wait and see.  I am crocheting the last 4 pieces and then I have to finish glue-stiffening.  This one is a total of 19 pieces that will go together in groups. 

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/vibrantly-colored-crocheted-playground

This is some of the coolest most amazing crochet work I have seen!