Look! An actual BOOK!

About 6 months ago I was approached via my Flickr account about contributing some photos to a book about yarnbombing. And just the other day, I got my copy in the post!
It is called Urban Knits, published by Prestel/Random House and for sale here. Here are my pages:








It's not entirely what I was expecting - I got sent a preliminary layout a while ago, where it looked like I was going to share a page with Olek, the famous and prolific NYC crochet-bomber, but none of her work is included in the final book. I have a suspicion that she asked for an actual fee, and wasn't content with just receiving a copy of the book (I managed to get two, but that's all). Anyway - it's a fun little book and good for showing off! Now I'm on a mission to get the Arnolfini Bookshop to start selling it - after all, there are at least two photos of the Arnolfini building in there!

Nothing lasts forever

If you're in Bristol, you probably know about the riots on Stokes Croft that happened over the past few weeks. I've not personally been affected, but some of my yarn bombs have (kind of). The night of the first riot, some of the cosies on the bridge got torched! I have no evidence that there was any connection but I can imagine that the heightened atmosphere could have led someone to take a lighter to our pieces. Nanna D's lovely striped piece was almost entirely gone, with only a few melted rings left, and my yellow hazard tape was scorched at the bottom. So I went over there today and took them off entirely, because it no longer looked good. This is what was left:


The limpets in Stokes Croft (located right in the midst of the riots!) were still intact, but as they kept sliding down, and were at quite a busy junction, got absolutely filthy, as well as kind of limp.

That's why I knitted a larger replacement, which should also fit more snugly and not slide down to dog-wee height so easily.

Yarnbombed Signs

The Southville Footbridge, which is rapidly becoming a yarnbombing hotspot is split into a pedestrian and a cycle lane. People do generally stick to this, although the signs are almost completely illegible as they are covered in dirt, moss and stickers.



I fancied doing something a bit different from a railing cosy, so I refreshed both of the signs! They are quite high up but conveniently you can use the towers like a ladder so they were fairly easy to install.

A commission, and another hazard tape

I've been showing off about my yarn bombing at work, and my colleague who's a DJ in his spare time decided that he wanted to have his new mixing desk yarn bombed. Of course, I'm not one to back down from a knitting challenge! I produced this thing:

I hope it'll fit. I have asked him to provide pictures of it in situ.

I also added another hazard tape to Gaol Ferry Bridge, and Nanna D is also getting on on the act! I think it would be great to just keep adding bits until the whole bridge is soft.

Finally, and excitingly, I've been shown the layouts for the pages featuring my art in this book! It will be out in a few months time. I am sharing a page with Olek (also featured on the cover), I think!

Elaborate Cake Baking

I've been reading the blog Confections of a (closet) Master Baker for a while now, admiring her incredible cake creations. I took Valentines Day as an opportunity to spend hours and hours on making this Puzzle Cake! I failed at making the buttercream and just ended up with a massive bowl of lumpy pink globs - what a waste of 15 eggs! - so I just made some with butter and icing sugar. It doesn't look quite like the original, but I think I did an ok job. Now I just have to find some people to feed it to as I definitely can't fit this into my diet!

Adorable Bento!

I've been on this fitness regime (god, I hate calling it a diet) for the last four weeks, which means I need to prepare and take my own lunches into work. It's a distinct improvement on the stale (but free!) sandwiches we get provided!
To celebrate being halfway through the challenge, I've treated myself to a beautiful Bento lunchbox from Japan, complete with a lovely furoshiki cloth to wrap it in.

All wrapped up:



Owl Box-



Two compartments and some little extra sauce pots!

TV fame

A little clip with me in it was show on NDR Hamburg Journal on Tuesday! I did a few special "Strickbomben" for the occasion.

First we went to Mönckebergstraße and decorated some sheep


then we gave this rider and his horse matching socks


and finally some nice frills for pirate Störtebecker's boots!


The clip is currently watchable online here , fast forward to about 20 minutes 30 (it won't work in Chrome but Firefox and IE are ok).

I am quite pleased with how it came out! I didn't even feel particularly embarrassed watching it. And no one has been in touch to fine me for defacing public property either.