Alnutt Park in City of Glen Eira [Victoria]

Another Yarn Corner project. I spent a lot of time knitting these 3 pieces, they were all HUGE trees, each piece the size of a small blanket.  Unfortunately, when it came time today to install all the pieces for a festival at Alnutt Park next Sunday, I was needed at the Op Shop and could not attend the installation.

Thankfully, other members were kind enough to install my pieces, and to photograph them too, so here you have  my latest Yarn Bomb.

Yarn Corner Stitches up CITY SQUARE [Melbourne] 2013

for the second year running, the yarn group I belong to, Yarn Corner, has worked on a project to brighten the City of Melbourne. The trees in City Square, and along Swanston Street are covered with knitting and crochet for a few weeks. This is done in co operation with the City of Melbourne, and is always during the month they promote awareness of urban trees, thru their Urban Forest Strategy .

I love this particular project, we used the Colours of the Rainbow, with all the trees in the Square in Rainbow stripes, and the trees in the Street each in a colour of the Rainbow.

My Granddaughter, LJ, is on holidays in Melbourne in January, so she always comes along to help out too.

My piece this year was just 3m long, and I shared a tree with another knitter. The Group hires a couple of scissor lifts and it takes a whole day to install.

I start out on a small ladder.....

and LJ does the hard bit, kneeling down to sew the bottom 1m in place.

When all the trees in the square are completed it looks like this....

Isn't that just amazing?

There are 14 more trees in Swanston Street, and each one looked spectacular, here are a few photos LJ took of them.

I love my Yarn Bombing, and my Yarn Corner friends, we meet regularly to chat, knit, crochet and exchange patterns and ideas.  Currently working on something HUGE for 2013 Royal Melbourne Show, and a lovely ongoing project with the Olivia Newton John Cancer and Wellness Center at the Austin Hospital.

All our members also do a lot of charity knitting and crochet too, including baby blankets for KOGO.

[that's Knit One, Give One]

If you are in Melbourne before February 17th, pop down to City Square and have a look.

*most photos taken by LJ, others courtesy of members of the Yarn Corner

fast forward 17 months.... heaps of projects, yards of yarn

I have sadly neglected my Yarn Bombing Blog, which is a great pity because 2012 was a wonderful year for me, and for the members of Yarn Corner, with lots of projects, including trees in Swanston Street {Melbourne} at City Square,  Poles for the Go Get! car hire group, huge 6ft Scissors for Spotlight, and our crowning glory 3 large trees and a TRACTOR at the Royal Melbourne Show,  followed by Christmas themed trees and bike racks for the City of Yarra mainly around the Fitzroy Swimming Pool.

so if you came across any of those in your travels around Melbourne, yes I played a small part in each one.

For 2013 I will update this blog regularly with photos of my endeavours to cover our wonderful city one tree, one pole, one bikerack at a time....

Sunday Sept 9 in Melbourne City

I belong to the Group Yarn Corner on facebook and we have regular meetings in Melbourne, and work on community projects.  Our latest was to cover the tree outside the TRUNK CAFE in Exhibition Street, and the poles down the side in Lt.Lonsdale Street.

The above piece was a joint effort from several girls.... this was during the construction...

My piece was a long No Standing pole .. I covered the top half in black / white / grey and silver yarns.

and another member did the base in purple and white and purple and silver yarns.

Unfortunately the shadows don't show off my black and grey piece in the best light.

When we had all finished we had an amazing display, and people were stopping all afternoon to ask us about it, including one man who thought we were doing it to soften the blow for any drunks coming out of the nightclubs who may bump into the poles !!!

.. another successful project completed, and we even had a few snails on one pole....

If you are in Melbourne City this week, maybe walk by the TRUNK and see for yourself, or check out the 200 or so photos on our facebook page.

Seven months later .. .. ..

My very first 2 pieces were on opposite sides of the road at a Bus Stop, I put them up in January, and they stayed in place until this week.
One still looked good, tight and not too weather worn, the other was definitely shabby, so I wasn't too sad to see them gone.

Today was a lovely sunny day, so I went for a walk and replaced both of them with a few scraps I had in my stash. 

I have been working hard on a couple of Community Projects for September,  so not had a lot of knitting time to devote to ''local poles''
Hope these two stay in place for another 7 months.

Bourke Street Melbourne ~ spring flowers for a lovely Spring Day

Today was the perfect Melbourne Spring day ~ warm sunshine and loads of people out and about in the city. My facebook friends from over at The Yarn Corner  had organized to Yarn Bomb a squiggly piece of metal in the Bourke Street Mall just outside the  G.P.O.Building.  I am not sure what the metal piece really represents in the way of street art, but after we all added our crafty bits to it, it looked spectacular.  My very small contribution was just 4 hand knitted flowers, not much compared to some, Kylie even managed to spell out BOURKE STREET in Knitting !
We all wanted to go and have coffee after we finished, but people kept coming up, taking photos, asking us about it, so we dawdled for quite some time, chatting to all these interested locals and tourists.

I'm sure some of the girls got to go for coffee afterwards, but I headed back home. I just love the different bits each one did, all joined up as one.  I can't wait for our next project, maybe a tree somewhere that needs a pretty coat?

♥

International Yarn Bombing Day .. and .. Knit in Public Day ... click clack!

Arrived at Federation Square {Melb} today to fine the place abuzz with knitters of all kinds, kids, grannies, Husbands and Wives ... everyone was knitting!  Particularly pleased to see that there was a couch set up for knitters right in front of my yarn bombing installation, yippee!
Today was International Yarn Bombing Day, and there was lots to see -- it is also International Knit in Public Day, and there were seats, beanbags, couches and even deckchairs everywhere for knitters to get on with their knitting.



Australian Country Spinners (Patons) and Spotlight Stores have joined forces to assist the Save The Children Fund, by getting the public interested in knitting squares for blankets to send to children who need our warmth. ONLY pure wool is used in the knitting of these squares, which will be sent to children in India, Cambodia and Laos.  Last Year Save the Children received 153,438 knitted squares.
They were handing out starter kits at Fed.Square today, or you can pop into Spotlight and buy a kit for $10
If you'd like more details of the Funds current campaign check out their website

My grand daughter LJ and I knitted squares last year, and now I've started some for this year's campaign.  Individual pure wool squares 20x20cm are what is needed, and if possible stitched up into 80x80 {16 squares} blankets.

So lots of blankets to make and more yarnbombing to do.... here are some glimpses of the guys and gals knitting in Melbourne.