This once-naked statue in Australia now dons a granny square bikini thanks to some women from the Senior Citizens Centre. Feeling bad for the lady outside of Tastebuds of Cowra Cafe, the ladies decided to crochet some clothing to protect her modesty. Love it!
To read more or see additional photos, click HERE.
Wouldn’t it be amazing to see a whole museum covered in granny squares? Get your hooks out, YARN-A-HOLICS: you can help!
The group known as Yarn Bombing Los Angeles has put out a call for granny squares. From now until March, they are collecting 5×5 inch crocheted squares in orange, green, cyan, and white. These squares will be used to yarn bomb the Craft & Folk Art Museum on Wilshire Boulevard for a May exhibit opening.
According to their website, the Craft & Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) has been a longtime sponsor of Yarn Bombing Los Angeles, hosting monthly stitch ‘n bitches, showcasing work in their window, and serving as the site of several yarnbombings. The group wanted to give back by creating an installation that would draw attention to the museum. CAFAM is located on Museum Row in the heart of Los Angeles, but the building is dwarfed by the gigantic structures nearby. They want to comment on this idea of scale in a museum by installing large scale patterns, visually making CAFAM into a dollhouse and thus “shrinking” it even more, while raising its public profile.
If you’d like to get involved, you can find more information on making granny squares and shipping locations by visiting the Yarn Bombing Los Angeles Call for Entry page.
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.
Have you ever wondered why it’s called a granny square? Or why we call the blanket an Afghan as opposed to a Brit or a Frenchmen?
AFGHAN first appeared in English usage in the late 1700′s as a name for the Pashtuns of eastern and southern Afghanistan. The country is known for its distinctive textiles, colorful carpets, and famous karakul wool.
According to a 1946 article attributed to the Oregon Worsted Company, the thrifty women of early America would carefully save scraps of yarn and fiber unraveled from old sweaters and socks. As these scraps accumulated, they were crocheted into small squares; the colors combined on the whim of the craftsman. The squares were then sewn together to make a blanket which was both functional and colorful. Because grandma was no longer up for manual labor, she was often the one to sew the squares together, thus they became GRANNY SQUARES.
This colorful GRANNY SQUARE blanket was though to resemble a Colonial-era rug, which was brought over from England, by way of the Middle East. By the early 1800’s, the name GRANNY SQUARE AFGHAN was commonly used to describe these blankets made from multi-colored yarn.
CONFESSIONS OF A YARN-A-HOLIC 