3KCBWDAY3: Your Yarn Hero

This was the real Knitting and Crochet Blog Week 2012 challenge for me.
You see... I have coming to this yarn calling via some interesting roads. So I guess my heros (cause in the end I could not decide) all helped me become this yarn loving bomber that I am.

It started when my girlfriend took a liking to street art and all types of graffiti. She took out Yarnbombing: The art of Crochet and Knit graffiti by Mandy Moore and Leanne Prain.

(Picture of my girlfriend reading Yarnbombing book)

She said it was probably something I would be into. So I read it too.

Then I went to the dollar store the next day, bought a 5mm hook because 5 is my favorite number, and then a thrift store for a bag of yarn.
One youtube video later and I was making very warped bright red crochet squares... or badly shaped rectangles actually.

So in a lot of ways, My girlfriend is my Hero for getting me started on this path.
And so is Leanne Prain, because not only did her book get me started, but her blog has also mentioned me a couple of times.
Like the time she mentioned a knit in and I ended up being the events yarnbomber.
Or for International Yarnbombing Day 2011.
Or when a tourist sent a picture of the dock ring bomb I did in emulation of Leanne's bomb. 

There has also been people who have supported my work and yarnbombing like Dela (who taught me Tunisian crochet and has supplied me with lots of awesome yarn and fantastic opportunities to bomb) and Jill who loved all the cute little projects I have made and enjoyed the thrill of yarnbombing even though it freaked her out.

          (Me bombing the opening of KBN that Dela told me about, and Jill making sure no one is coming)

And then there is always my grandmother. Whose attempt to teach me knitting when I was about 8 years old stuck with me my whole life, even if knitting didn't. She is my Hero in a lot of ways.

Whew. Long entry. I hope you enjoyed reading it though.

3KCBWDAY2: Photography challenge in the form of a picnic

Well here we are, back for day 2.

I have to admit, I have been most excited for day 2, because I love photography. I just wish I had a better camera for it.
However, since this challenge was important to me, I recruited the help of a friend and there fancy camera, and took these lovely pictures of my indoor picnic.

Here is the spread in all its glory. We have burgers, corn, baked potatoes, hot dog, sheskabobs and delicious watermelon. Not to mention a kick ass candelabra. Every picnic needs a candelabra.

And here I am enjoying some of that delicious watermelon. (Mmmmm! Yarn!)

This whole picnic set up is part of my instillation for International Yarn Bombing Day, which is June 9th this year.
Here are a couple close up shots of the food.

Let's all try and get out for a real picnic soon!
And if you really like any of my picnic photos, be sure to nominate them here. Thanks!

3KCBWDAY1: The color red

Hey everybody!
So this year I decided to take part in the Crochet and Knitting blog week 2012 put on by eskimimimakes.

Today's topic is color!
Some of the questions about color were do you have one color that dominates your stash? And why do you chose the colors you do for a project?
For me, the answer is red.

(yeah ok, pink too... it is kind of like red!)
I just went through my stash this week in an attempt to better organize, and there was an overwhelming amount of red.
Even this Dalek hat I made is red!

It's my favorite color and I obviously favor it for my yarn works.
Including some yarn bombs!

So for me, it's painting the town red.
Do you have a favorite color? Does it translate into your yarn works?

Follow up space invaders

If any of you frequent livejournal, a blog on their called crochetcrochet is featuring Botanical Gardens Space Invaders photos.
Also, SVSeekins just recently blogged about how they randomly came across the Space Invaders yarn bomb when they were out for a walk. Go check them out!
And the newspaper for the campus that we bombed contacted me about the bomb! This has been a really amazing project! You can read that artical here!
Thanks again to everyone who loved the space yarn bomb and to all involved!

Space Invaders: a group project

Spencer Diamond here.
So I decided to try something new. I have all these crazy ideas for a yarn bomb, but I am only one person. I can't make all my ideas come true quickly.
The easiest solution was to get other people to help me. So I looked at all my friends and found two fellow yarn crafters ( a knitter and a crocheter) and asked them if they wanted to help me with a super secret yarn bomb.

The super secret yarn bomb was to cover the rail outside our campus with the solar system. Sun to Pluto (which I still consider a planet... and so does spell check apparently, because it wants to capitalize it). No moons, cause I am not insane.

The Sun (done by Botanical Garden)

Mercury (done by Botanical Garden)

Venus (done by Botanical Garden)

Earth (done by Botanical Garden) Sorry the photo quality is poor... I was freezing.

Mars (done by me, Spencer Diamond)

Asteroid belt (done by me, Spencer Diamond)

Jupiter (done by me, Spencer Diamond)

Saturn (done by me, Spencer Diamond)

Uranus (done by Black Pluto)

Neptune (done by Black Pluto)

and Pluto (done by Black Pluto)

We all worked on the sleeves, and I added the felt pieces on the Sun and the stars.
All in all working with others has turned out great. It has taught me what to expect from a larger project, which is that they look incredible once realized.

I also made a video of the whole bomb posted to my tumblr if you want to take a look at that.
This was an amazing project. Botanical Garden came up with the name. Other people took photos too, so hopefully I can do another post later this week with better photos of the planets.

And for the first time, I was confronted with security when doing a yarnbomb. They did not like our big project. So I have also learned that with big projects, you are testing societies limits more. I absolutely believe they will take it down Monday, but that's what you get sometimes.

This is definitely something I want to do with my yarn bombing crew again!

Who? The Doctor, that's who!

See, the problem with working on large projects is that I don't get out to yarn bomb as much as I might like.
Oh sure, I could throw a couple swatches out there if I wanted, but I think I have moved beyond that part of my yarn bombing career. I feel a greater need to do bigger projects and more involving ones.

I see a lot of bigger projects online. I think that main difference is that a lot of those people have crews. And I am still mostly alone.
I did co opt some people for a secret group yarn bombing project, but more on that later.

Today, I have lovely distractions to show you.
No, they're not yarn bombs, but they are a recent addiction.

You see... I discovered Doctor Who. The reboot, even tho my gf now wants to watch the old ones as well.
So I made an Ood hat.

The ball actually lights up too!

I want to try another one and see if I can get even more detail into the face.
Next we have one of the the New Paradigm Daleks.

This one is Scientist Orange.

And this one is Drone Red.

I am working on Supreme White right now.
I am also working on my IYBD project... which is huge and time consuming. Can't you wait?!
See you next time, hopefully with a real yarn bomb.

Very Happy Valentines Day

My Valentines Day was great.
I understand that it is a mostly ridiculous holiday (mostly because the single and bitter people in my life try desperately to make it so), but I enjoy parts of that ridiculous. Like silly limricks and witty v-day cards that I make by printing things off the internet.

But mostly, Valentines day is about hearts for me.
For years I have been giving my gf hearts for v-day. A crocheted one, a painted one, one that I picked up on Halloween that actually looks like a real heart in meat package (she didn't like that one so much).

This year, instead of a heart, I gave her chocolate and books.
And we made these hearts.

Can you tell which one is hers?

The one full of love <3

I know. I'm terribly cheesy. And my first heart at the top was a little sad.

Happy Valentines Day everyone.