Embracing the Bomb

For a long long long time I've wanted to do a wee bit of yarn bombing.

I so love a bit of yarn bombing and I think it is the perfect addition to our seaside town, which despite its location does need a bit of colouring up at times.

2012 is the year to embrace the bomb.

After a bit of a practice yarn bomb carried out with a fellow bomber on the tree on a friend's nature strip (doesn't everyone do a practice one first?) our bombing cherry was popped and we were ready for bigger and better things.

I have to admit I've had my big bomb planned for at least...ooh, a year. I think I came up with the idea sometime before last year's International Yarn Bombing Day (yes, there really is such a thing) but in my typical disorganised fashion, it didn't quite happen.

One rainy and dark night, myself and fellow bomber (who shall remain nameless for protection) with our 7 and 8 year olds in tow (it's a really good learning opportunity to experience stealth), descended on the local foreshore to bestow my piece of "art" on a local mermaid.

And doesn't she look happy with it, hey?

That beautiful crocheted bikini was quite a learning experience for me. I am one of the most uncoordinated crocheter in the world. Being a left hander who knits right handed doesn't help. Even my left handed crocheting is quite, um well, unique.  I've worked hard on my technique this year and while my crocheting is neat, seeing me crochet is not pretty and my technique does draw strange looks from real crocheters.  I akin my style to being a bit like a continental crocheter. It looks quite odd but it really really works for me.

So now after learning to read a crochet pattern, and a few other stitchy things to do with crochet; I can now crochet bikinis. Pretty handy really.

A month or two later, and the bikini is now gone. That's despite the fact that I did hand sew the ties together quite firmly.  That's a bit sad, but I guess that's the risk you take with bombing. 

I'm hoping that I'll see someone wearing it on the beach next summer. That way it will at least have gone to a good home.

I love the secrecy and just plain stupid fun of yarn bombing. This certainly won't be the last. We've planned a few other things, and have another friend who is desperate to pop her bombing cherry soon.

Wednesday ~ yarnalong

yoo hoo? is anyone out there?

Gosh, it has certainly been a long time since I blogged, and you know what? I really really miss it.

I really miss documenting the story of my creating, and I really miss the interaction with other bloggers. I'm still reading other blogs, but when you really aren't blogging the commenting bit sort of falls by the wayside too. They can't really come over to your blog to return the comment and say, "hey, get off your arse! You haven't updated for a month!" Well, they could. But most people are too polite to do that.

I promised myself numerous times that I would start regularly blogging again, then I get bogged down and stuck in trying to figure out where to start when trying to catch up! Do I do one big post? Or separate posts? What have I missed?  And then the cycle starts all over again.

I need a push or a time to regularly blog to help me on my way. And then I stumbled across yarnalong on a fellow yarnie's blog, and that I decided was going to be my impetus.

So the idea of yarnalong is that each Wednesday you blog about what you're crafting up with yarn and also reading. Visit the main blog and leave your linky and then you'll get lots of lovely encouragement to finish what you're working on. Cool, hey?  

So for me, my crafting this last week has been a bit of desperate knitting as I work on a couple of secret designs with a looming deadline.  Because they're secret, I can't show you them, but I can show you a  peep of a few other things I'm working on. 

I'm in one of those situations where I have five garments on my needles, which yes, can be a tad confusing at times....particularly when four of those garments are patterns in development. I'm really not sure where my mind is at at the moment but nevermind!

So my (main) yarny working basket is looking a wee bit overloaded and like this:

The red garment is the one that I am desperately wanting to be working on and going back to when I can. I took it to knitting knit this week as my secret ones can't be seen in public.

It's knit in Red Ridinghood Yarns 8ply Superwash, in the 'Ruby Slippers', colourway.

Lily has given it the name "Bollard".  The bollards in Geelong are her favourite place ever, so that's the link... tenuous but that's ok. It may change yet, very very possibly to be honest!

Close up it looks a bit like this:

And my reading matter this week, as you can see, has been Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee's 'All Wound Up'. 

A nice easy amusing read for the end of the day to send me off to sleep. 

Pop on over to the Small things blog to join in or see other what other yarnies are up to this week!

(psst, I'm a bit early at the moment as I'm in the Southern Hemisphere and blogging while I have some time rather than trying to squeeze it in tonight when it's Wednesday in the NH.