Tags
crochet, crochet art, Surbiton, Surbiton Food Festival, surbiton roundabout, surbiton traffic island, video, Yarnbomb
No introduction needed for this photo, hey? As you can see we yarnbombed the lamp post and five bollards on the traffic island in front of Surbiton station.
In the space of one hour, the roundabout went from drab and dreary to striped and adorned with fruity bunting – the way all roundabouts should be I think.
It was soooooo much fun and I’m still on a yarn high!
Bobi Robson, from The Craft Inn came along to give John and I a hand.
Her help was much appreciated, and it ended up being a brilliant team effort. John had the great idea to bring along packaging tape just in case we needed it to keep the stripes up on the lamp post (and we did!), Bobi suggested we attach the bunting lower down on the lamp post to prevent the wind from blowing the bunting into cyclist or cars, and when we realised our cable ties were too short to go around the bollards, I suggested we tie the bunting to the cable between the bollards. Three problems – three genius minds at work.
I think John was amazing. He sewed two of the granny squares onto the bollards (a very unmanly thing to do for, what felt like, the whole of Surbiton to see) and then took on the task of getting really, really high on the ladder to put up the bunting (thereby redeeming his manliness).
The end result of our hour on the traffic island, and my four weeks of crochet, is a brilliantly colourful work of yarn graffiti.

Bobi and I at the Surbiton roundabout yarnbomb.
I hope the yarnbomb will raise awareness for the upcoming Surbiton Food Festival. If you found this blogpost because you Googled “weird woolen stripes on Surbiton roundabout” please also visit the Surbiton Food Festival website here, and of course come to the festival in May, otherwise my hours of crochet would have been in vain.
Well, probably not totally in vain because even if people don’t realise a food festival is coming, at least they can appreciate a bit of stripey colour in the middle of Surbiton.
And as you can gather, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I’m kinda proud of myself. This is my biggest, most prominent yarnbomb yet. The other three (warm-up yarnbomb dare I say?) are here here and here.
I hope you enjoy the new and improved traffic island. As far as I know the yarnbomb is staying up until the end of the Food Festival (19th of May) so you will have a lot of time to appreciate it in all it’s fruity glory.
Here’s a video giving you a 360 degree view of the yarnbomb.
Keep your eyes peeled around Surbiton, as Bobi and her Craft Inn pals will be adding more granny squares to the railings around the roundabout, and other crafty items will pop up around St. Andrews Square. You have been warned. The craft bombers are coming!
P.S. If you ever get the urge to crochet apples, pears, oranges or strawberries like I did for this yarnbomb, there is a link to the pdf pattern in this blogpost. The fruit were originally designed by Louise Howe. They make excellent coasters. Which is what she designed them to be…. until this yarnbomber got her hook into them.
A tour de force! This is FABULOUS, and I can think of many roundabouts and horse fountains in Cape Town that would benefit from your handiwork 🙂
Awesome yarnbomb! 😀 And BRAVO John for stepping up to the plate! WhOoP!! 😀
I’m not really into random yarn bombing as I’m not sure they look any better than graffiti when wet and dirty (though are cheaper & easier to remove than spray paint.) I really like this one however; it’s got a specific reason and theme. It also looks great! Well done you three.
You put Genoa to shame my dear!
xx
Aaah, thanks 🙂
This is fab! I have posted this on FB as I have friends in Surbiton lol!
Great! Thanks!
Saw it this morning – it looks great!
Glad you like it Tanya 🙂
It’s a maypole! How clever 🙂
Fab!!
FUNTASTIC 🙂
You are AMAZING. Well done. Go YOU 🙂
My son and I went past on the bus today and he commented it was ‘very beautiful’. He was disappointed that there was nothing further down the high street.
Aaah, that’s so sweet! I’m told that more crochet and crafty things will be added to Surbiton closer to the start of the Surbiton Food Festival (4 May), so he should keep his eyes peeled 🙂
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee. I just got back from Easter getaway and read your blog. How completely A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. It all looks fantastic, its been so lovely to be involved, thank you for the opportunity, the crochet community is so fab.
Couldn’t have done it without you Louise 🙂 I’m so glad you like it!
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Totally awesome!
What fun!! Congratulations to all of you! In this case three was definitely not a crowd, but a well-oiled team. You really found your niche. I hope there are loads of fun up ahead.
I saw this on my way into Uni after a really long commute, it brightened up my day 🙂 well done to you all! x x
Love seeing it on the roundabout. Definitely brightens the place up, thank you.
Hi there – where has the lamppost gone? It never came back after Christmas – it was very pretty with your yarn bombs (but I also liked it without and would love it back?)
The Subiton Food Festival organisers asked me for my yarnbomb and buntings again this year, which I gave to them, but when I saw that the bunting wasn’t up because there is no lamppost I asked them about it. Apparently it was taken down when the whole of Surbiton’s lamp posts were being redone and just haven’t been replaced yet. It’s been a very long time so maybe they need to make a new lamppost, or indeed there are no plans to replace it. Don’t know 😦