Sunday 29 May 2011

The Yarn Corner Group

The Yarn Corner

The Yarn Corner is a stitch and bitch group of people meeting every two weeks on a Sunday afternoon to have a knit/crochet/loom, a bite to eat and have a chat about yarn bombing in Melbourne.

This is an open group and anyone is welcome to attend. Just make sure you're a part of the facebook group and let us know when you're coming. Join the group here:


We meet at 1000 Pound Bend cafe at 361 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne from 2pm-4pm. Our first meet is on June 5th, 2011. This will be the first meet before International Yarn Bombing day and Worldwide Knit in Public day. See the facebook event here:


Feel free to pass this info along to anyone else that you think would like to attend and have a natter about yarn bombing.

Luv Bali.

Saturday 28 May 2011

The Yarn Bombing Movement



Often article's written on yarn bombing don't have the positive creative spin on it that fibre artists would like them to have. Isn't it all about the fun that this type of art brings to not only the people that create the pieces but to everyone that gets to experience the joy of seeing these tags?

If you'd like to be a part of this event [whether you're a yarn bomber or a spectator], then feel free to get involved.

All you need to do is on June 11 [International Yarn Bombing Day and  Worldwide Knit In Public Day], post an entry on your blog about your yarn bombing journey, and post a link to your blog in this event so everyone can read it.

Some things you can talk about are:
- How you first got into yarn bombing
- What yarn bombing means to you
- Some yarn bombers that inspire you
- What you'd like to see for the future of yarn bombing
- How long you've been yarn bombing and how much you've seen it change in that time
- A particular piece that you were involved with that had special meaning to you

And of course you can get into more controversial things like:
- Fibre artists that tend to think that their work is much better than everyone else's and everyone else is just amature
- People that say it's not environmentally friendly to attach yarn to objects
- People that say we all should be knitting for charity and not for art

I'm sure that you could actually do your post before the day or after the day and that would be fine.

Let's all unite in the fun art of yarn bombing and be supportive of each other's talents. :)

P.S. Feel free to share this event so we can all get involved.


And don't forget - if you're in Melbourne, then come along to this event on June 11:

Sunday 22 May 2011

Call Out For Flowers




Ever wanted to get involved in a large scale yarn bombing project but don't have the time? Or not sure how to crochet? Or don't have much yarn? Then this is for you!

We're putting the call out for flowers to be made to put on our huge lighting frame to be used for the Light Hearts Installation as a part of the Light In Winter festival during the month of June in Melbourne, Australia.


This frame will be covered with yarn bombing and strung up from a tiered structure. Here's a before photo:

 And here's the first progression of the red panels:
The flowers are SUPER DUPER EASY to make and each would take the average person less than five minutes per flower. There is a fantastic youtube "how to" video here: http://youtu.be/XwK4hxUd07s.  You don't have to add the button if you don't have any. We can have them added later if need be.

There are two parts of the frame that need flowers added to it. The first is the top outside of the frame. Excuse my dodgy photos but I wanted to show you an example of where the flowers will go.  See below where I've put the weird red piece. That will be a black piece all the way around and the flowers will be attached to it.

Queue another dodgy photo. Imagine the red piece is a black one with lots of lovely flowers attached and sewn on really neatly and nicely. Oh and FYI, there are 8 red panels [as shown below] and 8 orange panels, hence we need flowers that look good with red and orange.
 The other section of the frame to be covered is the bottom outside part.
And again another dodgy photo, just trying to show you where the black piece and flowers will go.
So here's the challenge. Why not everyone make 5 flowers each? It'll take you less than an hour and suddenly you've greatly contributed to a large scale project. What about getting a team of friends and family around for an hour and having a busy bee where you all make flowers? One hour and you've all helped out tremendously! Of course you can make more than 5 flowers if you'd like.

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING:
- DO NOT attach your "calling card"/tag to your flowers. If you would like to have a tag attached to say you were a part of making the flowers, then please send your tag separately. We will add them to a special spot on the frame as to not take away from the beauty of the flowers.

- You must use the colors chosen by our creative director for the yarn. Suitable colors are reds/oranges/yellows and white. You can use ANY color for the buttons.

- Please send your flowers to:
Bali
1 Gordon Street, Brunswick West VIC 3055, Australia.

THE CATCH??
We need the flowers now!!! It's May 22nd now and the festival is for the month of June but we need to make sure everything is in order now. So get cracking and send in those flowers. There is a chance we can put up the lighting frame at a later date but we really want to get this done ASAP.


YES!!
Yes yes, you can use other flower patterns if you'd like. Knitted or crochet, as long as they're not too big. Go for it!

THE PATTERN:
Some of you have asked for a physical pattern to the flower. I cannot find one that the maker has posted, so I've written up one myself. Please let me know if it doesn't make sense or is incorrect but it's really easier just to watch the video.


5 PETAL CROCHET FLOWER

Materials
8ply or Worsted Weight yarn
4mm crochet hook
1 large holed button

Leave a long starting tail as this will be used to sew on the button.
Petal 1 - Ch4, 1tr into first ch, 1tr into first ch, ch3, ss into first ch.
Petal 2 - Ch3, 1tr into first ch, 1tr into first ch, ch3, ss into first ch.
Petal 3 - Same as petal 2
Petal 4 - Same as petal 2
Petal 5 - Same as petal 2.
Leave a long finishing tail for sewing onto your object.

If wanting to put a button onto your flower, then use your starting tail to sew that on. Once done, you're ready to use the finishing tail to sew onto your object.


Luv Bali.

Friday 20 May 2011

New York Times Article

Hello all.

What a wonderful day. New York Times have run an article on yarn bombing and I have been mentioned.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/19/fashion/creating-graffiti-with-yarn.html?_r=1&smid=fb-nytimes&WT.mc_id=ST-SM-E-FB-SM-LIN-CGW-051911-NYT-NA&WT.mc_ev=click

If you have been directed here by the article, then welcome and hello to you. If you'd like to see my facebook page on my yarn bombing efforts [which I update almost every day], then go here:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Twilight-Taggers/373522532669
Be sure to "like" the page too.

I'm in the middle of many yarn bombing projects right now, so I tend to update the facebook page more than this blog. Last night I finished a beautiful piece that I'm putting up on Sunday when I get interviewed by Lisette. Photos to come of that. Still working on the Light Hearts Installation for the Light In Winter festival in June in Melbourne. And in the middle of doing something for the Woolley Walk Along project of Knitty Graffity's aswell. So much to do!

Back to work.
Luv Bali.

Tuesday 3 May 2011

Lighting Frame

This is the lighting frame we've been given for the Lights In Winter festival that we need to cover with yarn.
 Don't be fooled by the photo. The frame is quite large.
The top of the frame is a circle with 40.5cm across and would need a lacey round circle of knit/crochet done with a hole in the middle for the chain to come through.
The main section of the frame is in 16 panels and comes down from a thin top to a wider bottom. The top is 8cm wide and the bottom is 29cm wide. The length of the panel is 66cm.
The panels work down in differing increments. It follows like this:

8cm wide for top
9cm wide at 6cm down panel
10cm wide at 10cm down panel
11cm wide at 13cm down panel
12cm wide at 17cm down panel
13cm wide at 21cm down panel
14cm wide at 24cm down panel
15cm wide at 27cm down panel
16cm wide at 30cm down panel
17cm wide at 33cm down panel
18cm wide at 36cm down panel
19cm wide at 38cm down panel
20cm wide at 42cm down panel
21cm wide at 44cm down panel
22cm wide at 46cm down panel
23cm wide at 49cm down panel
24cm wide at 52cm down panel
25cm wide at 54cm down panel
26cm wide at 57cm down panel
27cm wide at 60cm down panel
28cm wide at 63cm down panel
29cm wide at 66cm down panel

The rim around the bottom is 15.5cm top to bottom and each section is 29cm wide, with 16 sections completing the rim the whole way around.
We'll probably need to do the very bottom under rim of the frame aswell. The top is 22cm wide and the bottom is 29cm wide. The length of each section is 18cm.
The measurements for the underside of the rim follow like this:

22cm wide for top
23cm wide at 3cm down panel
24cm wide at 5cm down panel
25cm wide at 7.5cm down panel

26cm wide at 10cm down panel
27cm wide at 13cm down panel
28cm wide at 15cm down panel
29cm wide at 18cm down panel

We will only need a small team working on the structure. We need 8 panels done in knitting and 8 panels done in crochet. The yarn used will be red and orange Sullivans Coton from Lincraft which is being ordered specially. It's the same yarn used here:
The pattern needs to be open and lace-like so that the light underneath can shine through. 

If you are in Melbourne and are interested in giving us a hand, please let me know - first in best dressed and you will need to attend a busy bee at my house so that you can see the piece and get used to what needs to be done to cover it. Please note that the panels obviously require increasing your knitting or crochet, so if you're not comfortable doing that then this project may not be for you. And please also be aware that you only have until the last week of May to complete your panel.

Luv Bali.

Sunday 1 May 2011

Pretty Girl Statue Yarn Bomb

Working the weekend can be a bit boring at times, so I wanted to do something fun on my lunch break. I asked my workmate and good friend Krisha to accompany me on a yarn bombing expedition. Krisha knows and loves my yarn bombing attempts. I taught her how to crochet and loom knit, so she was all for coming along to see what I do.

We walked around to Collins Street just past the Inter Continental Hotel to where there is a family of statues. I've known they have been there for ages and knew I wanted to do something for them and one of the pretty little girls ended up getting some lovely pink and white ankle cuffs.

The cuffs only took less than half an hour each to make. I used the crochet loop stitch which I've never done before and wanted to try out.
My camera died whilst Krisha was trying to take photos but we had my phone and her phone with us, so that was good.
Here's the lovely Krisha next to the lucky little girl...
It took less than ten minutes to do the yarn bomb and when we finished we turned out only to see some weirdo man right behind us taking photos of us yarn bombing. Needless to say we skittled off out of there very quickly.
Click on the "Statues" folder on the right hand side of my page to go to my flickr with many more photos of the girl.

Luv Bali.