Who loves a good yarnbomb?
I do!
This year I decided (albeit a little late due the general craziness
of life) that I would join in on the fun of International Yarnbombing Day – 9 June
2012. My first EVER yarnbomb adventure!
I decided to draw upon a local festival for inspiration. Annually,
on the first weekend in June, our little town holds “Scarecrow Festival”. Every
year, people create and display scarecrows in their front yards. There are
prizes for most inventive scarecrow and the flea markets make a killing!
With excitement and enthusiasm I raided my yarn stash, my
craft cupboards and dragged out the trusty old hot-glue gun for a little added
bling. Colour! Lots and lots of colour! And feathers! Piles and piles of them! But
I will get to those later.
Before worrying myself with feathers and bling, I wanted a
simple tree cozy. Nothing fancy... just a colourful strip wrapped around a huge
tree... can’t be too hard right?
Like a demented woman keen on self denial I have, for the
last four days, been working my fingers to the bone – literally! One may have
described me over the last week to be some kind of [questionably] high
functioning insomniac with an unhealthy obsession with YARN!
I calculated the number of stitches that went into the 20 cm
wide and 4 metre long strip of crochet fabric to be wrapped around a branch... the
whole thing was made in single crochet and chain stitches [weave stitch].
A 20cm square requires 841 stitches (excluding the
foundation chain)
1 metre of this crochet
fabric (5x 20 cm) = 4205 stitches
All four metres of this THING = 16,820 stupid stitches!!!
Why did I do this again? Couldn’t I have chosen to make this
strip of crochet fabric in a taller stitch?
Oh but wait... I get madder still. Back to the inspiration
drawn from the festival... With all of these scarecrows about, I wondered (in
this wildly irrational, slightly loopy mind of mine) about the poor little
birdies all frightened by the - sometimes ugly, always quirky - Scarecrows of
Milton. In come the feathers and the bling!
In total, 53 birds have been made. Each created from a basic
HDC circle. They have felt beaks, feathers for wings and beads for eyes, all
attached with the assistance of a hot glue gun. Each bird required 5 dots of
hot glue. I’m certain I have burnt the tips of my fingers at LEAST once for
each bird. That’s 53 little red dots, blisters and cuss words expelled!
Each complete bird consists of 55 stitches (80 including sewing
them closed). Let’s see now...
55 x 53 = 2115
OR
4240 including finishing!
In four days, I have made a total of 21,060 complete stitches to create tomorrow’s
yarnbomb!
Besides the sheer number of stitches required OMG the mess!
Good Lord the mess! My living room, craft room and bedroom all look as if
someone has spewed a revolting mix of yarn, brightly coloured feathers and the entire
contents of a Diva store (!) every day for the last week – and they didn’t have
the courtesy to at least clean it up!
When do the fairies get back from holidays? Maybe I should
have paid them more?
The preparation for a yarnbomb has been fun, frustrating,
awesome and challenging! Yes, I am poking a little fun at the Scarecrow
Festival, but that does not mean that I don’t love it, or our town. On the
contrary in fact! It means that I love it so much; that I am willing to put
myself through the pain of the last few days to brighten up the place a bit on
what is, despite the Festival a wintery weekend!
I think next year I will be more organised, and enlist some
help!
