yarn bombing Archives - Our Permaculture Life https://ourpermaculturelife.com/category/yarn-bombing/ Dive into a vast collection of free permaculture resources to help you get your permaculture life and edible gardens thriving with global permaculture educator & ambassador, Morag Gamble. Thu, 02 Jul 2020 02:22:51 +0000 en-AU hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://ourpermaculturelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/cropped-favicon-32x32.png yarn bombing Archives - Our Permaculture Life https://ourpermaculturelife.com/category/yarn-bombing/ 32 32 Colouring the Streets with Collaborative Community Art https://ourpermaculturelife.com/colouring-the-streets-with-collaborative-community-art/ https://ourpermaculturelife.com/colouring-the-streets-with-collaborative-community-art/#comments Mon, 13 Jun 2016 13:58:00 +0000 https://ourpermaculturelife.com/index.php/2016/06/13/colouring-the-streets-with-collaborative-community-art/ Maleny, my local town, hosted it’s first Knitfest last weekend – a celebration of yarn and fibre arts. The streets and public sculptures were decorated, the halls filled with amazing works of art and artisans everywhere holding workshops to share their skills. Even the local kids joined in – making and decorating the streets with […]

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]]> Maleny, my local town, hosted it’s first Knitfest last weekend – a celebration of yarn and fibre arts. The streets and public sculptures were decorated, the halls filled with amazing works of art and artisans everywhere holding workshops to share their skills. Even the local kids joined in – making and decorating the streets with colour.  The inaugural festival was met with a cool wintery weekend – perfect! Everyone could come dressed up in their best homemade knits!
The Maleny cows at the Obi Obi bridge.
As we explored the streets and visited the many makers, we found ourselves putting our names down to do many workshops over the coming months from basket weaving, beading, dry felting… I really want to learn how to make baskets from weedy vines, and refine my knitting skills to create useful but beautiful household items.
Many months ago, Maia and I first saw the flier for this event and it inspired us to learn how to crochet so we could get involved. I grew up sewing, had done some knitting, but never crochet. Ever since, Maia has been visiting a local fashion designer every week and learning the art of crochet and design with her, as well as refining knitting skills (I currently have an order in for some fingerless gloves – to keep my hands warm while I type here on winter nights).
Maia entered her first crochet creation in the recent Maleny Show and received an encouragement award and a lovely little travel sewing kit – she was delighted.
We are both inspired to keep making, learning new skills, sharing our creations and hopefully seeing even more amazing public yarn-bombing happening next year.
The crossing tree.
Colourful crochet on display.

 

Monty thought the library canon looked pretty funny like this.
The Artisan Market bicycle.

 

 

The library tree was one of the most intricately decorated tree.

 

The kids got to explore textiles from the animals, to the weaving to the making.

 

The RSL poppies.

 

So many amazing beanies.

 

…and shawls.

 

Fabulous weaving using weed vines.
A felting wonderland
Maia liked these little dry felting worlds …

 

and these cute little knitted/beaded animals.

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]]> https://ourpermaculturelife.com/colouring-the-streets-with-collaborative-community-art/feed/ 11 DIY handmade cleaning cloth https://ourpermaculturelife.com/diy-handmade-cleaning-cloth/ https://ourpermaculturelife.com/diy-handmade-cleaning-cloth/#comments Sat, 27 Feb 2016 13:22:00 +0000 https://ourpermaculturelife.com/index.php/2016/02/27/diy-handmade-cleaning-cloth/ Learning to knit is proving to be a very practical activity at our house. My daughter’s first completed piece has become our milk frother cleaner – and it is very effective at doing this.  I love it!  Not only is it useful, but every time I use it I appreciate her efforts and feel the […]

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]]> Learning to knit is proving to be a very practical activity at our house. My daughter’s first completed piece has become our milk frother cleaner – and it is very effective at doing this.  I love it!  Not only is it useful, but every time I use it I appreciate her efforts and feel the love of her gift.
We have seen some very fancy handmade washcloth designs on the internet (both knitted and crocheted) and aspire to this level of skill, but for now we are happy just making a relatively square-ish shape.  These are a great way to reduce waste – replacing wipers that last for just a short period before being destined for the bin.
Maia is learning how to knit and crochet to participate in the Knitfest yarnbombing of Maleny, our local town on June 10-12. We have found an amazing local mentor who is helping her (I learnt how to sew well when I was young, but I have always been just a very basic knitter, and somehow missed crochet altogether).  Maia is a fast learner and patient teacher (she is teaching me!!).
I anticipate there’ll be some yarn-bombing of our place in preparation for Knitfest. I am looking forward to the funky colour wraps on our posts, trees, bicycles and animals soon.
Animals – yes. There are plans for the guinea pigs to have winter blankets and I just learnt that chicken capes are becoming all the rage – probably more-so in cooler climes … but we do get frosts.
Clickety-clack, clickety clack…
The colourful new milk frother cleaner

 

Just the perfect size for this job.

 

The hand-knitted cloth cleans super well and rinses out easily.

 

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]]> https://ourpermaculturelife.com/diy-handmade-cleaning-cloth/feed/ 6 Yarn bombing – colouring the streets with knitting and crochet https://ourpermaculturelife.com/yarn-bombing-colouring-the-streets-with-knitting-and-crochet/ https://ourpermaculturelife.com/yarn-bombing-colouring-the-streets-with-knitting-and-crochet/#comments Thu, 28 Jan 2016 06:29:00 +0000 https://ourpermaculturelife.com/index.php/2016/01/28/yarn-bombing-colouring-the-streets-with-knitting-and-crochet/ Yarn bombing’s popularity has spread across the world over the past decade and reached our little town. Knitters and crocheters will take over Maleny from June 10-12 and the whole town will be yarn bombed.  This is part of the Yarn and Fibre Arts Festival of Maleny.  It’s going to be amazing! A couple of […]

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]]> Yarn bombing’s popularity has spread across the world over the past decade and reached our little town. Knitters and crocheters will take over Maleny from June 10-12 and the whole town will be yarn bombed.  This is part of the Yarn and Fibre Arts Festival of Maleny.  It’s going to be amazing!

A couple of years ago at the Gippsland lakes I saw curious signposts covered in knitting, fence tops crocheted, trees with jumpers on, bicycle racks decorated – it was so colourful, so eclectic, so unusual – just wonderful. I had idea it was a global movement.

I am so delighted to learn that the yarners in Maleny have initiated this event. The only problem is I can sew, but I am a very slow knitter, and even slower at crochet.  Maia wants to join in, and I’d love to too.

To learn, we’ve decided to join the Yarn and Fibre Arts Group that meets at the local library every Thursday morning. Today was our first visit and Maia got started.

Here are some examples from around the world….

I have been noticing more and more referenced to knitted and crocheted facewashers and dishcloths.  So, as well as making pieces of bunting for Maleny, I am going to aim to make a whole set of cotton washers and cloths at home to replace any need for paper towelling or non-biodegradable wipes. Each time, I hope to refine my skills and techniques. There are so many free patterns online – and I’m sure the ladies at the fibre arts group will be able to show us lots of tricks. This is going to be fun.

It’s really been a textiles kind of week. On Tuesday morning many of the community clubs in Maleny had an expo to showcase the projects and activities available to locals. This is where we met the yarn bombers, but also the Maleny Arts and Crafts Group. Unfortunately  they don’t currently have any programs for children.  There’d be so so many children around here that would love all the types of making and creating they do – from pottery to spinning, to weaving, painting and more. I am hoping they may offer some sessions soon.  They were very encouraging of the kids and were very patient teaching Maia and Hugh how to spin.  I loved the portable version they had from New Zealand.

Hugh produced a really lovely length of yarn on this portable spinning wheel. 

 Maia really wants to get a couple of Alpacas. This week has been a great introduction to the kinds of skills she’ll need to cultivate to use their wool.

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