As promised in an earlier blogpost, I’ve crocheted granny squares for the Country Homes & Interiors Magazine Crochet Club. All the squares they receive will be made into accessories and auctioned in aid of Mencap.
As always it was immensely enjoyable making granny squares. I just love, love, love traditional granny squares! In a 6-round granny square there are so many design options. Six rounds of colour to play with! I unashamedly indulged in colourful randomness – hooker style.
I raided my cotton DK stash for these squares. It was lovely working with cotton again after all the Stylecraft acrylics for the yarnbomb. I’m not a yarn snob, really I’m not, but man, cotton is just so much nicer to work with. Most of the yarn in these granny squares are Rowan Handknit Cotton, but there are some Stylecraft Classique Cotton and a few rounds in Gedifra Fiorista Fino too.
I like the idea that my fourteen granny squares will be incorporated into something that will raise money for a very deserving charity like Mencap. I wonder what kind of accessories the granny squares will be made into. Afghans, pot holders, cushions? I hope Country Home & Interiors Magazine keep us updated on their blog.
Have you made any granny squares for the Crochet Club? I’d love to hear from you if you have.
Sunday 24 March 2013 I closed my Facebook account. Here are my reasons for exiting the Book Of Face:
I’ve been thinking of closing Facebook for almost a year now. The only thing that prevented me from doing so was the CrocheTime page. I had 1000 likes on the page, but due to Facebook’s algorithms, less than 200 people actually viewed the updates I posted on the Page. My blog gets more hits per day (around 400), so what’s the point of having the Page? As soon as I figured this out, I realised there was no reason to keep my Facebook account.
Facebook was turning me into a nosey, stalker type person. I don’t want to be that kind of person.
I had people in my Friend list that I barely know in person, and some I have never even met, yet they were filling my newsfeed with things I’m really not interested in.
I’m a big believer in the notion that people come into our lives with a purpose, and when that purpose is fulfilled they leave. We all feel a bond with people at a certain time in your life, but as you grow older, you change and they change and then you naturally go your separate ways. I’m not talking of only man-woman relationships, but friendships, colleagues and neighbours too. Facebook was keeping people in my life that I have moved on from.
The amount of advertising, suggested posts, suggested pages and just general rubbish I couldn’t hide from my newsfeed, was getting more and more, and more and more irritating;
I was judging people based on their activities/photos/friends on Facebook. I don’t want to be that kind of person.
My Facebook visits weren’t making me happy or inspiring me. In fact it became irritating and draining, yet I felt compelled to go back. Again and again just in case I missed something. I don’t want to be that kind of person.
I was spending too much time thinking “Ooh, how can I word this situation/conversation so that it would be a good status update” and taking photos of things so that I could post it on Facebook, in stead of actually enjoying that situation/conversation and appreciating the scenery.
WordPress Reader, Pinterest and Instagram are filled with like-minded individuals so I would like to spend more time on these websites.
There are other ways of keeping in touch with friends. Ways that don’t include strangers and the people in no. 4, knowing what I get up to.
Sorry Facebook, this isn’t working any more. It’s time for me to move on.
This article appeared in the Kingston Guardian on the 2nd of April. Although the title refers to it as knitting, the reporter does say that the yarnbomb is crocheted. Phew!
She also calls us “yarn bombardiers” and “craft connoisseurs”. Love that!!
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 herehere 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.
Mo, a very sweet Blogworld friend, read my post about my trip to Genoa to see Intrecci Urbani and asked me whether I would take something crocheted along to put up on her behalf. I thought it was a great idea, so of course I agreed.
Mo sent me three hexagon crochet motifs and a dragonfly. The hexagons were leftovers from this blanket, done in a very soft luxurious naturallycaron yarn. The Dragonfly is the cutest little thing!
Her colours immediately reminded me of squares I had made for Rachel’s Crochet Along (which I had given up on….). I was planning to take one or two of my CAL blocks with me to Genoa anyway, so when Mo’s hexagons arrived I decided to combine our pieces into one! That way I could quickly attach our yarnbomb to wherever – thinking one big piece will be quicker to put up than six smaller pieces.
I used my Twin Stripes, Tiny Textures and Square Target squares from the CAL. I blogged about them, and others, here. Mo’s dragonfly was sewed onto the Tiny Textures block and I had a deep red Stylecraft DK in my stash that matched Mo’s hexagons perfectly, so I used that to crochet everything together.
I attached long pieces of yarn to 6 corners of the piece so that I could just tie it to wherever, without having to worry about doing any sewing.
On Friday I took our hexagons & squares yarnbomb piece with me when I went exploring in Genoa. John pointed out the bench below. It was one of only a few that hadn’t been yarnbombed. The perfect victim!
Hard at work, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible:
Sneaky, very sneaky:
Using simple bows to tie the piece to the bench worked really well.
And there you have it. Two Brits (Mo was there in spirit) yarnbombed the Intrecci Urbani Genoa yarnbomb. That’s how we roll 🙂
Intrecci Urbani, the big yarnbombing event in Genoa that I visited over the weekend, was so big I will have split up my photo posts into at least five posts! This is the final post, post six (I did say “at least”…). You will find post one here, post two here, post three here, post four here and post five here.
Readers, I can’t stress enough just how big Intrecci Urbani was. There were hundreds of individual pieces of crochet and knitted decorations, ranging from tree coverings, rectangles attached to railings, pieces covering lamp posts, coverings for benches, ornaments hanging from trees, even a spiderweb and a Rastafarian. Hours and hours, meter upon meter of yarn and millions of crochet stitches must have gone into this great project.
You can read more about the idea, and people behind, the project in this blogpost.
Below is a WordPress gallery of people interacting with the yarnbomb (and a statue of Ghandi. He is a person after all). John and I both noticed how dreary, dark, sometimes dirty and run down Genoa is. We could totally see why residence would want to do something to liven up the place. The yarnbomb made me very excited and I was smiling the whole time, but I was definitely in the minority. Everyone else just walked past, gloomy as ever. I can’t imagine that all that colour, softness and talent could be lost on anyone, so I’m choosing to think they were all smiling inside. Surely….
If you click on any of the photos it will open up a slideshow of full size photos that you can click through. I don’t think the slideshow function will work if you are reading this post on email, so I suggest visiting the “real” post if you want to see full size photos.
Intrecci Urbani, the big yarnbombing event in Genoa that I visited over the weekend, was so big I will have split up my photo posts into at least five posts! This is post five. You will find post one here, post two here, post three here and post four here.
Readers, I can’t stress enough just how big Intrecci Urbani was. There were hundreds of individual pieces of crochet and knitted decorations, ranging from tree coverings, rectangles attached to railings, pieces covering lamp posts, coverings for benches, ornaments hanging from trees, even a spiderweb and a Rastafarian. Hours and hours, meter upon meter of yarn and millions of crochet stitches must have gone into this great project.
You can read more about the idea, and people behind, the project in this blogpost.
Below is a WordPress gallery of all the colourful railings and benches.
If you click on any of the photos it will open up a slideshow of full size photos that you can click through. I don’t think the slideshow function will work if you are reading this post on email, so I suggest visiting the “real” post if you want to see full size photos.
Intrecci Urbani, the big yarnbombing event in Genoa that I visited over the weekend, was so big I will have split up my photo posts into at least five posts! This is post four. You will find post one here, post two here and post three here.
Readers, I can’t stress enough just how big Intrecci Urbani was. There were hundreds of individual pieces of crochet and knitted decorations, ranging from tree coverings, rectangles attached to railings, pieces covering lamp posts, coverings for benches, ornaments hanging from trees, even a spiderweb and a Rastafarian. Hours and hours, meter upon meter of yarn and millions of crochet stitches must have gone into this great project.
You can read more about the idea, and people behind, the project in this blogpost.
Below is a WordPress gallery of my photos of the old harbour crane. I love that the yarnbombers went so far, literally, as to get onto cranes themselves in order to attach their work to the very top. Hats off to you ladies!
If you click on any of the photos it will open up a slideshow of full size photos that you can click through. I don’t think the slideshow function will work if you are reading this post on email, so I suggest visiting the “real” post if you want to see full size photos.
On a Monday I can still remember the fun I had over the weekend, Wednesday is the middle of the work week, on Thursday I start getting hopeful and on a Friday I can taste the weekend. But what about a Tuesday? It’s so…. just there. Weekend memories are too far away and the upcoming weekend might as well be a year away.
What we need is a bit of colourful inspiration to get us going on a Tuesday, don’t you think? A pretty picture, beautiful scenery or colourful imagery. Yup, that’ll liven up Tuesdays and turn it into a terrific day!
From now on I will go through my photos and Pinterest likes every Tuesday and find us a pretty picture to add colour and joy to the day.
xxxxxx
A close-up of one of the yarnbomb pieces I saw at Intrecci Urbani on Friday.
crochetime 