Yarn on the move!

My first mobile yarn bomb! This is a straightforward knitted i-cord (6 stitches) which has just been slipped onto a car aerial. The pinky yarn I used was some of the supplies Hannah from Knit Today gave me last week and was really lovely to work with. The blue eyelash yarn was from my stash but I thought it would be nice to mix things up a bit! It only took a few hours spread over two evenings to whip up and I’m pretty pleased with it. A few more might be in order…  Before that I’ve really got to finish a yarn bomb I’ve been working on for a while involving those little ladybirds (it’s so nearly done, I just keep losing interest) and yesterday penned a design in a particularly dull lecture for another tag. I might get started on that one in a minute actually. Basically, there’s lots in the pipeline! Just not enough time!

Ladybird, ladybird….

I’ve been beavering away making ladybirds for a while now. This is the smallest one and I’m planning for the remaining ones to all go on one larger tag. They’re my first knitted creatures (the mice last year were crocheted) and they were actually really easy to do! I used a pattern I found on the Stitch London blog which can be found here and just changed the size of needle I was using to create different sized ladybirds. The time consuming part was sewing on the spots and assembling them! Making the top and bottom parts didn’t take that much time at all. I then just knitted a little band for the bug to sit on – again wool from my stash, this one is actually handspun angora given to me by a lady I met last May when I was just starting my project. It was quite stiff to knit with but I really like the idea of it being so natural, and so local! I had a bit of an accident when I tried to iron it though…angora is easy to burn! Luckily it was on the back side.  I was planning to put it crawling up the geography sign but didn’t actually measure it and was annoyed to find it far too small when I arrived at the department at 7:30 this morning. Still as I was there with a ladybird and scissors in my hand I thought I may as well just stitch it on to another piece of street furniture. I think it looks quite good on this bike rack! And I was pretty amazed to see it still there at 4 o’clock this afternoon! After the Redland green bench piece disappeared within a matter of days I don’t trust anything to stay around for long…

In other news, I had a lovely chat with Hannah from Knit Today magazine last night who are running a feature on me soon. VERY excited! She kindly sent me away with a stash of new yarns for bombing with and a hoard of magazines which have kept me amused all afternoon (and doubled my ‘to do’ list!). Can’t believe I’m going to be in print! So exciting!

Hoppy Easter!

I went home for Easter and in a break from ladybird stitching managed to crochet this little Easter bunny. It kind of looks a bit more like a cat than a rabbit, but then I should have done the ears longer! I’m pretty pleased with his food-tie whiskers though. I was intending to stitch him on a lamp-post opposite my house but every time I went to attach it someone else turned up to do some gardening or clean the windows. Ended up attaching him to a post at the top of the road so he can watch over all the runners, dog walkers and newcomers to the close! Hopefully he won’t hop off too soon!

Spring has sprung. With a new yarn bomb!

I’ve been beavering away for most of today and am pretty happy to have finished and got this up on display in less than 24 hours. Having been given a gorgeous set of Cath Kidston knitting needles for my birthday I decided to put them to use and knit the green background this time. It took quite a lot longer than it would have done to crochet something of similar proportions but I really enjoy the smooth texture of this knitting and am pleased I stuck with it this time! Definitely more to follow. The pink and white flowers were crocheted using a pattern from this video and were really quick and easy to knock up! A nice little flower field yarn bomb to get me back into the swing of things!

Long time no knit?

Sorry for the long, deafening silence. After handing in the dissertation last September I decided to take a break from yarn-bombing. It was only supposed to be a short break of a month or two but in that time I got a bit bogged down (and very carried away) with a looooong list of other projects I had been wanting to complete. Pair that with the dark, damp mornings and an increasing work load (I’m now on the PhD program having successfully completed the masters) and you didn’t have someone excited about going yarn bombing. Sorry! The sun is back again now though and my brightly coloured wool stash has been re-discovered ready for some more fun around Bristol. There are 2 projects currently in progress so there won’t be long to wait.

Since September I’ve crocheted 3 hats, 4 scarfs, a flower broach and a few little gifts for people. I also managed to complete a huge cross-stitch piece which has been in progress since 2008 and gave it to my Mum for Christmas. I’ve been attending a newly-founded weekly knitting group (collaborative yarn bomb to follow…?) and asked to write a few bits and pieces on the subject. See Threadhead Mag for one piece I did with the lovely Mistress of Monsters last November. Probably the most exciting thing to come out of the MSc project so far was getting the opportunity to present my research findings to other academics at the Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting in New York last month. Plenty of fascinating conversations followed this and hopefully a paper is to follow as well! For anyone interested in the geographies of craft and crafting, my session organisers have a craft geography blog which is well worth a visit too. So although I’ve been quiet I have definitely been keeping busy! I’m back to bombing and blogging again now though so keep your eyes peeled for some new street decoration coming soon!