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.

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!