Yarn bombing

According to Wikipedia, yarn bombing, yarnbombing, yarn storming, guerrilla knitting, kniffiti, urban knitting or graffiti knitting is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colourful displays of knitted or crocheted yarn or fibre rather than paint or chalk.

The practice is believed to have originated in the U.S. with Texas knitters trying to find a creative way to use their leftover and unfinished knitting projects, but it has since spread worldwide.
The start of this movement has been attributed to Magda Sayeg, 37, from Houston, who says she first got the idea in 2005 when she covered the door handle of her boutique with a custom-made cozy.

 

blossoms 

Dallas Winspear Opera House

Yarnbombing by Jessie Hemmons

 Paris yarn bombing 

Yarn bombing in Seattle 

Yarn bombing in Chicago. 

 Heart Yarn Bomb

Let's knit some baby caps!!

The (EGST) members are grabbing their needles and hooks on Sunday 30th January and are inviting other knitters at Kangaroo craft store to make caps for the "Caps for Good” campaign!

Additionally the team is having a fund-raising for the Children's Newborn and Child Survival Programs of "Save the Children" organization: from the 15th January to the 15th February, team members are donating money, or percentage of the sales from their shops!

Go browse the team's shops and contribute to this lovely cause!

Please visit these lovely shops which are donating a percentage of the sales:
Psyboom, Antigoni, Creationsbyeve,ERGANIweaving, Stephmel, FishesmakeWishes,Blueroompottery, Blueroombijoux, Feelwhatifelt, Nafsika, Awitch, LepetitFoyer, Giftforever, Sivylla,
and have donated money: WeirdTales, AtelierTAMI, Pergamondo,
to this noble cause!

"Caps for Good” is a grassroots initiative of the global humanitarian organization Save the Children and the "Warm Up America Foundation". The project seeks to engage knitters and crocheters to take action for the 4 million babies who die each year within the first month of life in poor countries.

Research shows that 50 percent of the 4 million newborn deaths that occur each year could be prevented if mothers and children in poor countries had access to a simple package of health measures। This package includes antibiotics to fight infections, immunizations, training for skilled birth attendants, education on breastfeeding and hygiene, and basic care such as keeping a baby warm by covering the head and carrying the baby skin-to-skin. America’s leaders could save millions of newborns by increasing international assistance for programs that offer these inexpensive life-saving tools.

These are the first three caps I finished: 

Athens knit & crochet group meeting

Last Tuesday I went to Bliss to the first meeting of the group “Athens knit and crochet” from Ravelry! For those who do not know Ravelry, is a big online world community of knitters! The group “Athens knit and crochet” was founded by Leanda who had the wonderful idea to organize a meeting, to get to know us better over a cup of coffee and to knit and share ideas about our favorite hobby! It was a splendid afternoon, I was very happy to meet known faces and also other members of the team! We had a great time and we decided make it a monthly meeting! You can read more on Leanda’s blog!

Last weekend I went to my hometown to vote and visit my family! I had the opportunity to search my mother’s piles of magazines and to confiscate 2-3 old issues of “Verena”! This is the jacket I found and want to knit:

ΑtticaSos & Mater Matrix Mother and Medium

Almost two months I have not posted anything in my poor little blog! I admit that I was not in the mood to sit in front from the computer this interval. The overloaded July from work in the office, the heat and laziness of August, kept me far from net! Now however that fall is here and the days are cooler and the first raindrops fell, I'm starting to get organized again! Beginning a first surfing in the net, I found yesterday a splendid initiative for the reforestation of Attica, from Manya Maratou! I copy from the blog:

Attica Sos

The wildfire that has swept over the land northeast of Athens, Greece, raging from Friday 21st August until Monday 24 devastated forests and homes, burning more than 23500 hectares. This blog, published in English and Greek shall be the meeting point for all that are interested in the project ART FOR TREES, a call for the donation of works of art to be sold at an exhibition to raise funds for the reforestation of the area. The idea was sparked by the passionate response of jasmine of natureswhispers to the news of the fire.

The organization that will be hosting the event is the Folklore museum of Varnavas who are situated in the area and have a long history of actions for the environment and the community, including clearing of rubbish and dry plant matter in the forest by volunteers, planting of more than 3000 native trees in the past three years and many environmental educational programs for schoolchildren. I will be posting more about the museum and the event later.
I will also be posting photographs of the works as they arrive, press releases, and when the time comes videos and photos of the events. Also I will post about the area, the wildlife, environment and plants and its importance for the city of Athens.

Works should be sent to po box 66, Marathon, 19007, Attiki, Greece c/o Manya Maratou

And while here we burn our forests, in another corner of the world they are used for cultural purposes:

Mater Matrix Mother and Medium

Mater Matrix Mother and Medium is a process-based temporary public art installation by Seattle-based installation artist Mandy Greer. Τhe project is an installation woven into the trees of Seattle's urban forest, a 200-foot-long Fiber River, and the embodiment of that river in a performance, later this summer, by visionary choreographer and dancer Zoe Scofield.

This new work is commissioned by Seattle Public Utilities 1% for Art Funds, and administered by Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, as a way to celebrate and interpret the splendor of Seattle's urban creeks and encourage community involvement in the stewardship of our essential watersheds.

knitting as public art 3

The history of guerilla knitting

"Guerrilla knitting" has a couple of meanings in the knitting community - to some, it merely means knitting in public, while to others, it means creating public art by knitted means.

A Tree Undone

The artist brought a tree to Burning Man, wrote a pattern explaining how leaves should be knitted, and together with the citizens of Black Rock City knitted thousands of leaves. They were not bound off so each leaf could unravel in the wind.

The knitting machine

Dave Cole's "Knitting Machine” project used two excavators wielding telephone poles as needles to knit a giant American flag in the courtyard of the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

This week’s creations

The cool and rainy weather of the last days inspired me to knit and craft a lot. I starting a capelet for the weekly challenge "minimalism", but didn't finish it on time, so I made these simple felt bangles.

And since I started working with felt, I made these cute pins.

The winner of the challenge was Matilou, and she chose the next theme, which is : "revival"
I searched my stash and found a piece of lovely multicolor yarn, that was a leftover from a scarf and I gave it life, making a pair or cabled gauntlets J

In the meantime, I finished the capelet with the chunky Colinette yarn:

And now I'm knitting a scarf with several grey, white and black yarns J