Brick Pattern Baby Blanket

The pattern for this blanket comes from the Barbara Walker Treasury. It's also found as a very popular dishcloth pattern in the USA, known as the "ballband" dishcloth. A search of Ravelry will show an awesome range of colour combinations and examples which are inspirational.

I've made a couple of dishcloths and use them in my kitchen as oven mitt/pot holder type things. And I've made a couple of blankets before. But this blanket was special and I took months to decide on the size (small to fit a baby capsule), the yarn (Bendigo Woollen Mills 8ply cotton) and the colours.

I've got a million ideas for colours and can't wait to make more.

Yarnstrike!

A Google search will demonstrate that the terms "yarnbomb" and "yarnstorm" are well in use now. They have their definitions, references and examples of use.

I like the word "yarnbomb", but some have noted the sensitivities of a subsection of the word and the correlation with terrorism, probably more so in countries other than Australia. The word "yarnstorm" is being touted as a replacement here and there, but I don't think it's appropriate to describe the actual graffiti piece.

So, after tickling my two and a half brain cells, I think I've found an alternative which will describe both an act of yarn graffiti (so, it's a verb), and, at a push, the thing that is the piece of graffiti (a noun): 

Yarnstrike ! ^©



And it'll fit nicely on any tags I put on my yarnbombs. Would be good as the title of a yarnbombing book too! (Adds concept to list of projects to do later this year)

Here's the next bit of colour for a Yarnstrike on an unsuspecting bollard for this week. It would be fun to see if it gets moved around from suburb to suburb and where it ends up. Might have to set up a Yarnstrike Facething page so its peripatetic wanderings can be documented by enabling travellers. Now, that'd be something new!
 

Edit, 29 March: 2011
1. Installed it in the middle of the day yesterday, cnr Rockingham Beach Road/Patterson Road.

2. I stuffed up when I was trying to create the facething fan page - have given up for the moment - will re-address the concept when my energy returns.

3. Went to remove the dangly tag (which gave a suggestion of a Facebook page) on the yarnbomb at 9:00pm last night, but it was gone  - the whole yarnbomb, not just the dangly tag.  :(

Random Acts of Colour

 

This is an experiment for a forthcoming yarnbombing project. Don't know where for yet, or if I'll make modifications to the next ribbon of colour.

Note to self: each strip is 30 stitches wide, on 4.00mm needles and boringly dull garter stitch throughout. Not that the knitting garter stitch is boring, just the end result is very plain. There are no real challenges involved in the making of these. Year 3s could do this.

They're random acts of colour in yarn. I've knitted each end to be a casing, ie, they're threaded onto an old broom handle at the moment. The bottom casings haven't been put to use yet. I may well hang something soft and safe or small on each end. - maybe pompoms would be suitably silly!! Anything heavy and hard (was originally thinking of little brass bells) runs the risk of being blown around and may whack someone. So, in keeping with my Yarnbombing 101 guidelines, risk management is a consideration in even fun and farcical things like knit graffiti, aka, yarnbombs.

Pimple on a Post

There are a few terribly bland streetscapes around Rockingham. No-one's to blame, really - I'm not into that sort of game. It's just that they're drab, have no shade, no colour. They're only thoroughfares, so nothing's to be expected, really.

But I see them as potential targets for a bit of brightening up, a bit of sneakery with the yarn graffiti.

So out came the circular needles and the op shop yarn scraps, and hey presto, a bit of silliness ensued.

This yarnbomb is a bit lost in the expanse of the drab streetscape, so it's not much more than a pimple on a post, but what the heck! Why not?!!

So many bollards in Rockingham, so much yarnbombing to do!

Car antenna sock - yarnbomb

This is the second car antenna sock I've done - a simple French spool knit, you know, the hollow cotton reel with the four nails in the top type thing and you wrap the yarn around and loop it over the nails and it forms a cord? Google it, you'll find something out there. You can get the little spool doll things in department stores such as Big W and K-Mart here in Australia and they're only about $5 or so.

This fun little project is a mix of yarnbombing (on my own old bomb of a car), and an aide-mémoire , ie, an Alzheimer's car antenna sock sort of thing. It means it's very, very easy to spot my car in a shopping centre car park! No stresses when I come out that supermarket door and try to remember where the heck the car is parked, let alone what my car looks like.

Memory is one of the things that gets pretty badly stuffed when you suffer from a depressive illness, so this is my fight back. And it works on all fronts.

On the more creative yarnbombing side, though, I'd just love to install a heap of bright coloured car antenna socks on a row of cars one day, maybe at a festival or some other excuse. I also think these would be fun for footy fanatics - can't you just see team colours flaunted on cars in the form of a knitted antenna sock!

Warnbro Beach Track Yarnbomb

Just a little rainbow coloured yarnbomb to brighten up a fugly sign pole, circ. 19cms. Note to self: all these type of metal poles are 19cms, which makes it easy to make a bunch of yarnbombs ready for installation all around the place as the whim takes me.