This week, I finally got my tags printed and laminated so now I can tag my work! Wooot! So, I made this week's piece using the colours of my tag and blog to kick start my tagging. :D

I started making a random granny square using just the colours, without too much planning in mind for what it would become and where it would end up. I Double Crocheted (US terms) a round of each colour. I got to the purple and thought it needed more of the blue, so I added 3 more rounds of the blue and Ooooooooooh, I could do an orange scalloped edge with a red Single Crochet finish! 

We went away for the weekend to stay in Blairgowrie.

 Blairgowrie is located on a thin strip of the Mornington Peninsula, facing Port Phillip Bay in the north and Bass Strait in the south, nestled between the popular beach resorts of Rye and Sorrento. (http://www.travelvictoria.com.au/blairgowrie/)

... A friend loaned us a holiday house there, to stay in for a few nights. On the way there (an hour drive) I finished off the piece and proudly attached the tag. :)

Yesterday on the way home, I informed my Hubby. "We have to stop somewhere so I can put this up, I have to leave this here in Blairgowrie." I was thinking of a pole, not too thin but not too fat and crisscrossing the yarn around the back to attach it. I wanted to put it near the shops somewhere but unfortunately it was wherever dear husband felt like stopping the car. :P Not too far down the road from the beach house, he spotted some 1/2 height wooden poles just the right thickness for my bomb and pulled over. "Why not!?" I said and jumped out of the car, needle and LONG thread already attached to the piece.
The awesome thing is, that because I wasn't alone this time, I now have photos of me installing it! :D
Kamran snapped the photos and said to Nazeem (3) in the backseat, "Mummy's a hippy Nazeem." lol






















Excuse the ridiculous attire! I don't usually wear leggings with short tops! lol. I was dressed comfy for the trip home, and forgot that I'd be getting out of the car for this! :P But here I am stringing it up!

Cars were driving past left, right and center but I realised yarn bombing had become normal for me and no longer had an adrenaline rush attached. Still fun none the less! I heard Kamran turn the car off at some point too, must have been taking too long. Hehehe.
Before I was done, I went back to the car for my scissors to cut off the excess yarn. I then brought the scissors back to the car and said to Kamran. "One minute, I just have to tie the extra yarn somewhere...It's sort of become my trademark." I hadn't thought about it before that moment but I'd done it once before and it just seemed right!

There! Done! See how it compliments the tag!? ;)

Guess who else is becoming used to my yarn bombing? My son. "Wow Mummy, So beautiful," he said when I got back in the car. :D

Forgive me followers for I have sinned. It's been 13 days since my last yarn bomb! (9 days since it's corresponding blog post) :P Well actually I am not late with this yarn bomb and post, my previous bombs have been early, so I had a little time up my sleeve ;) 
This yarn bomb has been in the making for a while. Not because it's taken me that long to make but because I have so many ideas for these bombs that I just work away at them, play around with hooks and yarn for a while and sometimes have trouble deciding which one to do, when! 
So I have been playing around with this one for a while but chose it for this week's yarn bomb and finished it off today. 



The suburb I live in has a lot of these hydrant taps around. 

Not sure why there are so many of them but I have never noticed them (or at least this type) anywhere else. This particular one appealed to me though because of it's location in the middle of a shopping precinct, it's bright red paint and the vibrant colour of the the shrub beneath. However, it was screaming out for something else! :P 
I can't remember when the idea first came to me but at some point I decided I wanted to crochet water droplets and hang them from it. 


You know, there is a bit of a process to this yarn bombing gig. I took this photo about a month ago when I was driving around town looking for ideas of things to yarn bomb. 
First: you find an object to yarn bomb. ie hydrant.
Second: you decide what to bomb it with. ie crochet water drops.
Third: you measure your object (yes you have to actually go and measure before you make!!) and find out how to make said yarn bomb. ie look up patterns or develop your own.
Fourth: you make the bomb (and this could take several evenings, lunch breaks and so on and so forth) 
Fifth: you drop the bomb, aka installation.
And for me there is a Sixth step which is blogging about it. 
This is why one 'yarn bomb' can span several weeks from beginning to end. Which brings me to the realisation that there is also a Seventh step: you drive past it several times a week 'til it's no longer there! I LOVE that bit! 


Three of my 7 yarn bombs are still where they were installed {including today's} Two were installed in places I am not able to see again {airport and train} so I don't know if they are still there. And two were taken down {library and my neighbour's tree} I'm so stoked each time I see the ones that are still up. The bus stop one, my 2nd ever yarn bomb is still there 6 weeks later, even though the bus shelter itself was recently removed!!! Makes me smile every time I drive past it. I hope it makes someone new smile each day!


Anyway, getting back to this weeks yarn bomb....here it is

I went and measured this one day (Third step) so that I could make the red ring which the drops are attached to. I decided on fishing line to attach the drops rather than using yarn so that  it did not distort the shape of the drops at all. 
Hehe, I'm very happy with it and you know what? I consider this one original and a work of art. 
This one is not about making a dull object beautiful and it doesn't say anything much other than water comes out of taps lol but it is "the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others." Britannica Online.

Here's a pic of it before installation for a better understanding of the piece itself. 

*Dedicated to Yvette* Thanks for your comment on last week's post. ;) 

Uh oh! I'm losing motivation....but not for the yarn bombing itself, for the blogging! I like sharing my yarn bombing adventures but I think the trouble is that I don't know if anyone is actually reading about it. I need you to comment so I know you have been and you're following. :) ...hmm, seems like the blog post a week is more of a challenge than the actual yarn bombing. It's taken me 5 days to blog this week's bomb! ....I'm probably still coming down from the high of it!

On Sunday I caught a train to the city to meet up with the lovely Yarn Corner Community (a 'collective of yarn bombing artists'). I had put dibs on a couple of free 'learn to yarn bomb' kits for my interested friends and had volunteered to collect them for them at the meet. I had wanted to go anyway but being in the city, I probably would have talked myself out of it had I not volunteered to pick up the kits. I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed it. Sitting around a big table in a hippy-esque cafe with 15 or so other women, all crocheting/knitting, chatting and dining together, what could be better? I had to giggle; when I approached the cafe, I couldn't see the sign to identify it, but it turned out I didn't need to because through the door, the first thing I got was a face full of yarn which was piled 2 ft high on the nearest table! :P

I hadn't planned to yarn bomb this day. After leaving the meet I got on the train, as you do, sat down to continue where I had left off with my crochet and had a massive light bulb moment. *gasp* 'I'll yarn bomb the train while I'm sitting here!'
I knew I had almost an hour, surely that was plenty of time to whip something up....a cosy hand grip for one of the poles, and oh, the colour of the yarn I had with me, happened to match the seat upholstery perfectly!

Adrenaline started to flow. I measured the pole first, from my seat... I don't know if anyone was watching me do this, I didn't pay any attention but I did imagine what one might think if they saw me - must have thought I was a nutcase! The train wasn't packed by any stretch of the imagination, it was probably at an 8th capacity.
I began to crochet like a bat out of hell (coz bats crochet) and the adrenaline was pumping. I had the speed wobbles! I was probably sweating and looking like a mad woman! All I would have had to do was rock back and forth and talk to myself and I would have completed the picture! LOL
I imagined myself sewing it up on the pole and bolting out the doors of the train at my station, making it just in time. That wasn't far wrong, about 2 minutes from it....

I wasn't watching the clock, I was watching the stations to try and gauge how much time I had left. Once I had finished a rectangular piece, a little more than palm width, I felt I had time to make a decoration for it. I decided against a flower, as I've already done a pole-cosy with a flower on it in week 2. Instead I decided on a star and thought I'd sew it on applique style. I tried to remember how to make a star from a ring of 20 double crochets, but as I went, I discovered that I wasn't spacing the points out far enough and ended up with about 6 points instead of 5 and being too close together they were all gathered up. In the end I'd made a pointy-petaled flower rather than a star, but there was no time to redo it so it had to suffice. In fact there was hardly time to sew it onto the cosy. I trembled from adrenaline as I worked, fretting that I wouldn't get it done in time!!! 'QUICK hands, work faster!!!' My heart was racing and I pathetically sewed the star-come-flower on. I didn't even sew in the yarn end, just hoped it would be hidden!

One and a half stops from my station, I whipped it up onto the pole and began furiously sewing up! I was aware of 2 or 3 people watching and smirked nervously but once again pretended they weren't there and kept going. I tied it off, stuffed all my things into my bags and leaped up towards the doors. Embarrassingly we weren't quite as close to my station as I had thought and I had to stand there and be stared at for about 2 minutes {although it seemed like 20!}
Another lady got up and stood by the same door. "That looks nice there," she said. I just smiled. "How long have you been doing it?" she asked, to which I replied,
 "Which? Crocheting or Yarn Bombing?" {hehehehe}

{this is my unsuccessful attempt to capture a pic of it from outside the train}

An hour long adrenaline rush left me with a stomach ache! LOL ah the things we do for a smile! ;)

Gosh I am busy this week! My son's 3rd Birthday Party is on the weekend and I have been making decorations for the big day. I haven't picked up a crochet hook for over a week but...luckily...I already had my piece ready to go for this week! :D I had it ready a couple of weeks ago in fact but I knew it was going to be a tricky one to install. PLUS, I couldn't decide where to drop this particular bomb! I knew I wanted to bomb a Kindergarten with this piece but I had 2 Kinders in mind to choose from. And I don't do well with choices!

This piece is a spider web, aka a doily which, when installed, is meant to look like a spider web. {I played around with the idea of crocheting or sewing a spider onto the web but I was pretty sure about my feeling that I preferred it without. It just seemed more serious and more beautiful with a bit of mystery involved and I can't say why, but I felt rather strongly about that.}
The Kinder near my house, has a fence about 3 feet high which is made of wooden planks - three planks that run horizontally with space between. Installing the spider web on this fence would require some drawing pins to attach the strands to. (Does any of this make sense?)
The Kinder near my work, has cyclone fencing which would be much easier for me to attach the strands to. The girls at work have been suggesting objects and places for me to bomb, near work so they can see.
Regardless of all things to consider, what was the deciding factor in the end was merely, being in the right place at the right time...

On Tuesday night, I planned to go at twilight and bomb the Kinder near home. But I got busy with birthday biz and left it too late. I knew it would take some time to string up and I didn't want to get stuck in the dark with no witnesses about in case some thugs rocked up and bashed the living daylights out of me for my yarn! :P So I took it to work the next day thinking I might get a chance to drop it on my lunch break at the Kindy around the corner from there {the one with the cyclone fencing} And that's just what I did!

I asked one of my colleagues, Ms Taryn to come with me as I thought I might need some help but aside from that little fact, I would be bombing in broad daylight so I just didn't want to be alone!
We walked around the premises suspiciously {or not, but it adds and element of suspense!} looking for the right spot for maximum visibility. Once decided, I got to work as tho I had been paid to do so, ya know, like I do this every week ;)
It was still School Holidays on Tuesday and I don't think Kinders are open on School hols so I didn't know anyone was there...

I strung up my Spider web in a trial and error, work-it-out-as-you-go kind of way....I'm not sure I like the result but that's the artist within, being my harshest critic I suppose. I'll tell you why after some pics...

..because it looks like a star! the strands turned out in the shape of a star, and then there is one random strand sticking up the top, where I started, that doesn't fit in with the rest of the strands. I wanted one strand coming from each of the points because that's how spider webs are made, but it was easier said than done. I was on my lunch break too and was running out of time. I LOVE however, how the doily itself looks with the points stretched out like that. This part of it is exactly how I imagined it should be. So generally, I do like it and you know what? No-one else knows {well except you} that it's not exactly as I'd envisioned it. :D

That's not the end of the story though... A friend of mine who happens to live in the same town as this Kindy,  informed me that her daughter attended there just last year. She recognised it in the photo that I put on facebook and happened to be 'friends' with the Kinder Teacher on Facebook! So she tagged her in the photo, and this is what, to my delight, she had to say:
"l am one of the kinder teachers from that preschool. Saw you finishing it up yesterday- thanks for the donation. We had no idea what the heck you were doing or why. I was driving home thinking this is going to get some talk happening. Thanks!"

There is a reason I wanted to drop this bomb at a Kindergarten, and that is to enchant and delight the children. :D

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