Since mid-January  I have been going to art classes at Bijou School twice a week and working with students. In mainly one-on-one settings I teach basic fiber arts concepts--how to knit, crochet, loom knit--with a specific eye toward yarn bombing.

Loom knitting has been very popular, but our supply of looms is a bit limited. We started with 8 looms and are now down to 6 (2 walked off and have yet to be returned). 

A few of the guys (that's Bobby in the dark shirt) have really taken to them. Its an interesting pattern. They watch me knit with needles and come tell me they want to learn to do that. After attempting for a few minutes to figure out how to hold the sticks they decide they can't do it. So I sit them down with a loom and they get it right away.

Here's Eric wearing a hat he made. He has a wonderful Afro so the hat needed to be a bit on the large size.

I've figured that if I knit about 4.5' a week I'll have the "Community Kitchen" banner complete in time to panic about other things in the week or two prior to the Community Kitchen's yarn bomb installation. So far I'm a little over 2 weeks in to the banner project and have over 9' done--so I'm right on target. I just finished "I" this evening. I love skinny letters!

The banner measures about 19" tall and will be 22' wide when completed.

And I currently have 13 stripes for the trees on hand. 9 were handed over last Friday at a couple of knit group meetings. The stripes will be stitched together lengthwise and wrapped around the target trees.

In conjunction with the “What If Festival” we are hosting a Knit-In at our yarn bomb site. We’ll be on the west side of the Pioneer’s Museum, 215 S. Tejon, Colorado Springs, CO from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on September 10, 2011.

We'll be assembling and installing our cozy onto a Geek Squad VW Beetle. But come join us even if you aren’t planning to participate in the Geek Squad Beetle Bomb. Be sure to bring your current project (or we’ll force other yarns and tools into your hands).

And plan to hang out at the festival for a bit. There’s going to be a lot of cool stuff going on that day!

On Thursday I went and took some photos and preliminary measurements of our projected car (or one from the fleet).

I just crunched those numbers to come up with a different number:
678, which is the current estimate on how many squares we will need to cover the body portions of the car. Now, that number is a little high because I didn't subtract the area that would be covered by logos and not squares.

Another number:
1, the number of intarsia-knit logos that will go onto the car that are currently completed (see photo below). There will be 3 or 4 total.

Another number:
88, the number of squares I currently have on hand. Most of those I made but I did collect some at my knitting group last Friday, and I know there are many more in the pipeline.

Yet another number:
12, the number of days before the actual event in which we cover a car with knitted squares.

I don't think I'm panicking. I'm pretty sure I'm not panicking. Am I even spelling "panicking" right? Yes. I just looked it up.

I should probably go to bed.

The design concepts for the "What If Festival" project have been submitted to Geek Squad and I'm waiting on approval or redirection. The plan is to have something we can start with agreed upon by Thursday (8/18) so that I can put out the call for help.

I must admit this is one difficult part of the process for me. (There are other difficult parts. I'll write about them as they come up—if I get time.) I want to jump in and get started but have to hold myself back. If I start work on a design that ends up being scrapped, I feel that I've wasted time and materials. So instead, I'm occupying myself by working on pieces the size I will need if the design is approved as is but can be utilized in another project in the works if the direction changes.

Oh the difficulties of staying busy and sane at the same time.

Less than 4 full weeks until the "What If . . . Festival" on Sept. 10. I (and anyone else who wants to help in any capacity) have been tapped to yarn bomb a VW Bug for the Geek Squad. Here's the deal as far as I understand it: They provide the car and our entry fee, we provide the yarn, work, and gorgeousness to cover the car with knit/crochet stuff. 

I've kinda got the design worked out, which dictates the work needs, but I'm waiting to see if I need to get the design approved by a Geek Squad contact, which I have yet to get. Once I know we're good to go I can put out a call for help, get photos of one of the cars in the fleet, take measurements, and fine-tune the design sketches.

At this point, we have more than enough material contributed to the Acacia Park "Tree Cozies" project to more than cover 6 trees and most of it has been stitched together to create our "tree cozies".

I cannot wait for Saturday morning! This project has been a roller coaster ride of panic, frantic knitting, and relieved euphoria. I have met some wonderful women and a few of their kids or husbands.

More to come once the dust settles a little. I'll post pictures of the "cozies" in their current, un-installed, state in a day or two.

Acacia Park Tree Cozies—June 11—25, 2011

Project Concept
A group of local fiber artists (people who knit and/or crochet) would like to place "tree cozies" on five of the trees on the north side of Acacia Park, along Platte Ave. near the corner or Platte and Nevada. These "tree cozies" would be created from fabric sections knitted or crocheted from yarn. They would wrap completely around the trees starting about 2' from the ground and extent to a height of 6' from the ground.

Technically this form of art could be labeled "Yarn Bombing" or "Knitted Graffiti".  This emerging art form is defined as "the activity of covering things in public spaces (e.g. lampposts, trees, statues etc) with knitted materials. The idea of yarn bombing or graffiti knitting originates from the US, where knitters decided to find new and creative ways of using leftover material."

The "cozies" would be wrapped and stitched onto the trees on June 11 to celebrate "International Yarn Bomb Day" and be removed two weeks later on June 25.                             

Project Needs

·         Rectangular shapes in the project color palette

·         People to get together to stitch contributed pieces into cozies

·         People to attach cozies to the trees on June 11, 7:30 a.m.

·         People to help take down cozies on June 25

·         People to rework rectangular shapes into blankets/afghans for donation (optional)

Please create rectangular shapes (squares or rectangles) in blue, green, yellow, or variegated yarn in any/all of those colors. White may be used as an accent color.

Pieces to be contributed should be no smaller than 4" x 4". Smaller squares can be contributed if they are stitched together to make larger rectangles before they are submitted. Maximum square size should not exceed 36" in either direction.

We will need one or two places where cozies can be assembled and left between work sessions. These will probably need to be private homes since we don't have money to rent a work space at this time. Two 4' wide tables are recommended for a work space.

"Cozies" will be installed at 7:30 a.m. on June 11. People are needed to stitch, to hold, and to photograph the installation. Depending on the number of people who come this could take from 1-3 hours. The RMPBS/Uncle Wilbur's Fountain event begins at 10 a.m. I'd like us to be finished by 9:30 if at all possible. If anonymity is an issue for you, you might need to leave early.

The "cozies" are to be taken down on June 25. Time is yet to be determined.

Project After-Life
If there is interest (and we have someone willing to take on this part of the project) the pieces contributed may be re-stitched to create blankets/afghans for donation to local projects. If no one steps forward to spearhead this effort, the contributed pieces will be reunited with their makers (if desired) or retained by VideoKnitter for use in future yarn bomb projects.

I pulled work from my UFO pile doubled that contribution in about the last week or so. Wow, am I going to need help with this!

These are blocked and drying. This is about 22" x 36"--5.5 square feet. We need about 114 square feet to do the project as projected. Only 108.5 square feet of fiber to go. HELP!