Bad tags

One bit of urban crochet I don’t like is making the tags to go on it. Partly that I feel it makes the work less attractive, partly it takes away from giving something freely without wanting (attention for) something in return, but partly that I am clumsy doing it and don’t feel I have the right equipment or abilities. I simply print out a pattern and caption from the computer, trim it to size, wind it round with sellotape, and then punch a hole in it. Am pleased that I now have home paper-slicer to trim with, but I’m not always convinced the printing comes out parallel to the edges of the paper anyway, so it’s always a struggle; plus the sellotape (even though I have a handy way of slicing the corners off that seals the tag in) gets wrinkly, leaves stripes, and includes fluff and also my fingerprints (!). Compared to the beautiful sewn tags I’ve seen pictures of, or even the professionally designed and laminated card tags, I find mine a bit shoddy, and am just hoping people will see that as home-grown and charming… hmm.

I should really get and design a tag nicely and get it printed out and laminated at a shop – but that involves three stumbling blocks: (1) having a good design program and knowing how to use it (2) giving my name and address to a copy shop! (3) deciding on a design once-and-for-all and using it for every piece that comes along. At the moment, as you can see, I use a fresh tag for each piece, and here I used a little picture of the Laing piece before it was put up. All I really want is that people can look up the website(s) if they want and find out more information (rather than the piece being another meaningless thing in the landscape). Here I’ve linked both my blog (on the flowers I made) plus the Spinning Yarns group (on all three tags), so that people can find whatever is most immediately relevant. They all link to each other as well if someone pursues far enough. And Y hopes that we might possibly get a new member or two for the crew if a likely one spots it.

 

 

 

Flowers for Eostre

Y from the Spinning Yarns crew had the idea to make some spring flowers and decorate a tree outside the Laing Art Gallery. Today was the day it launched! We’d had a nice drink and cake in the cafe on Thursday, and I had filched some of her pretty pink flowers to make an extra chain. When I arrived she’d already decorated one tree, which looked cute but in need of more. So after a sit in the kiddies’ play area, where I hurriedly put together a few of the spare flowers, we went out and did it – a very public get-up where it definitely felt better to have two of us working on it as it made it look kind of official! – we were almost on the art gallery property, looking artsy, but not quite!

We’d been having an interesting discussion about whether you feel attached to your work when you think about the prospect of leaving it behind. I have flashes of this, usually when I’m finishing something off, and when I start to walk away from it (so I make sure I give it a good pat before I leave!). I think the trick is to not get used to having it – the few things I’ve started to make use of I can’t now seem to use as tags – and (as a Buddhist) it’s also an exercise in watching my own attachment and being compassionate with myself about letting things go. But also seeing the piece up there, and taking the photos, and showing them to you, is an alternative source of ‘having’ and sharing.

These are the assorted flowers I made myself, trying out various patterns including a simple little one with a round of dcs and then some 3-ch loops, this slightly bigger one where the petals came out a bit square (orange flower in the middle), some adaptations of my own design (white frilly top flower and more hexagonal pale one top right), and the big ‘Hawaiian flowers’ on the right, where I was reassured you could use fantastically contrasting colours. The fancy layered one in the middle was adapted from Jan Eaton’s book 200 Crochet Blocks, but without the square – you have to work one set of petals, break off, and then add chain loops across the back to start the next round.

I had been worrying slightly that my work tended towards the slightly garish :-) compared to Y’s work which is almost plausible as matching flowers growing out of the same tree! But in the event both found their natural home – at the last moment I decided to put mine round the railing, partly cos I like to do railings but also so that it will draw the eye of passers-by in the street and hopefully make them look up and around and see the trees. There’s something about railings that is pleasingly geometrical, but also something annoying that says ‘you shan’t’ (cross the street where it’s most convenient) and yarn-bombing them says ‘we shall’ (do something spontaneous and freely creative), with a softening and gently anarchic effect.

Here is where the whole installation stands – with a good view from down the busy New Bridge Street as well as from footfall in various directions. It is pleasingly to see we also have a plaque for excellence underneath You can see more of the details on the flickr set: guerrilla crochet 2. Big shout out to Y and hope we can work together again before long! (though her serious afghan and my bro-in-laws gloves are also calling….)

Maternal decorations

On Boxing Day I got a worried phone call from my brother-in-law, saying my mother’s operation had not gone too well; and we knew it meant I would probably have to travel the 300 miles to see her, as it was touch-and-go. We left in a hurry the next morning, but not without my crochet and knitting kit, which was a key part of my sanity-retention strategy over the next few days (even though it took up a large (pointy) space in my minimal luggage).

I had been given a large ball of burgundy wool at Xmas, and thought it would be nice to make a simple hat for the monk I sponsor in India, as it is the main uniform colour that monks of the Gelug tradition are allowed to wear. Well after a few rounds of k2p2, I decided it was much the wrong size, and went on to cast off and use it as a tag. As a delightful bonus I was able to salvage some turquoise plastic beads that used to belong to my Nan that were inside a load of stuff in my Mum’s craft stool. Left the house one morning early and prowled around what used to be my home-town looking for sites. Where better than outside the central parish church where I used to sing in the choir. It’s on a corner with several roads and paths coming at it, so I needed to do some awkward lurking before I started, but the lady with several dogs had more to worry about than me.

With my limited colour supply (leftover pink and Xmas burgundy) I wanted to leave something for my mum to see when she got home from hospital; we had discussed tagging her outside handrail, but had both been surprised to realise she didn’t have one! The tree on the green outside was out of my reach, but the shiny green wheelie bin wasn’t so it got a mixture of * 1 ch, 1 dc in gap * which stacks up nicely, with a little flower whose exact recipe I forget but after a dc ring its second round was something like * 3 ch, ss * to make the petals.

As it turned out, it was some time before my mum got home from the hospital and saw the tag – but it gave her a lift when she did.

Unseasonal greetings

Dear all! I am having a new burst of knitbombing activity and enthusiasm, partly because it’s the first bit of spare time I’ve had this year, and partly because people are again showing an interest in my activities (maybe it’s a springly thing, or has become so since the science festival enlisted our naughty help). So these pics are to catch you up with my last burst of woolly mischief, which took place in December when I last had a few days of sitting on my bum and watching telly enough that some decent crocheting could take place!

My lovely boyfriend T got me some colourful yarn for Xmas (along with other things!), so I leapt into action trying it out. I wanted to tag some tempting posts in a cut-through in Fenham, because I know my crewmate Y lives round there and would enjoy seeing them. So I went for a now-traditional vertical railing-wrap, with extended i-cordy loops, and a frilly skirt for a fat juicy lamppost. My favourite bright orange alternated with stripes of burgundy and some contrasting leftovers.

The lamppost-skirt used the same classy burgundy and orange combo, but with a crocheted frill of fun yarn I’d invested in to give that textural edge. The body of the piece was done in knitting (unusually for me lately) – using a pattern of * knit 3 rows, purl 1 row * that knits up quickly, balances speed with variety, and doesn’t curl too much; odd I’ve never seen this so-simple stitch pattern referenced, but had to think of it myself.

The cut-through in Fenham is a bit of a dodgy gangway where kids from the nearby school hang out and look shifty, so I guess I felt what I was doing was both matchingly subversive and redemptively decorative. It’s a nice walkway with trees.

The lamppost frill found a new home somewhere pretty quickly… but the railing wrap has survived; despite apparently being burnt, and the top part removed, the detractors have succeeded only in sealing the black round and making it weatherproof! It is hanging in there

Here are the URLs for these pieces on Flickr (with alternative photos of them). http://www.flickr.com/photos/slipk2not/7035839605/in/set-72157629352010186
http://www.flickr.com/photos/slipk2not/6890039562/in/set-72157629352010186/
If you go to these pages and then click on the little map on the right-hand side, it will show you exactly where the pieces got placed

Share and enjoy

Exciting news! I have branched out onto flickr, as I wanted more people to find my stuff and look at the blog so on flickr I can tag it with labels such as ‘guerilla crochet’ or ‘knitbombing’ and then those who search there for pictures may find mine and come here to read about it. That’s the idea anyway. Also that it has the exciting feature of geographical placement – so if you see a tag here and want to go and visit it (or pay homage at the spot it used to be) you can find it on the flickr site and view its location. (From Scarborough to Auckland!). Just click on the picture of the tag you’re looking for in my flickr collection, click on the map in the top right, and then you can zoom in or out to find the place. Whoop! (There is also an enticing map of the world if you prefer the bigger picture. Drag it around, and/or double-click to zoom in.)

I have also commandeered the domain name ‘slipk2not.com’, as it will be easier to write on tags, so if you can’t remember the ‘wordpress’ bit or what order it comes in (as I sometimes can’t!) it will be easier to find.

Further exciting news! an academic knitologist has contacted me wanting to chat about my experience of craft tagging, and her project sounds really interesting. This development has inspired me to get my shop front together and sort out the above. So you should be getting some more pretty posts in the next day or few.

Spinning Yarns crew are planning a flowerbomb in the city centre for starters….

Durham light and yarn show

We were going to Durham to have a romantic walk by the river, and see the Lumiere show, and T always gets excited about the prospect of tagging another location, so I quickly knocked up a two-colour (Christmassy?) taglet in the * 1tr into tr, 1 ch, miss 1tr, rep from * that is a quick way to cover ground and still splash colour.

I’d made it 5-6 inches round, with the aim of looking out for a generic banister or sapling to decorate. We walked down by the river, and back up the other side, but most of the saplings were down a steep bank, so I didn’t risk my neck. There were coloured floodlights pointing up at the trees in preparation for the evening’s light show, but I didn’t want to tag any equipment that would get taken away in a couple of days’ time. This banister in a peaceful location just down the steps from Bella Italia did the trick. I like the way that the red and green are exaggerations of the colours in the autumnal landscape.

Here you can see the location in context. I’m no photographer, but I like the way the girls walking by conveniently blurred themselves, making the tag and house look like the more timeless features of the landscape. I’ve also got a lovely shot of T standing next to here, but to preserve our anonymity I’ll keep it for myself! After this the evening went downhill a bit: packed-in crowds waiting for the Lumiere had nothing to do as we hadn’t been told the start time was 6:30 and consequently got shooed away from the Cathedral. Trying to eat dinner at 4 pm is generally a safe bet, but all restaurants were booked, as the Lumierists coincided with pre-Christmas shoppers needing a sit.

The bridge we walked across did become a lovely rainbow later on in the evening – but better than this was that when we crossed it and looked for somewhere to tag, I found that there was already a gorgeous chenilley scarf tied lavishly around a lamppost! Was it guerilla knitting? It was the perfect place! And it might be doubted (and be, for example, a lost scarf) except that the opposite lamppost had a tiny strip of silky ribbon tied round it too. Shout out to the fabric artist who got there first! Hope she passes back along and sees my tag as well