Monday, January 16, 2012

Let's go fishing!

My gf was on the bus today, listening to the bus driver describe the two routes that go into my neighborhood. She said the one goes to the thrifty's and the other goes by the fishing pole.
Now, when she told me this, I was stunned.
Especially since the fish got stolen new year eve.
But apparently I have created a landmark.
And the proof is in the writing. This isn't the first thing my gf has found that validates peoples love in the fishing pole. About a month ago she found this piece of paper shoved just inside the pole.

It reads as follows:
"This is a simple thank you. We appreciate the time you took to create this!"
I must say, I nearly died when she brought this back for me. The txt she sent me about it almost made me cry.
Anyway, with all that backing it up, I couldn't just leave the fishing line empty. We can blame the empty line for the last couple weeks on poor fishing, but today we caught something!

This lovely turquoise and yellow fish is now dangling happily from the line.

I have other ideas for fish and such that I can catch as well. We will have to see how it goes.

The rod itself has taken some damage as well. This is the first bomb I have gone out and had a hand in repairing, but in this case it's not so much as repairing as it is redoing. It's like reusing the tags people have destroyed.

If the rod doesn't hold up however, I will have to make a new one, because apparently this particular yarn bomb is enjoyed.

Friday, January 13, 2012

DAVIDsTEA gets Yarn Bombed!

I don't know about you, but I love tea.
Seriously, I have a caffeine problem. So finding tea was nice (as opposed to my energy drink addiction of which I am 2 years off of them! Whoo! or my Pepsi obsession... where I was drinking it even if I thought it didn't taste good) because it offered me caffeine in a variety of different ways, as well as offering me health benefits instead of detriments.
Enter DAVIDsTEA. My roommate and I were wandering around Hillside after class one day when we came upon a tea shop. Again, I love tea, so it was not hard for the lovely ladies behind the counter to lure me into the store. Once inside, I met Laura for the first time. She's the manager at the Hillside DAVIDsTEA location.

It's hard for me to know whether it was Laura's sunny disposition or the magnificent iced Happy Kombucha that she made for me that kept me coming back, but either way I love me some DAVIDsTEA.
In honor of my love of DAVIDsTEA (and Laura and her awesome staff!) I decided to create this yarn bomb flag.

(Those are the types of teas around the edge, in the order that they appear on the tea wall. Green is probably my favorite. How about you?)
And then last night, I tagged DAVIDsTEA.

I had to ask Laura for tape tho. I forgot mine. Remembered my camera at least.
Here's a photo of Laura with the DAVIDsTEA flag that I made. She's awesome, and she really seemed to like the yarn bomb flag that I made.

I hope you all like it too. And drink DAVIDsTEA! May I HIGHLY suggest Elf Help before it goes out of season (as it is an x-mas related tea), IT TASTES LIKE MAGIC!

Monday, January 2, 2012

Knotty by Nature welcoming bomb

So I went back to KBN today. The granny square pole was still up and it looked great in the daylight.
(on a side note, we rode our bikes, so this took us by the camo pole and it was still up!)

Even the door handle tag was still there, and a number of people really seemed to like them as they went into the store.
I met up with my wonder friend, and she gave me the swatches she said she would. My roommate and I then got to work stitching them together. Took about half an hour, but then we attached them to objects outside the store.

First up, the garbage can.
This was... a little smelly. But it was right beside the granny square pole, and there was not much outside their store.

I think it looks really awesome with its little band of color. The green and white square flag like thing is my favorite.

There are some interesting types of yarn/fabric that my friend has used in here. She makes little swatches to test out patterns and yarns. They end up being perfect for my sort of art.

Next I did this lovely drainpipe work. Sewing together work courtesy my roommate.

Followed by this small pole cover, because I wanted to show off Ryan's, one of the owners of Knotty by Nature, yarn bicycles by the light of day.

I think this turned out really well.
But I have learned something about yarn bombing from this project and the 21 days of yarn bombing that happened in November.
The big projects, the involving ones; those ones come across as the art they're intended to be.
So for 2012, I am looking forward to trying out more large, involving projects, and less small tags and swatches here and there.
I hope it sounds exciting!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

New year of yarn bombing!

So this is year three.
Let's make this one full of awesome projects.

To start things off, I was asked by a wonderful woman if I would do a subversive yarn project to highlight the re-opening/moving of Knotty by Nature (she doesn't like the connotations surrounding the term "yarn bomb"... even yarn storm doesn't exactly sound pro yarn, so this is understandable).

Little side store on Knotty by Nature (henceforth KBN cause that is quite the thing to type each time).
They used to be located on government st, kind of downtown, a little more towards the industrial aspect of town, but located in the last little shop strip on government st that can still be called downtown.
Now, they have moved to Fairfield, which is not at all downtown. They also have propensity toward yarn covered bicycles.

Now, on to the yarn bomb! Or subversive art display that I created for KBN.

I made up about 25 granny squares for the project.
Of all the different colors I could think of and were easy to hand. I like ones that change color as you go along. They're probably my favorite (speaking of favorite yarns, Michael's was having a yarn boxing week sale and I CLEANED UP! It was so amazing! I got so much yarn for only $20!).

I also added buttons to it that have my URL... or at least sort of...
I also added a little something to their door handle. It was my gf's idea.
In this picture below, you can see the reflection says Knotty by Nature Fibre Arts. It's a very pretty store sign.

I am heading out there tomorrow to put up some more pieces.
I only have a couple granny sqaures left, but the wonderful woman who has inspired this project has offered up some pieces to help out the project. Maybe I can tag that garbage can...
If you're in the Fairfield area, you should check them out!

Happy New Year!