Hafencity knitting

Long time no post, but I've still been knitting.
I am currently spending some time in Hamburg, my native city, for work purposes. Hamburg has been growing a whole new part of the city in the last few years, with lots of new office blocks and flats springing up in the harbour just beyond the old warehouses. Being new and thoroughly town-planned, it has the same weirdly artificial feel as, say, Canary Wharf in London and Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. Thus, it is clearly in need of a bit of humanising, and a prime candidate for a little yarn bomb attack.

Streetlamp cosy


Chain


Striped/barcode style cosy on a bridge in front of the building site of the new concert hall which has been eating everyones taxes in Hamburg for three years.


I also made this little spiders web (not knitted but knotted), which is a reference to the fact (urban legend?) that the Hafencity is infested with millions of spiders, either due to import of exotic species via ships, or superior breeding conditions near the water. I like that even though there is nothing natural about this part of the city, you still cannot keep nature out. Or yarn.


PS: Someone wants to make a little TV documentary thing about me. I feel embarrassed already, but stay tuned.

continuing to plushify Bristol...

Contrary to appearances, I have not been idle. Although I've been busy with non-knitting activities (I have recently joined Bristol's new Roller Derby team), I was spurred on by the appearance of a little railing cosy on Gaol Ferry bridge, by Pod Knit. I've been planning something for that bridge for a while and I finally finished this thing:

Hopefully it'll be useful as well as pretty and cushion any cyclists knees that might knock into the barrier!

I also completed a project that was inspired by limpets that I saw stuck to bollards on our holiday in Wales. This one I put up in Bristol's street art hot spot, Stokes Croft. Every time I pass it, it's been moved around a little, so it's obviously getting noticed. Today it was all soggy and in danger of sliding to the bottom, but someone had tucked it in a bit to keep it up. Now I just have to hope it won't get co-opted for the Stokes Croft Museum...


I also seem to be getting quite a bit of online attention, from Podknit, Knit Hacker, Stitch'n'Ting and something called e-democracy. Thanks for all the love!

Fungal infestation

My yarn bollard mushroom lasted about a week but I was so pleased with it that I've decided to replace it with a new version, this time yellow with red spots.



I've actually spotted quite a lot more bollards around the harbour that look like they are not in frequent use and could do with amusing cosies, but it does take quite a long time to make these so I may need to think of a new technique.

I've also been working on making some knitted necklaces in a variegated grey sock yarn that try to look like iron chains. I found some very nice little carabiner clasps and have tried adding in some metal rings. I'm quite pleased with the results but they may be a bit too itchy to actually wear.

(yarn) Bombs of Bristol

After my previous attempt at knitted graffiti didn't survive its first night, I decided to change tack slightly. I made sure that my next tag couldn't possibly get in anyone's way, and I incorporated it in an existing chain on Bristol harbour.



In spite of being in a variety of day-glo colours, I don't think too many people have spotted it as it's hidden within the chain. I like the idea that it's a reward for people who are a little bit more observant, though.

So, encouraged by this success, I embarked on a larger project. Knitting this (and adding crochet spots) took me several weeks and I was worried it wouldn't survive the night again, but this cute toadstool has already graced one of Bristols sunniest days of the year!



I'm thinking of making more in various Super Mario colours - but these mooring bollards are surprisingly large, it's like knitting a small sweater!

And now I've got started, I also did another spontaneous tag while sunbathing in the park yesterday:



More to come!

Der Lauf der Dinge

So there's a new video by that band that make the viral music videos (and apparently the soundtrack too, but who cares about that) that later get turned into adverts for vitamin tablets.
It's a pretty cool video of a gigantic colourful contraption that even plays parts of the song as it runs.



This is clearly not a new concept, although done very well here. For example, the Bravery had a video that looked very similar a few years ago:



In fact, I think the Bravery's version is closer to what I am now going to call the original - "der Lauf der Dinge", a 1987 movie by a Swiss duo of artists, Fischli/Weiss.
Clearly, the concept of an overly complicated machine or chain reaction in which one element triggers the next is much older - there's Heath Robinson, for one thing, and the whole Dominoes thing. But there are elements in both the OK GO and Bravery videos that come straight from Der Lauf der Dinge, such as the twisted bin bags being slowly undone as they turn, or car tyres bouncing down a ladder.

I'm not really trying to pinpoint any plagiarism here, but what I think is interesting is that Der Lauf der Dings derives most of its wit from the suspense that occurs when you are not *quite* sure whether the next link is going to work. The times where some strange foam drips off a board, a rolling cone goes slightly off track - the times where you suspect everything might just go wrong. Apparently the Independent said at the time, "Watching 'Der Lauf der Dinge' is like watching a Hitchcock movie by objects instead of people." which sums it up quite well. I think it's probably just showing its age though. Youtube videos can't really afford to have many moments that will allow people get impatient, because there's always a cat video to watch.

In any case, to prove my point, Fischli/Weiss seem to have removed the original version of Der Lauf der Dinge from Youtube, and the only version you can watch is a sped-up one set to music.

It's a hoot

I've just returned from my little trip to London for Owl Parliament, which was highly enjoyable. I think it may have been one of the most civilised gigs I have ever been to, being set in a beautiful old church, with pews to put your cups of tea on.



I was most excited about Darren Hayman's set, although I felt like I was the only one who really appreciated the presence of Jack Hayter, pedal steel guitarist and Ex-Hefner member. They played "We love the City", the lyrics of which always pop into my head when it takes two hours to get home to someone's house in London in the evening - "This is London, not Antarctica, so why don't the tubes run all night?" - I mean, even Hamburg can do it.

The Go Away Birds were lovely and had a pretty singer, Mariner's Children brought their entire families (including grandma), Jeremy Warmsley has grown a beard and started a new Band, Summercamp, with his girlfriend Elizabeth, Pete Roe sang some nice traditional folk/country.

The second half of the gig was somehow less convincing for me. Maybe I was getting tired, but the Blue Roses were sailing slightly too close to Enya territory for me, and Aidan Moffat was just plain offensive. I don't disapprove of songs about double penetration in principle (I am a big fan of the Hidden Cameras, after all), but when the lyrics are sexist and badly written Daily Mail style rants and the "songs" consist of sense- and tuneless autoharp strumming, I'd rather go off to have a drink for a bit, thanks.
I may have missed the point of Mount Eerie to some extent, but the stripped-down set (guy & guitar) of songs about wind (really, each one of them mentioned the wind) didn't excite me much. A lot of people seem to like them a lot though, so maybe I need to listen to the full band versions.
Headliner Emmy the Great didn't disappoint and delivered her sweet songs about Love & Death, as well as a slightly awkward Cover of Fight for this Love by "Cheryl Tweedy" with a very uncomfortable looking Darren Hayman - clip below.




In further twee news, we spotted Josie Long in the pub where we went for a drink after! She was doing a work-in-progress show.

Preparing for a bombing

That's YARN BOMBING, in case the FBI is going to start reading my blog now.



I've been planning this for about a year now, and the idea isn't really clever/witty enough to have survived this long - but I am stubborn.
Install and update tomorrow evening!

UPDATE:



Let's see how long it lasts until someone nicks it, bins it, or starts a City Council vote on whether it should stay.

UPDATE 2:

Well, in the morning, barely 10 hours later, it's gone. They must have someone patrolling the area with scissors, maybe there's a real problem with overzealous yarnbombing in this city that I'm not aware of.
Didn't think it would stay up that long but this was quicker than expected, meaning it didn't even achieve my one goal of cheering up a couple of people's walk to work.
Well, I'm not giving up now.