Tree Stones [San Diego, CA]

I found some beautiful patterns for Doily Pebbles by "A la Sascha" on the Internet and decided to try them out on stones I collected at the Pinary Park at Lake Huron, Canada. For one of those stones I had already come up with a pattern myself and I had left that stone at the Niagara Falls (see my post "Niagara Stone") but there were three more left which I hadn't touched yet.

Unfortunately, my stones turned out to be much too small for Sascha's patterns so that I had to modify the instructions quite a bit. Nevertheless, they turned out very nicely!

I left them hanging on a small tree or bush in a giant flowerpot in San Diego, CA. The pot stood on a street corner in Little Italy which seemed to be a town quarter with life, love and creativity.
Although it is quite hard to notice the small stones in the tree when walking by, I hope once in a while there will be someone with open eyes coming by and maybe smiling when seeing the small pebbles in the branches.

[See this project on Ravelry]

Brower's Belt [Brooklyn, New York]

I found the pattern of this "belt" in a book about crocheting and since I wanted to practice that skill, I decided to try it out. The result looked completely different from the picture in the book but I guess (or hope) that it was rather due to the very different yarn I used than my poor crochet skills ;-) But in the end, I still liked it!

I found a nice place for it in Brooklyn, New York, in a park close to where I stayed. I didn't have much time for looking around and finding a perfect spot, but the place turned out be actually pretty nice. Kids were playing basketball close by, people walked their dogs and others were just hanging out on the benches there. Sometimes that's just all you need.

Lost Flowers [Montreal, Canada]

This knitting I had lying at home for quite a while. It is the result of using up remnants of wool by trying out all kinds of different patterns and simply sewing them all together at the end. Adding a few crocheted flowers made it look a little nicer ;-)



I had it with me when I went to Leuven, Belgium, but I couldn't find an appropriate spot where it fit around, so instead I left my knitting "Jacobsester" there. Across the atlantic ocean then, I found a very nice place for it in Montreal, Quebec. It is hanging at a public place where also a public piano is standing. When I was there, a woman was playing the instrument and the place was filled with a wonderful atmosphere which I found to be perfect for my yarn bombing.

As Montreal is full of all kinds of yarn bombings, also at the place where I left the "Lost Flowers" other knittings were hanging. Some of them had names and years on them. I first assumed that they gave hints about who made and left them there. Only later I found out, that these names depict women from the area around Montreal who were killed or are missing (for more detailed information read my previous post). This led me to give my own knitting the name "Lost Flowers".

KNIT ART FOUND in Montreal

Montreal presented itself to me as a vivid artistic town full of beautiful surprises. Among these were of course many yarn bombings. As we were biking through the city, I didn't take pictures of all the knittings I saw. Nevertheless, there are some which I like to mention here for a few reasons: 1) they are very close to where I left my own knitting "Lost Flowers", 2) because of reason 1 I had my camera with me and time to take pictures of them, and 3) their meanings became clear to me only afterwards which then quite impressed me: All knittings (except of one) show the names of either dead or missing women. You can imagine how weird I started feeling about this, after I had found out.

The first knitting which caught my eye after I had put up my own one, had the words "R.I.P GLADYS TOLLEY" on it. Apparently, Gladys Tolley was an Algonquin woman hit by a police car in 2001, as you can read here. According to her daughter, Bridget Tolley, the circumstances of her mother's killing had not been investigated properly and at least until 2011 she was still fighting to seek justice in that matter. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any information if she has been successful by now.

On another pole, two knittings were hanging on top of each other showing "SHANNON ALEXANDER 2008" and "MAISY ODJICK 2008". As the two knittings are tied to the same location, so are the fates of the two girls mentioned on the knittings tied together: On the evening of September 6, 2008, the two friends headed out to a dance and were never seen again since. Interestingly, the girls were also from the Kitiban Zibi Reserve in Quebec, as was Gladys Tolley.

A third knitting tells an even more horrible story: "STACEY DIABO", a young woman from Kahnawake, also a reserve in Quebec, was killed by Alexis Delisle in 2003. However, Delisle has been acquitted of murder: After threatening Delisle several times because Delisle was seeing Diabo's ex-boyfriend, Diabo managed to gain access to Delisle's house at 4 p.m. in the morning, being drunk and accompanied by a friend, who faught with Delisle's mother

outside the house and vandalized her car in the meantime. In self-defense, Delisle stabbed Diabo with a knife.

This knitting seems definitely to be created by the same person as the first one, when comparing the way of knitting, the stitches of the letters and the decoration. But considering the background stories, I suppose all these yarn bombings were made by the same person or group. However, a fifth knitting at the same place might be from someone else: A plain sleeve around a tree, without any words or decoration. It had slid down, so I pulled it back up again. It was made out of thick yarn and must have hung there already for quite some time, considering that the seam has started to get loose and how stiff it was when I put it back in shape.

So if anyone of you out there knows who made these knittings or has any other information about them, tell me because I would be very interested to know! Write a comment or send me an email (see information on the right side). Thank you! :-)

Coral Crochet [Kingston, Canada]

I found an interesting website on the internet explaining how to crochet hyperbolic planes. Even if you might not be interested in the mathematical background, you might find the models they made quite interesting and beautiful. In fact, they were used to create crocheted coral reefs which are amazing and astonishing pieces of creativity and handcraft. Inspired by this, I made my own personal coral.


I left it in a park in Kingston, Ontario, on a knobby pine tree lying on the ground and stretching out its branches like arms into the air. So instead of needing to dive into the sea, it is now possible to climb on a tree and discover a coral ;-)

Niagara Stone [Niagara Falls, Canada]

Haven't yarn bombed in a while, I decided to do a spontaneous one: On the way to pay the Niagara Falls a visit, I crocheted around a stone which I had picked up at the beach in the Pinery Park at Lake Huron. It was only supposed to be a try out, but as it turned out quite well, I decided to leave it at a nice place at the Niagara Falls.



It wasn't hard to find an appropriate location which I liked: I just tied it around the railing next to the Niagara Falls, where all the people stand to take a look at the falls. From there, the stone has a beautiful view on the falling water and also many people pass by this place everyday. I wonder how many people actually spot this tiny piece of art next to the spectacular natural phenomenon..? ;-)

News from Jacobsester [Leuven, Belgium]

News from Leuven, Belgium: "Jacobsester" is doing fine!

Thanks to AH for keeping me updated every once in a while about "Jacobsester's" condition. :-) This time I even received some pictures :-)



If anyone of you finds one of my knittings, always feel free to tell me about how it's doing or even send me a picture: kakuglaknit@gmail.com

Thank you!!

News from Schneeflocken [Göttingen, Germany]

As I wrote in my last post, one of my two knittings in Göttingen, "Jakobsstern", had been removed.

But there are also good news from Göttingen: JM sent me a picture of my other knitting "Schneeflocken" which is still hanging. A little dirty and worn out, but still alive! :-)

Thanks for sharing that picture with me! :-)

If anyone else of you out there finds one of my knittings and has some information about their condition or even took a picture, it would be great if you would share these with me! Post a comment or send me an email to kakuglaknit@gmail.com ! Thanks!

Jakobsstern is gone! [Göttingen, Germany ]

Sad news: According to information I received recently, "Jakobsstern" which I left on a sculpture of St Jacob in Göttingen has been removed.

It's a pity, on the one hand, since I invested quite some time and energy to create a piece which fit to that location and now it's just gone. But on the other hand, that's just the risk which comes with leaving knit graffitis in a public place. As well as I have the freedom to put a knitting somewhere, at the same time, anybody else has the freedom to take it away again ;-)

Granny squares for YBLA [Los Angeles, CA]

Yarn Bombing Los Angeles (YBLA), a group of guerilla knitters, have been invited to cover the facade of the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles with thousands of small granny squares. To realize this huge project, they asked for help on their website: Everybody is invited to make and send them 5" x 5" granny squares!

As I was amazed by this idea, I decided to participate. Unfortunately, crocheting had never been my favourite kind of craft and therefore I had completely forgotten how to do it. Luckily, the group provided a link to a youtube video tutorial on their website which helped me getting started. I have to admit, at the beginning I swore a lot, but thanks to a very good book about crocheting I still had sitting on my bookshelf, I actually started to enjoy it. I think I will include some crocheted stuff in my own future yarn bombing projects soon!

Also, this was an opportunity to use up very thin yarn I still had lying around which isn't very suited for knitting. In total, I managed to crochet four different granny squares. And since I soon got bored by using just one color for a square (which was asked by YBLA) I decided to "pimp up" one of them by using also some fluffy yellow yarn.

YBLA will accept granny squares sent to them until March 1 this year, so why don't you take the opportunity to participate in this great project as well? :-)

KNIT ART FOUND in Leuven

Before I left my own tag "Jacobsester" in Leuven, a friend of mine showed me a yarn bombing she had found there earlier. Sewn on a gate located at an entry to stairs leading up a pathway, there were two colorful knittings. Apparently, they were not in the best condition anymore and my friend said there had been some kind of fish attached to one of them before which was unfortunately gone now. Still a beautiful little flower was left.

A lace was attached to the right one; I guess that was were a label about the artist had been. If anyone knows who left these knittings there, please don't hesitate to write a comment! Thanks :-)

Jacobsester [Leuven, Belgium]

It's already a few weeks ago since I found a nice place where I could put up "Jakobsstern's" older sibling. As you might remember from one of my last posts, I knitted a tag for a sculpture of St Jacob in Göttingen, Germany, but then decided not to leave it there, since I thought it was too big. Instead, I made a new, smaller one, "Jakobsstern".

Now I found a good spot for the big one, too: While walking through the beautiful city of Leuven, I found a small crossing over the canal with a goose's sculpture and a pole which had just the right size for my knitting. And the best thing: The pole had a sign of St James' Way ("Jakobsweg" in Dutch) which was apparently coming by this place. So both knittings got the opportunity to be in touch with St Jacob. Therefore, I named this knitting the same as its younger sibling, "Jacobsester", but now in Dutch instead.

Happy New Year!

Happy new year to all of you!

May your yarn never snap, your stitches never drop and inspiration always be at your side!
Happy knitting in 2013! :-)

All the best!