Can't you bomb something else?

No. I want to get them all. I think it would be really awesome if somehow my little town became known for having whimsical bike racks, in addition to the things we are already known for. Someone else is also decorating bike racks around here, which is super happy :)

So I was being all sketchy last night and doing my yarn bombing in the dark because I didn't have a chance during the day, and I put up these 2.

A latte brown one by the monster coffee chain


Purple-y black by the LCBO


Some drunk dude saw me and rambled at me about streetsareforpeople.org, and while that isn't exactly what yarn bombing is about I'm all for movement away from cars so it was appreciated. I guess making bike racks pretty encourages people to bike instead of drive? Not my intention but I like the idea!

And then today I put up a bee-inspired one by the health-food store, which was met with the comment 'That's a welcome improvement!' from a mother and her teenage son.

A whole bunch of bike rack bombing

Eventually I want to get all the bike racks uptown, but here are the most recent ones.

Another twin set by the Huether


By the post office, it matches the flowers!


By the bike shop



By the clock tower

Feeling the houndstooth

Couldn't really say why, but I'm really liking the houndstooth pattern for yarnbombs. Possibly because it's so easy to do while still looking interesting..

A tree by the library


A post by the Perimeter Institute. Maybe it will last long enough for Stephen Hawking to see it?

Expedition to Toronto

So on my way to Toronto yesterday I had to wait at the Greyhound station for a bit. I thought it was an excellent opportunity to yarnbomb a post outside my favouritest cafe ever ever ever, which happens to be about a block and a half away from the bus station.


Then, in Toronto after the rave we wandered around downtown for a while, and I tagged a couple bike racks (my favourite thing to yarnbomb).

This one is in Kensington market


And this one is in Grange park


The lighting is kind of bad because they were done in the wee hours of the morning.

Then this morning after the long ride home I stopped in the alley close to my house and put this one up. Because alleys need love too.


Last yarnbomb of the day was on my way into work I bombed the Bomber sign.

Crooked bike rack

I was wandering around uptown today looking for a good bike rack to yarnbomb, and I couldn't resist this one because it just looked like it needed love.

Dangle bombs?

So I went to Michael's today with some friends, and on our way out Zilliah thought it would be good to check the dumpsters. Because dumpster diving at Michael's is such an adventure. So we did, despite it being the middle of the day. And we scored! So much.
It sickens me how much perfectly good stuff they throw out... today it was all about the harvest-y floral deco crap. This stuff normally sells for so much money! No wonder box craft stores are so expensive, they have to recoup all the money they lose from throwing out stuff like this.


We got super excited about the balls, and turned them into 'dangle bombs' by poking holes into them and threading yarn through the holes and securing them with pony beads. Look how many we made! Rather, look how many they got rid of..


Our plan is to attach them to these overhanging beams in a rock garden on campus. We didn't do it today because the forecast called for thundershowers. We're not sure how well they're going to hold up when it rains, but hopefully they will make people happy for a few days at least when they first go up. They will look something like this:


In other news, I put up these twin yarnbombs outside an excellent independent videostore yesterday on my way back from craft night. This meant breaking my new rule about doing things during the day, but in this case it just made more sense to do it this way. I'd just finished them and had them in my bag, so I let convenience win. (came back today for the pictures though)

Another day, another yarnbomb... or three

I put up another yarnbomb this afternoon. It's on quite a busy one-way street, so I wonder how it will fare. In my act of vandalism I got 'caught' by a friend of one of my roommates. He promised not to rat me out to the police, which was nice of him.

Then I put this one up on a bike trail that leads into campus. A man stopped me and noted that he'd seen 'these things' around and asked what they were supposed to accomplish beyond whimsy, so I educated him a bit about the subject. I really ought to come up with some kind of shpiel to describe yarnbombs.

Lastly, when I got to campus I replaced the tag by the engineering building. I will be monitoring this one.

My daytime expeditions so far have taught me that it's pretty likely that someone will catch me in the act, and that as long as they don't wear uniforms they will probably think it's awesome.

Game on!

I went back to check up on (and photograph) the last few yarnbombs I put up - only to find that one of them had been taken down! Already! It had only been up for 5 days max. Disappointing.

This tree by the engineering buildings used to have a green band around its trunk. Now it is gone. I can only conclude that engineers don't appreciate yarnbombs... or that they hate neon green. Shed a tear and plan to replace it.

I also discovered that an older yarnbomb on campus had been taken down. That one survived for a couple months though, which isn't nearly as bad. I didn't take a picture of that pole because I figure one image of a failed yarnbomb is enough.

At least this one is still there. It is in the arts area. It's kind of out of the way, and maybe this will translate into a longer lifespan.

I really like trees as targets, because you don't run into the problem of the fabric scrunching up as much. The bark gives it good grip.



This yarnbomb was put up Friday afternoon and is on a sidestreet as it connects to a busy street uptown. Because of the earthy colours I think it's the kind of thing you wouldn't really notice unless you were on foot, or possibly if you were super observant. Here's hoping the cops that stopped me last week don't see it... it's only a couple blocks from where my police confrontation occurred. I don't think cops spend a whole lot of time on foot though.

Lastly, this is one I put up today. It is on campus, outside one of the Environmental Studies buildings. I like how it kind of blends into the colour of the beam. Sneaky.

Well, that concludes my recent knit vandalism adventures.

Stirring up trouble

On Wednesday, rather early Thursday morning, I was putting a massive yarnbomb on a telephone pole with a friend when a cop drove past us. He kept going for a few more feet, stopped for a minute, and then backed up. It was as if he was undecided about whether or not it was his job to stop me. I went over to talk to him and asked if anything was wrong. He questioned what I was doing. Unfortunately I used the word 'yarn bomb' instead of 'art project' (as I have since learned is a more strategic way of describing my action). He nodded and told me he knew what yarn bombing was, and said that the city was actually concerned about the 'mischievous' yarn bombing going on in the city. I explained that it was harmless and well-intentioned, but that I would be happy to take down my yarn bomb if he wanted me to. He said that I should, and that he'd come back in ten minutes to make sure that the pole was as cold and naked as it had been before it felt the warm and loving woolen hug I had offered it. Well maybe not quite in those words.
It was this experience that really motivated me to start this blog. I have yarnbombed quite a bit but this was the first time I have ever felt like I was doing something wrong. I typically like to do it at night, but I've decided that from now on I am going to do it in broad daylight so as to seem less sketchy.
I have since put up three yarnbombs in the middle of the day. All were a success. Only one attracted attention while I was doing it, and I ended up 'educating' a guy on campus about my favourite pass-time. There is something to be said about the light of day as a sketch-reducer.
I will try to take pictures and post them soon to make this blog more interesting.

Introduction

Hello reader,
I wonder if you exist at all. If you do, thank you for stopping by. Welcome to my blog. Regardless of if anyone reads this, I am going to use this page to keep track of my harmlessly sketchy expeditions, mostly yarn bombing adventures.

A bit about me: (in case you're interested)
I am a 23 year old student, living in Canada. I have been called a great number of things in my life to date, but one adjective that seems to keep reoccurring is 'sketchy'. I am just naturally a sketchbag. It's like, no matter what I am doing I am doing it in a sketchy way. At the same time, I consider a lot of the things I do to be quite wholesome. For example, I do my best to attend a weekly craft night hosted by one of my friends. I attend the knitters' guild meetings. I volunteer at Food Not Bombs. I bake cookies and bring them to raves. And, more than anything, I knit up my scrap yarn and attach the resulting shapes to chilly-looking posts, bike racks and trees - or yarn bomb, if you will.