Yarn Bombing at Klyde Warren Park

This weekend marks the grand opening of Klyde Warren Park, in Dallas. To help celebrate, knitters from The Shabby Sheep are yarn bombing the grounds.  In addition to the installations arleady in place, there will be knitters on site Saturday and Sunday:  visitors can participate in knit-alongs, ask questions, or just watch wonderful fiber creations come off their needles. 

If you’re a YARN-A-HOLIC who’s going to be in the Dallas area this weekend, it’s a must-see event.

For more information, or to see additional photos, click HERE

12 Days of Knit Christmas

Are you knitting for Christmas?  Irene Collins is.  This 91-year-old UK resident has just completed the pear tree and all 78 characters from the beloved Christmas carol. That’s right, folks:

• 12 Drummers Drumming
• 11 Pipers Piping
• 10 Lords a Leaping
• 9 Ladies Dancing
• 8 Maids a Milking
• 7 Swans a Swimming
• 6 Geese a Laying
• 5 Gold Rings
• 4 Calling Birds
• 3 French Hens
• 2 Turtle Doves
• 1 Partridge

Hats off to a true YARN-A-HOLIC

10,000 Hours of Knitting

A Kansas City artist decided to test the theory that it takes 10,000 hours of dedicated practice to master something. Laura Isaac, thirty-four, challenged herself to take up knitting.

In February 2011, Laura took her first knitting lession. She logs all of her knitting time and project details in a computer spreadsheet. At the end of September, she had logged about 1,800 hours, and said she now considers herself an advanced intermediate knitter.

Isaac recently brought her 10,000 hours project to Grand Rapids, Michigan, for this year’s ArtPrize competition. She was invited by a venue curator hired by the city of Grand Rapids to create an installation that would interplay with the city’s most prominent artistic symbol, La Grande Vitesse — the steel sculpture created in 1969 by Alexander Calder.  To complete her entry, Isaac knit 10 i-cord ropes (on size-17 needles), and a series of colored panels, that she used to create a temporary web over the sculpture. 

Initially, Isaac worried that dedicating large blocks of time to knitting i-cord would not challenge her enough. But then, she decided to use the opportunity to work on increasing her speed.  “At the beginning, it took me three and a half hours to get through one full skein,” she said. “At the end, I was knitting it in just under two.”

Altogether, creating the soft web took 120 skeins of acrylic yarn, and 150 hours. Isaac used tennis balls to throw 10 brightly colored ropes over The Calder.  Each measured between 75 and 90 feet, and was loosely anchored to the ground on two sides of the sculpture. Slack left in the ropes allowed them to move in the wind and cast dancing shadows on the ground below the sculpture.  The final installation landed Isaac on this year’s ArtPrize Best Urban Space short list.

Congrats to another great YARN-A-HOLIC.  Best wishes in you remaining 8,000 hours.  I can’t wait to see your next work of art!

Tramway to Hell

We all love the classic granny square afghan, but have you ever considered using one in a protest?

The city of Edinburgh, Scotland, is in the middle of a tram project.  It is coming in significantly over budget, and people have begun protesting its completion.  In the words of a local blogger, “After 4 years, hundreds of millions of pounds of overspend, and endless disruptive roadworks, the bloody thing’s still not built.” 

Amid a number of picketing events, and considerable media coverage, the above granny square installation appeared there last week.  Many people applauded the work of art, however the city council removed the crocheted protest.  Councillor Lesley Hinds, the city’s transport leader said the following:  “When unofficial banners are put up it’s normally the process that they are removed, in case they come loose and flap into the face of a pedestrian or into the path of a cyclist.  It did look like nice crochet work though, someone had clearly spent a lot of time on it.”  He adds that the blanket was still in the council’s  possession if the owner wished to claim it, no questions asked.

Thanking Teachers

Fall is upon us. The temperatures have fallen, and all of the children back in school.  A yarn bomber in  Maryland left this display for the first day back at Woodsboro New Midway Elementary School.  Now, the whole school is trying to unravel the mystery of the guerilla knitter’s identity.

“I have never seen anything on that scale, that was pretty huge. I drove up on the first day of school and it was out there, and it definitely made me smile,” says Carly Part, a second-grade teacher. “Thank you to whoever bombed us. It was a really fun surprise and I think the kids and the staff really appreciate it. So thank you.” 

To visit the yarn bomber’s Facebook page, click HERE

To view the WHAG news feature, click HERE