Thursday, April 29, 2010

more public art ...

i love that "yarn bombing" brings art to the masses ... out in public ... no cost to viewers, no harm to structures ... it's all good ...

my morning ritual involves tea, reading blogs that inspire me and sometimes writing my own ...

so yesterday i was so excited when i came across an announcement about a special project ... a call for participants in a yarn bombing project at the textile museum of canada ... working with the museum, the fabulous Alisa McRonald (http://fibreperson.blogspot.com/) is organizing a crew to transform the front of the museum in time for its annual Yardage Sale ...

no limits other than size ...

so here's my piece ... i shall pop it in the mail today ...



and in more detail ...







happy knitting ... is there any other kind? ...

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

and here's the proof ...


that perhaps there is a whole lot of crazy going on in my fiber world right now ...



i have a project in mind involving lots and lots and lots of white fiber ...

crocheting my version of old doilie patterns ...

so if you don't hear from me for a while, you'll know why ...




happy knitting ... and crochet ...


Tuesday, April 27, 2010

collaborative art ...


you know it's going to be a good day when you have to move your laptop because the glare from the sun is making your screen unreadable ... 

today in my fiber world, i'm going to share with you the collaborative piece of art we did on the weekend ...

we, being myself and two fellow students, diane and suzanne ...

 our assignment was to "create a collaborative project in a group of 3 to 7 people, carry out this project and document the outcome through images, evidence and reflection" ... okay so we actually exceeded expectation on the size of the group but how can more people in a collaborative piece be wrong? ...

my fiber friend suzanne came up with the idea of using some concrete blocks at our city hall as "posts" in a giant weaving/crochet project ...

so we gathered all our cream and white yarns in the hopes that, in the end, we'd have a piece that looked like a giant doillie ...



here comes suzanne's husband with the buckets of cream yarn ...

we thought we'd set up the framework of the piece and then invite others to join in the fun ...




here's diane leaping across hazardous yarns ...

before we knew it we had many many children and adults participating ...



we had brandon and sam, maddie and christer, jake and sneha, elizabeth, spencer and olivia, simon and kiera, just to name a few ...

we had young children, adults, brothers and sisters, and mulitple generations from the same family ...


the plaza became a very lively place with comments like:

"what a great way to make friends" (two little girls who were under our web);
 "I hope this stays up all summer";
"what a great idea";
"thank you for doing this";
 "it was so unique to be part of an art creation--thank you for letting us be part of it";
 "that was fun";
 and, my personal favorite
"watching you through the window of the library, we thought you were crazy but it turned out awesome".

...

here's the end result, not so much a doillie as an intricate web ...



which got more interesting as we folded it over and over again ...



until all that remained was ...




happy knitting ... and let's hope this is not the last collaborative assignment we have 'cause it was way too much fun ...




Monday, April 26, 2010

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? ...


Friday, April 23, 2010

ah ... the days are getting longer, there's a burst of color in my garden ...

the bleeding heart is drawing hummingbirds to the yard and the bird feeder is drawing squirrels ... squirrels who defy gravity in their attempts to leap from the roof onto the feeder ... scattering seeds everywhere ...


while some things are just springing to life, others are coming to an end ...

i have just 7 weeks left in my fiber arts program ... 7 weeks, 3 major projects, a gallery showing, resumes and artist's statements to write and rewrite, photos to submit, biographies to prepare, ...

this week's assignment is to produce and install a public piece of art ...

my fellow knitting friend, Suzanne, and i have worked with our local city hall and we will be installing some large knit pieces in the commons area ... large sometimes in size but also in quantity ...



my task? ...

knit 48 pieces to cover posts running on either side of the driveway/parking lot of sammamish city hall ...

at this point, you are probably thinking "my goodness did you knit 'til you bled?" ...

a valid question ...

alas, no ... ms heart delved into the heartfelt funds and bought herself a knitting machine ...



all set up and ready to knit ...


here's the first of 48 pieces ...

so all is well in my fiber world ... and hope it's the same in your world ...

and if you happen to be anywhere near city hall in sammamish this weekend, and you notice a deluge of color on the horizon ... it's not recent boy scout plantings ... in fact it's our first big public install ...

now back to my other life ...

making lunches, cleaning kitchens, walking the dog, soccer practice, karate lessons, piano, homework (mine and theirs), grocery shopping, costco runs, cutting the grass, doing the laundry, doctor appointments, volunteer jobs, post office runs, keeping up with my own running and workout routine, etc ...

... so glad i'm not a "working mother" ...

hmmmm ...