International Yarn Bombing Day 2012

Today marks the second annual International Yarn Bombing Day! Knitters, crocheters and fiber artists from around the world celebrate knit graffiti by going out and decorating a public space. See what we did last year for IYBD.

This year we did three things, we yarn bombed the Acorn Park Little Free Library, the office of the Eugene Saturday Market and our downtown public library.

First up, Eugene is finally getting their first Little Free Library at Acorn Park. This is so exciting. I love it when neighborhoods get together and create something wonderful. Their grand opening is tomorrow so we decorated their fence with little knit and crocheted flowers.

Then we head to downtown Eugene to the office of the Saturday Market. We recently found out that the last door cozy we made for them had disappeared so it was time for a new one! I made them a bouquet of red roses.

Lastly, we had made nearly 75 little trinkets and hid them throughout the shelves and books in the downtown public library. A little like geo-caching, a little like an Easter egg hunt. We hoped that patrons searching for that perfect book would randomly stumble across our little tokens of love. Some were hidden with specific intent, some were just hidden in random areas. If you find one, please keep it but let us know! We'd love to hear what you found.

You can view more photos on our flickr page, and keep in contact with us through facebook.

Mad Hatter Tea Party

Eugene Storefront Art Project is a great organization here in Eugene and Springfield.  From their site, they're mission statement:

-To place short term exhibits in empty Lane County storefronts while beautifying downtown areas and allowing artists a unique canvas.

-To promote new art and improving the quality of life while creating an artistic environment and making vacant properties more desirable.

- To facilitate happenings and events in vacant storefronts, urban spaces and community oriented businesses featuring the work of artists in different media, such as visual art, performance and music.

-To develop ways to use empty buildings as a temporary studio space available to artists until rented.

So when ESAP asked us to be a part of a installation theme Color Hungry, we jumped at the chance.  We were inspired by the color in Alice in Wonderland and thought a tea party would look great.  We knitted and crocheted blankets, doilies, fruit, flowers, edibles, vases and chairs!  Most pieces are for sale, if interested please contact us at knittingknotty at yahoo.com

Our installation is currently up at 402 Main St., Springfield, Oregon if you have a chance to stop by and view it for yourself.

Please visit ESAP on facebook to keep up to date on more artist projects and see photos of the other Color Hungry installations.

You can view more Eugene Knotty Knitters photos on our flickr.

Woolly Walk Along

photo by Knitty Graffity

In July we told you about monsters we had knitted as part of a global yarn bombing project The Woolly Walk Along in Auckland, New Zealand.  This past weekend Knitty Graffity installed all the pieces.  It looks amazing.  It is very exciting to be a part of something so huge.  So global.  Please visit Knitty Graffitys blog to see other creative knit pieces that were included.

Calling All Sweaters!

The Knotty Knitters need your help! We're embarking on a project and we need lots of second-hand sweaters. Were you just thinking of giving your old winter sweaters away to a thrift store? Give them to us instead! Wool, cotton, acrylic, hand knit, store bought, any color, any size!! Or please donate some money so we can head to the thrifty and buy some.

You can email us at knittingknotty@yahoo.com with any questions or details. Thank you!

All You Knit is Love

The Eugene Knotty Knitters completed their fourth yarn bombing today. We've been working on this project since December. It's our biggest, flashiest, most public bombing and we've been so excited.

We knew we wanted to do something for Valentine's Day. We all need more love and more art in our lives. ALL YOU KNIT IS LOVE. Perfect. We chose to tag a fence, inspired by The Ladies Fancywork Society. There were only a few fences in Eugene that seemed to work, but the one in front of the public library was desperately needing some love. This fence protects a giant hole in the ground. A building that was tore down and then abandoned.

We all knit, crocheted or sewed letters for the fence plus made tokens of love- flowers, hearts, knitted knitting needles. We had a great time installing our art piece. During the process, a reporter for our newspaper happened upon us. So while we do try to be discreet we did end up being photographed and Maiya was interviewed.

Please enjoy our gift to you Eugene! Be cool. Please do not remove art. Check out more photos on our flickr page.

If you want us to decorate your area or to sponsor our next bombing, please contact us at knittyknotty@yahoo.com

A Little Help from our Friends

We're planning our next big yarn bombing and we need help! We need lots and lots of yarn. We're hoping that people are willing to donate yarn to us and/or donate some money so we can purchase yarn. We're looking for cheap, acrylic yarn but we'll take anything. Remember, this yarn will be displayed outside in the Oregon winter weather. So please, if you can contact us about donating yarn or click the button to your right to make a donation into our paypal. Thanks everyone! You can contact us at knittingknotty@yahoo.com

Halloween Yarn Bomb

This yarn bomb was our first requested piece. Marc Time asked if we would be able to contribute something for the first Springfield First Art Walk. We had eight days- it was going to take place on October 1st. We picked a tree that was on the Art Walk route- and was also in front of the Springfield Farmers Market. A Halloween themed bomb made sense since it was now October.

Maiya provided the lace trunk cozy, spider web with spider, candy corn and a pumpkin. Spring provided a BOO tree branch cozy. Christina provided a Burton-esque snake. Kelsey make another BOO tree branch cozy, a pumpkin and a ghost. Mary made a bunch of ghosts! Candice provided the bats. And Dawn made eyeballs!

We heard that the tree was very well received by the public and we look forward to continuing this act of knitted graffiti.

Eugene Celebration Yarn Bomb

Knitting is Knotty's one year anniversary landed on the end of August. The Eugene Celebration was the same weekend. We were also due for another yarn bombing. Coincidence or the stars lining up in our favor?

We had decided that as a celebration, we would change venues for the night. Instead of our usual haunt, The Divine Cupcake, we would meet at Eugene City Brewery. Known for their Rogue beer and good food we also knew it was big enough to house us all and had good enough light to knit.

We also decided to do another yarn bombing. Our last bombing took place on April Fools Day. We knitted little things here and there along Willamette Street. We had a blast, but most of our tags were gone the very next day. We were pissed!! The ones that did last longer than a few hours barely made it a week. Was it people who wanted them and removed them? Was it the city? We're not sure. Regardless, we knew we wanted to do it again.

When we talked about another bombing, we decided to make a larger, more visual striking installation. Maybe the reason the last tags got taken so quickly is because they looked like random pieces of knit. If we created a more uniform bomb, would it look more like art? We all decided to knit the meters cozies along 8th street. It was so much fun! We had 9 people participating and 13 cozies. All as unique as the person who created it.

We also made a cozy for the Eugene Saturday Market's office door handle. We had tagged their door during the last bombing and they loved it. It was also incidentally the knitted piece that stayed the longest. So this time, to make it special, we all made a flower and attached a corsage or bouquet to their door. I hear they are thrilled about their new one and their neighbors are green with envy.

We installed them Thursday night, and as of today, Sunday they're still there! All of them! We've seen people take pictures of them, we've heard people talk about them. Success!! I definitely think we're on to something here and I think we're all ready to start planning the next bomb. You can see all of our meter cozies on our flickr page.

Divine Company

... Divine Cupcakes

Peanut Butter Cup by The Divine Cupcake

Okay, okay so it's been 6 months since I've last posted. Excuses? None. Plenty of things have happened since then.

First? We've moved from Allen Brothers to The Divine Cupcake. They opened their shop in March and they now reserve all Wednesday nights as knitting and crafty night!

How cool is that? We, Knotty Knitters only attend every other Wednesday but it's great that there's another place in Eugene to go and be inspired to create art. Plus, their cupcakes are amaaaaaaazing. It's hard to think of anything better than yarn, friends and cupcakes.

Also, babies are being born left and right!! Apparently, Knitting is Knotty is pretty darn fertile. Shelsea had her second boy in March, Melinda just had her second girl a week ago. Kelsey is due next month and Morgan is expecting in August. Maybe it has to do with the fact that The Divine Cupcake is co-owned by Emily Downing-Moore, a midwife. Okay, what's better than yarn, friends, cupcakes and babies??

Last April, I, Mary and Spring participated in an event we call Yarn Bombing. We created knitted pieces specifically for public art. It was so much fun. You can view the photos on our flickr page. We have another bombing being planned, so stay tuned for that.

Again, you can find all sort of craftiness every Wednesday evening at The Divine Cupcake. Our next meeting will land on June 30th. Come!

All the Kool kids are doing it!

Last night's Knitting is Knotty was held at Maiya's house. She taught the girls how to dye wool yarn with Kool Aid. Instead of writing out what we did, we can recommend some other blogs and tutorials that followed the same or very similar process.

Knitty.com has a great tutorial.

Snow Angels has good pictures.

And Streets and YOs shows how to do self-striping yarn.

We had a great time! Ate good food. Cheese, bread, trail mix, Toby's tofu spread, hot cocoa, smores, cookies... and after we all dyed our yarn, we played a few rounds of Apples to Apples!!

Christina used 3 packets of Grape Kool Aid to dye her yarn. A rather fortuitous mistake had occured. Her yarn soaked up all the dye before she could completely saturate it. So parts of her skein ended up not being dyed or was a faint blueish color. It looks great! Can't wait to see what it looks like knitted up. Christina thinks she might knit gloves for her husband Chris.

Spring did a two color skein. She used Grape and Fruit Punch. The Fruit Punch looks soooo bright! She's thinking about what to crochet out of it. Again, can't wait!

Mary did three colors! Lemonade, Lime and Ice Blue Raspberry. She left a little bit of the natural yarn color in between. The colors look so good together! She thinks she might knit these into hats for her two sons Chase and Eli.

Maiya also used Lime and Ice Blue Raspberry. The Lime is such a gorgeous green. She is going to use this yarn to knit, then felt slippers for her husband Brandon.

If you have any questions on the dyeing process, let us know! We'll be happy to help! We'd also love to see any dye jobs you've done with your yarn!

Confessions of a Yarnaholic

Last night's Knitting is Knotty went back to the coffee house. A lot of us didn't get very much knitting done while drinking beer at the last meeting. What did we talk about this time? Pretty much everything. Children, family, Twilight, health, schools, art, money....

Candice brought roving, foam and felting needles and showed us how to needle felt. It's so easy and so much fun!! Here she is crocheting a cord.Maiya was knitting socks, but took a break to try needle felting. Candice said a great place to get supplies for felting is at ETC, here in Eugene. By the way, Maiya ordered a Chai Nog. It's chai tea mixed with egg nog. Very recommended!!Spring was working on several crocheting techniques. She crocheted a flower using a lot of chain stitches.
Kelsey is knitting with a HUGE ball of yarn! This yarn was upcycled from a sweater. She took a used sweater apart, then unraveled the yarn and wound it into a ball so she can knit what she wants. This is a great way to get good wool for very little money. Check your local thrift stores.
Sandra was super tired last night but she made it anyways! We're very glad she did as we love her company.
And lastly, Mary came for the first time. She has been knitting on and off for the last several years. She was frogging a baby blanket to reuse the yarn. Here baby is now 3 years old. (Hey, we all have those UFOs- UnFinished Objects.) She learned how to use circular needles to magic loop so she can knit herself a pair of Alice Mitts.
Next meeting, we're going to have at Maiya's house. Maiya is going to show everyone how to dye yarn with Kool Aid!

We scared him away with talk of circumcision.

Yup! Last night instead of our usual coffee, we haunted McMenamins. Beer + yarn + friends = AWESOME! We once again talked about a lot of things, one of which was circumcision. Our waiter could not be found so we thought maybe our dinner conversation scared him away. We love McMenamins- their hummus, artichoke dip, french fries and of course their beer. But it took fooooreeeever to get seated largely to the fact that they gave a couple a table that would have fit 6 people, while us 5 had to wait for a 2 person table to clear out. Regardless, I think we all had a blast.

Spring was crocheting away- she's turning out some amazing work.
Unfortunately, we didn't end up getting a picture of her last night.

Candice took out a pad and started painting a watercolor of Maiya. Maiya was knitting an entrelac sock using Noro yarn.Kelsey was working on a cute pink and white scarf.Sandra was knitting away on her lovely green purse.

I thought this week I'd talk about celebrities and knitting. Rivers Cuomo- the frontman for Weezer has mentioned he knits on his Twitter page. He posted a picture of himself knitting! Seriously, what's hotter than a man knitting?

And there's been recent attention on Kristen Stewart knitting- who portrays Bella Swan in the Twilight saga. I've included a picture of her holding a felted skull knitting bag with large knitting needles sticking out of them. I found the pattern so you can make the bag for yourself!


Obviously from our posts, you can tell knitting is no longer an old lady's game. It's nice to see other young people knitting- especially celebrities. Because if I can't convince you, then maybe they can. Knitting is cool.