You know you want to!
All you have to do is crochet a piece of fruit and post it to me. No measurements to take, no getting onto ladders, no braving the elements to put up the yarnbomb. You dont even have to find a pattern, I’ll supply you with one. Just raid your stash, hook and go to the post office. Are you in? Want to know more?
The yarnbomb is for Surbiton’s first annual Food Festival from 4 to 19 May 2013. The organisers contacted Bobi of The Craft Inn to do the marketing for the festival and being a crafter extrodinaire she immediately thought of a craftbomb. My Thames Ditton yarnbombs (here, here and here) caught her attention so she asked me if I wanted to be part of this great crafty endeavour. Of course I said yes!
I don’t want to tell you exactly what I’m planning or how I’m going to use your fruit, but I can tell you that I need to cover a lot of space. I need a lot, or big pieces, of crochet. All before 29 March.
This is where you come in. It would be great if my blog buddies from all over the world could be part of the yarnbomb. A multi-national fruit salad for Surbiton!
As I receive your pieces I’ll give you credit on this blog and if you include a business card, I will attach it to one of your fruit as well . Due to a change of venue I will no longer be able to attach business cards to the crochet.
As for the pattern, you can find it here: Fruit crochet for Surbiton Food Festival (the link will open a PDF document). The pattern is in fact four crochet fruit coaster patterns, all courtesy of Louise Howe of the Lally Lou Lou blog, that I just put together in one document. Louise’s original patterns can be found here and here. Thank you so, so, so much Louise for agreeing to me using your fruit coasters for the yarnbomb. Dear readers, Louise has also promised to send me a couple of apples, pears and strawberries to use in the yarnbomb. It’s only right that the designer should have her handiwork included in the yarnbomb, don’t you think?
These are the fruit that I’ve made so far. I used Double Knit, Aran and Chunky yarn. I think towards the deadline of 29 March I’ll probably be sticking to only Chunky yarn as it works up so quickly.

The orange was made using Double Knit cotton and a 4 mm crochet hook:

Sliced in half apple in Chunky with a 7 mm crochet hook (and a dodgy uneven backstitch):

Apple in Chunky with a 7 mm crochet hook:

Strawberry in Aran cotton and a 5 mm crochet hook. There is a combination of white french knots and two straight stitches to indicate the strawberry hairs. After three french knots I gave up and stuck to the straight stitches:

Pear in Aran cotton and a 5 mm crochet hook. Later I realised that the pear looks more like a pear if the leaf is at the top of the stem (the way Louise does it), not the bottom :

I just want to stress that (if you haven’t already gathered this from my backstitch, strawberry hairs and pear leaf mistakes) the fruit doesn’t have to be perfect. Honestly, it’s just a bit of fun (I can hear Uncle Bryn‘s voice in my head as I’m typing here). The yarnbomb will be outside during the British Month Of April and when all the pieces of crochet are put together no-one will notice mistakes, so just enjoy it.
And of course you can send me any crocheted fruit, you don’t have to use Louise’s pattern. In fact, I hope someone will send me something different. The multi-national fruit salad could do with lemon, lime, cherry and banana.
When you’re ready to post me your crocheted fruit, send me a message and I will email you my address. The yarnbomb will be going up over the Easter weekend, and I need time to do my thing to turn the pieces into a workable yarnbomb, so I need your fruit before 22 March 2013 please.
I’m really looking forward to receiving your yarnbomb contributions. Remember, every time you finish a piece of crocheted fruit, it counts as one of your five a day. Fact.