yarn bombing and other weekend activities ...

it was a perfectly lovely day yesterday in the city of sammamish ...

perfect for some yarn bombing ... (and yes that is an oxymoron) ...

part of my installation ...

and some of suzanne's work ...

so ...

why do we love yarn bombing? ...

it takes something inanimate and brings it to life

it does not harm what it touches

it is not permanent

when yarn bombing, all colors match

we are making a positive contribution to global warming

no pattern needed

merges installation art and street art

it is unexpected

we can use recycled materials

and it makes people smile ...

but let's back up ...

why? ...

as part of our certificate of fiber arts program, we had to install a piece of our work, in a public place, for six hours ...

with the cooperation of our city hall,

and with inspiration from the fabulous book Yarn Bombing by Mandy Moore and Leanne Prain, we decided to "hit" some of the structures in the commons area ...

our first course of action, being the green knitters that we are, was to visit as many value village shops as possible in one day, buying up lovely bags of yarn and beautiful afghans to unravel ... we spent a day on the couch pulling apart blankets, scarves, sweaters, etc. ... all this while watching the series "Dexter" which, for those of you who haven't seen it, is about a serial killer who works as a blood forensics consultant with the police ... go figure ...

we then sat down with our knitting machines, and we loaded the machines, we whisked that carriage back and forth, we cursed every once in a while when we forgot to set the tension properly, we laughed, we drank lots of tea, and we knit 'til we bled ...

all in the name of art ...

and tomorrow i'll share the story of my favorite part of the day -- our collaborative art installation ... which we achieved with the help of local children and their willing parents ...

'til then ... happy knitting ... is there any other kind? ...