I got a bit excited this week and I've done 2 yarn bombs! I'm finding it hard to space them out! I didn't even yarn bomb the bomb that I intended to bomb this week.
I have until the Saturday of each week to do my yarn bomb, well at least that is my unwritten rule, and I have been dropping them midweek but this week's happened to be earlier so I had to drop a second one. Oh, what a shame! :P

On the weekend, my lovely neighbours had some ishooos with the rellies. I don't know the situation, nor would I post it here if I did but it sure seems like the poor buggers are copping some crap from their families, causing them heartache and quite possibly feelings of rejection which sucks because they are lovely people. Their little girl Chelle considers herself Nazeem's big sister and he adores her! She spends hours on end over here taking orders from him, building him cubbies, sharing meals and snacks with him and even, bless her, helping me toilet train him!
Chelle's Mum has shown an interest in my yarn bombing and last week commented, "Yarn bomb my house a few times then I can make a blankie .. Lol "
I always intended to yarn bomb their house at some stage during this challenge but now felt like the right time. I wanted to make them smile and to make them feel loved. I know, it sounds corny but it's absolutely true. I hate seeing people hurting. And this is what Yarn Bombing is all about for me...making people smile. <3

Chelle was over here entertaining Nazeem that very day (Monday) and while they watched tele, built numerous block towers, splashed in a tub of water outside in the thirty-something degree heat, I chrocheted up some love in all the colours of the rainbow!
Chelle admired the colourful hearts but despite being as impatient as I am, I held back from telling her they were destined for her front lawn!

Ho Hum, that night I waited for darkness to shield me from their eyes and at around 10pm I tiptoed across the lawn and sneakity-sneakily tied them in the tree which is in the middle of their front lawn. It took me quite some time...have you ever tried tying bows in the dark!? not easy!
As I do, I bombed like I was the only one on the planet. 'Did I hear the people across the road drive out of their driveway? Nah, couldn't have, I'm the only one on the planet!'

I had taken the above photo of the hearts lined up and posted only that photo on Facebook....
Before going to sleep I checked good old Facebook for any sign that I'd been sprung. Nup, all clear.
It seems that shortly after going to bed at midnight, I WAS in fact sprung! :P

Tuesday morning I woke to find comments and tagged posts on Facebook.

The Mrs half of my 'neighbours' had commented on my photo at 12:46am, " Bomb my house too .. Only a minute walk .. " Hehehe, she clearly hadn't read the previous comment in which I revealed that I had just bombed the neighbours but two minutes later at 12:48am when I assume she made the discovery, she commented "Oh you're a cheeky cherub ness ... Lol " 

Then I found this on my wall (or my 'timeline' as it is now called)

 "My gorgeous neighbour just yarn bombed me .. Nawwws xxx .. I'll be taking a piccy in the morning then bombing them into my house, before the kids in the court take them ... You made me laugh tonight thankyou you are a very special person .. Bless you xxx "

Naaaaaaaw <3 this made me well up. I don't know who got the bigger gift, her or me? :D 

And this is where they were re-bombed inside their house:

Week 4 Part 2 

Bombing the Boss! 

I made a flower in a hexagon shape on the weekend (or perhaps it was last week, I can't remember) and I thought, 'hey this would make a great coaster for under my Boss' mug on her desk'. But the coaster was green, orange,  turquoise and cream. I happen to know her favourite colour is purple. 

A few days later at work I noticed her mug...and guess what? It was a cream hand-decorated mug with orange, blue and green spots! :O 

Well....no need to make a purple one then, after-all, purple wouldn't match her mug! 

This morning I planted the bomb before she arrived at work. I would have filled her mug with coffee as well but she was an hour away so I settled for cleaning it and filled it with water :P 

She found me! And she knew it was me coz I don't hide the fact that I am a crochet nut! "I like it! I feel special," she said and she agreed that even though purple is her favourite colour, it wouldn't have matched. 

At the moment, at the beginning of my '52 week yarn bomb challenge' it seems so long between yarn bombs! I'm sure it will catch up with me and I'll soon be fretting the week is nearly over and I haven't even got an idea for a yarn bomb!! ...but not now, not yet, oh the ideas are flowing and I can't wait for the next week! Would it be okay to do two in one week, even two in one day? I already have my next yarn bomb beside me on the couch after tonight's bombing and possibly the one after that as well! I'm excitedly pinning ideas to Pinterest and I'm quite the hero at work where everyone is a little bit in awe of this yarn bombing phenomenon and at the new rebel in me! LOL It's all so exciting, I'm having an adrenaline rush right now! :P

Ahem...so, back to tonight's yarn bomb... here's where it began;
Earlier in the week I made a granny square and then another and another. I was thinking along the lines of bombing a traffic light pole at a large intersection near my home, with a sort of granny square...bangle {for lack of a better description}. But whilst taking my almost-3-year-old son Nazeem to the library, I spotted the perfect tree outside it and just quietly it was much easier to measure than a traffic light pole!

Now this library, I don't particularly like. Whenever I go there with Nazeem, it is always a pain. There are no toys there to keep him busy while I choose appropriate and relevant books for him. He's not even 3, he won't just sit there quietly while I do this. Instead he runs around, tries to climb book shelves, tries to escape out of the inappropriate-in-my-opinion automatic sliding doors, goes behind the counter, makes lots of noise, kicks the desk, that sort of thing. Seriously. Have some duplo blocks, some bean bags, some puzzles, some general Drs surgery type toy box, please!

Anyway, while inconsiderate Librarian No.1 shooshes Nazeem and tells him off for going behind the counter, I have my arms full of like a hundred books about potties and underpants. I dump them on the counter and inconsiderate Librarian No. 2 points out the self-service counter behind me which has a queue... In a 'yes but' kind of way I ask, "do I have to wait in the queue?" At which point she huffs and begins scanning my books. Geez anyone would think I had asked her to wipe my butt, I mean to expect a librarian to do her job and scan my books....sheesh!

Tonight, at the beautiful twilight hour of 9pm, I drove to that library after checking it's opening hours online to make sure it was closed. :P I park on the opposite side of the road and notice how suspiciously I am scanning for witnesses {hehehe}. There is one car parked at the library and the lights are on. I spot a cleaner, vacuuming inside. 'Ah well,' I think to myself, 'he's busy and he'll get a nice surprise when he comes out!'
 Needle and thread in teeth, scissors and camera down bra, granny squares in hand I head for my target. What a beautiful night, warm, twilight, quiet, peaceful....I'm practiced and quick this time and sew it up in a snap! I spent more time taking photos of it than I did sewing it up! There was no-one around, I felt no threat, I'm not convinced a single person saw me.... :)

Dear Librarians, 

a little HappiNess for you! 

ENJOY! :)

Inspired by a pole yarn bomb photo I saw at Yarn Corner on Facebook, I crocheted up a piece with a particular pole in mind. Around the corner from my house there is a bus stop on a main road that I drive past everyday. It's always crowded with people on their way to work or school and being a place I drive past everyday, I plotted I'd be able to see it, possibly see people's reactions and see how long before it was removed. 


I'm not much of a planner at heart so I kind of made up my piece as I went along, experimenting with colours, stitches, size and flower patterns. Here are some pics of the process:

                                               

I'm pleased with my final piece, even tho I reckon that flower pattern was dodgy. It didn't turn out like the the one in the picture attached to the pattern....and I tried twice, hence the double flower. Meh, it's unique! :P I also experimented with some curly bits for effect! 


Tonight after work, I said to my hubby, "I'm gonna go drop my Yarn Bomb tonight before it gets dark." 
"Don't get caught," was his interesting advice. Interesting because I never thought I was doing something wrong to be caught for! Who would catch me? Hmmm...


I gathered my tools and jumped into the car. Hook, Scissors, Needle, Yarn and my piece - At this stage I wasn't sure whether to crochet it to the pole or sew it.

As I parked in a side street, 20 meters from my target, my adrenaline rush began! I walked across the grass to the bus stop, noticing but trying to ignore passers by. I was going to get through this by pretending I was the only one on the planet at that particular moment! 
People walked by, cars drove past, hell, buses even pulled up! But I ignored them, smiling to myself I wrapped the piece around the pole and began to sew from the bottom up. (I quickly discovered that crocheting it to the pole was going to take too long and my hands were trembling ever so slightly)
It was perfectly snug on the pole. I had to stretch it to sew it but that's what you want apparently, for it to stay put and not slide down. I heard myself giggle out loud at the thought of passers by wondering what on earth this woman was doing. 


Done! 

Hehehe, I feel very cheeky! LOL I came home and burst into giggles! 
I drove past it twice before I came home and I can't wait to drive past it again tomorrow. I wonder how long it will stay there? ;) 


I'm not ready to leave a tag on my work yet but I left this small token...I don't know why, it just seemed right.. 

                          A little link to Yarn Corner's How To Guide on Yarn Bombing: freepdfhosting.com

I only learned to crochet about 6 months ago, with the help of my friends Kintara and YouTube! Sometime between then and now I became aware of the act of Yarn Bombing.

" Yarn bombing - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yarn bombing, yarnbombing, yarnstorming, guerrilla knitting, urban knitting or graffiti knitting is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colorful displays of knitted or crocheted cloth rather than paint or chalk." 

What an awesome concept! The thing that appeals to me most is the thought of people's reactions to the Yarn Bombs. I have never actually seen one myself but I imagine that if I saw one, and didn't know about Yarn Bombing, it would make me smile, lighten my mood, intrigue me and leave me wondering who? how? when? and why? Umm, I LOVE chochet and I am a bit of an artist at heart and I LOVE to make people smile! Why wouldn't I want to Yarn Bomb!? 
With Christmas out of the way and all my Christmas projects/gifts done and dusted I thought it must be time for me to drop my first Yarn Bomb! 


Here are some of my favourite Yarn Bomb pics: 

OMG How awesome are they!? Ok so I know some of them are HUGE and couldn't be done alone but I am starting small! 


So, whilst visiting Sydney with my friend Kintara, a fellow crocheter, I suggested we Yarn Bomb a park that we had planned to visit.  I created a garland of crochet flowers, made by myself and Kintara in different colours and we planned to wrap it around a tree branch or park bench. Something small to start off with ;) 
Unfortunately that day it rained and we stayed indoors but I really wanted to Bomb Sydney so Plan B was to leave it somewhere at Circular Quay....however....with train delays, public transport confusion, Hungry Jacks and a fire-alarm-water pouring out of the first floor of the train station-fire engines-kind of spaz going on...we forgot! LOL 


Once seated at the airport, waiting for our flight home, I found the garland in my bag just in time, for one last chance to drop our first Yarn Bomb, in Sydney! We looked around for somewhere to put it so that it would be easily seen but not removed too soon. Perfect! A 'switch off mobile phones' sign at gate 56! Not too many people were waiting at the gate yet and I, very impatiently, waited for a cleaner to disappear so I could strike! (LOL) And here it is, our first and humble Yarn Bomb!

Hehe! So proud, I took about a hundred photos and guess what else I captured, A smile, I saw a man smirk at our Bomb, and it was instantly worth it! :D 


In the car on the way home from the Airport, I was inspired by Kintara who has begun a 365 day Granny Square Challenge for 2012 (Read her blog grannysquarechic.blogspot.com ) I decided I would/will do a 52 week Yarn Bomb Challenge, of my own. I'm so excited! This has been week 1, WATCH THIS SPACE! <3