#prayforbelgium

Oh dear, I only realised that I hadn’t posted this here just now. After the terrible attacks in Brussels, I made a little #prayforbelgium yarnbomb to hang out in Gent. It’s still up, I noticed this morning.

I just felt like I needed to do something. I doubted if I would go to Brussels to hang it up there, but didn’t in the end. I didn’t want to inform my 5 year old daughter too much about what was going on, because kids her age can’t place stuff like this into the right perspective. And going to the capital in my free time without her, well, I try to avoid not spending time with my family when I’m free. I figured Gent would be a great spot as well, because we all supported Brussels.

It’s a weird circle, because, and not many people know this, I actually started yarnbombing right after the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris. I had been thinking about yarnbombing a lot, but always found an excuse not to. But suddenly it felt like ‘my’ world needed to smile some more. Because media were drawing the “be scared’ card a little too much. I decided not to mention it in my mission statement, because I don’t want this to be a political thing. Because it’s not. But we all need little smiles.

That being said, I haven’t yarnbombed since. Was planning to make some for a little trip to the Netherlands that I made recently, but time wasn’t on my side. Have some ‘normal’ crochet projects that I need to finish, but I do have a bikerack in mind that I want to cheer up a bit. Not in Gent this time… 😉 Maybe I’ll get around to it in the following months, but it’s a bigger project. Might measure it up tonight, see what I’m up against *haha*

Mandala yarnbomb

After having fun with the duckbombs,  I felt it was time to do a proper yarnbomb again. Although there is something to be said for “take away” bombs as well…

I decided I didn’t want to follow a strict pattern, but make something as I go. My timeline on Instagram has been flooded with mandalas lately and since I never made one myself, I thought I’d give it a go.

While watching some tv one evening, I came up with this pattern. I used 3 different colours and a fourth one as a background colour for the yarn that’s wrapped around a pole.

Colour 1: Magic Ring – 12 hdc
Colour 2: chain 3, skip a stitch, make a slip stitch in the next stitch. Repeat that the whole round. Make your last slip stitch in the 3d chain of your first chain 3.
Colour 3: Crochet 3dc around the chains of the previous round, and chain 2 in between the 3dc’s each time. Repeat untill you’ve gone around. Make a slip stitch in the first dc.
Colour 2: chain 5, crochet 3 hdc around the chains of the previous round. Repeat untill the end of the round, slip stitch in the first of the chain 5.
Colour 1: chain 3, crochet 5hdc around the chains of the previous round, repeat untill the end of the round. Slip stitch in the first of the chain 3.
Colour 3: chain 5, crochet 3hdc around the chains of the previous round, repeat untill the end of the round. Do not slip stitch, but continue with one round of sc into each stitch of the previous round (chains and hdc).

I installed my yarnbomb in broad daylight – spring does that to you. Nerves are calmer with every yarnbomb I add 😉
As for the yellow background, I made it differently than before. I used to start with my chains, and make them as wide as the pole, working my way up. Now I made my chains as high as I wanted the bomb to be, and made my way sideways, making it a much better fit. It’s still up and looking good, near the Roa heron near Gent Dampoort, for anybody from Gent that would want to take a look.

My spring yarnbomb was removed after a good week – which is OK I guess 😉
I was also quite surprised to see that this blog is followed by almost 400 people! YAY!

See you next time!

Duckbomb part 2

The past days I have been placing a duckbomb around Gent – and one time in Brussel.
The concept is simple: you buy small rubber ducks, and decorate them with a bit of yarn. In my case a little crochet scarf: chain 46, turn, hdc 45, done. Since I have a huge stash of catania cotton yarn in all sorts of colours, it was easy to make different scarfs.

I already blogged about my duckbombs, but this is the rest of the story. All ducks were taken away in a matter of hours (the one in Brussel I’m not sure of, because we didn’t stick around to check back). I’m curious where they were taken to… Secretly hoping they made at least a child happy as well! My daughter has one on her bedside table 😉

Enough talking, out with the pictures!

Spring yarnbomb!

Yesterday afternoon when I went home, the sun was out and the air felt soft. I got home to a sunny living room and couldn’t resist unwinding in the sun and making some fiber art.

I had measured up a pole at the trainstation earlier on and wanted something for spring. So I made a green base and wanted to cover it with daffodils.

The pattern used however was quite time-consuming: one daffodil took me 45 minutes. Since my previous work on a low pole was removed within hours, I decided to change plans and add the word “lente” (spring) and a heart – expressing what we all are: happy spring is around the corner.

 

I you’d like to crochet the daffodil: the free pattern can be found here. You need to register on the website, but that’s free as well. The free heart pattern can be found here. I decided to crochet a row of sc around it in orange, to make it stand out a little more.

The final product was installed this afternoon at Gent Dampoort.

It looks really good, although it was a tad too wide for the pole. If I do a new one there I’d make the base about 10cm thighter, because the yarn did stretch out some more during the making of the rows. My first yarnbomb ever was on a low pole as well, and it only lasted some hours, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed this one will stick around some more!

Have a great weekend!

Magda Sayeg – how yarnbombing grew into a worldwide movement

I’ve been focussing on yarnbombing more and more lately, ever since my mum passed away actually. It had been my ambition to do more with this little addiction of mine, since it makes me feel good. Regular crochet as well, I do plenty of that too – but yarnbombing, well it’s my sort of therapy. I need it.

Focussing on it more doesn’t only mean doing more bombs – I’m currently doing a tiny #duckbomb each day I go to work and feeling really happy with that – but also following it up on social media more.

Today I stumbled upon this talk by Magda Sayeg, the starter of yarnbombing so it seems. I had seen her bus before, but didn’t link it to the name. I found it an entertaining 5 minutes talk. Check it out!

Picture by “Be Street Art“

 

Duckbomb part 1

One of the yarnbombers I follow on wordpress made these kind of scarfs for ducks, and asked if anybody wanted to join in. Only a word for me 🙂
Unfortunately, I can’t track back which one it was … So here’s to hoping that he or she reads this post and knows I joined in 😉

The scarfs are made with catania. Regular is better, although the purple with grande looks great too. Just crochet a chain and return with hdc. Simple but nice! 🐤🐤🐤🐤🐤

For Dutch / Belgian yarnbombers – you can find the rubber ducks quite cheap in Action. They look really cute, and I left these five this morning at a rather famous statue in Gent, hoping they will bring a smile to someones face 🙂

I’ve got more ducks at home, so there are more duckbombs following soon 🙂 As long as it’s cold outside, they can use a scarf, right? 🙂

Update on the duckbombs:
I added another one today (25/02), duck with a view you might say. He (or she?) was left at the bridge crossing Korenlei & Graslei, which is one of the most touristy places in Gent. So I don’t expect him to be there when I drive by on my way home…

Wear red day

Goodmorning everybody!

I’m writing up a quick post. I just found out on Instagram that tomorrow is “Wear red day”. This day raises awareness for heart diseases. It is the number 1 cause of death for women all over the planet.

Sadly I’ve been confronted with it recently. On January 20th my sweet mum died at the age of 66. She died of heart failure, in her sleep. There were almost no previous signs, except that she felt unwell before going to bed. She thought some sleep would make it all better, but never woke up again. Needless to say we’ve all been feeling completely lost ever since.

Tomorrow I’ll be wearing red. With the hastags #wearredday and #wearredkalcal you can join in. I decided to wear a crocheted red heart to raise awareness.

The pattern I use is the same I use for the #yarnifiedlovebomb . It’s a quick pattern, where you can make a heart in about 5 minutes time. I sewed mine onto a paperclip, since I don’t have any pins at home and no time to go by the shop tonight after work. It’s easy to attach it to my jeans tomorrow.

I was already thinking of spreading some stars in her honour soon, because to all of us she became a shining star in the sky above. But tonight I’ll make some more of these, to spread around tomorrow. I hope I can inspire someone to spread the word on…

Pattern for the heart:

• make magic circle
• Crochet the following in the circle:
  – 4 chain stitches
  – 3 triple crochet stitches
  – 3 double crochet stitches
  – 1 chain stitch
  – 1 triple crochet stitch
  – 1 chain stitch
  – 3 double crochet stitches
  – 3 triple crochet stitches
  – 4 chain stitches
  – join to magic circle with a slip stitchPull the ring – you now have a beautiful heart.

 

Edit:
Last night I made 9 hearts to be spread out in Gent this morning. Here are the pictures of that yarnbomb. Somehow my camera didn’t snap one of them – I was in a hurry to get to work in time!

 

A merry yarnbomb

It’s that time of year again – and it’s a time I love. I adore all the decorations, love to stroll around Christmas markets and love the good food and good times with family.

So it was logical that I would make a merry yarnbomb. A while ago I decided to crochet a Christmas tree. Since I like to design everything for this site myself, I started writing up a pattern…

It didn’t work out that well. I had to redo the whole thing three times before I was more or less satisfied with what I had.

So, here it goes:

– start out with a green chain of 22. Turn and crochet 20 hdc.
– crochet the 1st and last hdc together and crochet hdc’s in between
– repeat this 3 more times

Now you will widen again. You crochet 3hdc’s in the first and last stitch of the row, with hdc’s in between.
For the next row, you will decrease again: crochet the 1st and last hdc together and crochet hdc’s in between
– repeat that 3 more times

You should now have the first two sections of the three, as seen from the bottom. I hope I’m making sence here, if not – don’t hesitate to ask!

You will repeat this pattern untill you reach the top, which is made out of 1hdc and 1 slip stitch.
Now you will crochet all around the sides with sc stitches. You will put 3sc in each tip of the branch, and slip stitch underneath the branches, to make them stand out more.
I’ve tried to show you in a little drawing:

Now it is time to decorate your tree. For the balls I used a french knot. I used quite thick yarn and twisted it around my tapestry needle 3 times, to make them thick and fluffy.
I embroidered the string on it to finish it off.

As always, I used a simple hdc rectangle to put my tree on. It was attached yesterday morning in the centre of Gent… and looks like this:

I’m rather fond of it actually 🙂

It was the first time where I didn’t feel to nervous about stitching it to the pole. I’ve noticed passers-by don’t really seem to care about what you are up to. They are all in a hurry to get somewhere I guess.

I already have a couple of new yarnbombs in mind. I’ve noticed that my ghost (who is still up, way past Halloween *proud of that*) has been moved around a lot. I forgot my scissors the day I attached him, so there was a fair bit of blue string left when I sewed him on. I tucked it in rather quickly at the back, but it must have gotten loose. I’ve noticed that people often put the string in between his “paws”, like he’s holding it. And he’s often facing other directions.
This got my husband thinking. We often shop at Ikea, and they have these twisting toys that our girl loves. It’s an image split in three and you have to create the right image with it, or go nuts and create weird things – they mostly consist of animals. So you can make for instance a crocodile with the body of Nemo and a tail of a whale or something… or do it all right. I’m going to try to create an interactive yarnbomb like that and ideally place it on childs height and near a school 😉 I’m thinking along the lines of food as decoration…

Secondly, I want to do a minion yarnbomb. I wanted to do a minion one since September, but haven’t found the time yet. But it’s going to happen sooner or later!

And thirdly; I asked Bué (one of the best streetarts in Gent, google Bué the Warrior if you don’t know him) if I could recreate a work of him into a yarnbomb, and he agreed. A bit of stress on that one, since I want it to be absolutely perfect – I wouldn’t want to insult him!

So… stay tuned!
And in the mean time: happy holidays!

 

Ghost yarnbomb

This morning I installed my fourth yarnbomb (not counting all the hearts I’ve dropped for #yarnifiedlovebomb in between). It was a while since I yarnbombed anything, but this week I was feeling rather down and yarnbombing gives me energy. So I decided to make more time for it. Life has a habbit of running by to fast…  and sometimes we forget to make time for what gives us energy.

After blogging about my previous yarnbomb earlier this week, I wanted to bomb something right away. Which meant that it couldn’t take up too much time, since it’s a workweek and I’m pretty beat up in the evenings. That ruled out any form of amigurumi. Since Halloween was coming up I decided to try and make a little ghost. I had a pacman-ghost in mind… and he turned out pretty cute 😉

I installed him in a rather busy street, near one of the biggest touristic highlights of Gent. That means that he might not make it that long, but because he’s holiday themed, that might be OK. Though I hope he at least equals Mr. Wazowski (who’s still up after 25 weeks!!), I’m not betting any money on it 🙂

As usual: here’s the free pattern if you decide to yarnbomb one of your own. Or just use the him as an appliqué – could work as well 😉

I used a crochet hook 4,5mm and quite thick yarn.

1. With white yarn, chain 8.
2. 2sc in second chain from hook, 6sc, 2sc in last stitch (9)
3. 1 chain, turn. 2sc in first stitch, 7sc, 2sc in last stitch (11)
4. 1 chain, turn. 2sc in first stitch, 9sc, 2sc in last stitch (13)
5. 1 chain, turn. 2sc in first stitch, 11sc, 2sc in last stitch (15)
6- 20: 1 chain, turn, 15 sc (15)
21. chain 3, turn. 2tr in the first stitch, 2dc in the next, 1hdc in the next, 2dc in the next, 2tr in the next, slip stitch in the next two stitches, hdc in the next, 2dc in the next, 2tr in the next, slip stitch in the next two stitches, 2tr in the next stitch, 2dc in the next, 1hdc in the next and end with another slip stitch in the last stitch.

Now crochet around the edge of your ghost, with sc’s. Only make 3sc on the tips of his “flaps”. Do not add 3 sc’s anywhere else 😉 Join to the first sc with a slip stitch, fasten off and leave a long tail for sewing.

The eyes: with black, magic ring and sc’s into it. Use white yarn and a french knot to make the eyes.

I used a navy blue rectangle to attach him to. Made it 22cm wide (depends on the object you’re attaching it too, remember, always make it at least 2cm smaller, yarn stretches!). I used 8 rows of hdc.

Sew your little ghost onto the rectangle and go yarnbomb 😉

Let me know if you make one of these, or if you use the ghost for anything else – I’d be happy to see your work!

I’m already working on the next yarnbomb – in my mind that is 😉 Know exactly what it’s going to be – keep in touch on Instagram if you’d like to see progress!

Help the Craft Club Yarnbombers!

How does a 10feet high crocheted Christmas tree sound to you? Pretty awesome, right?

And what if I told you that you could easily contribute to making one… and that afterwards the used squares will be made into blankets and donated to the homeless community? I’m in, because this is a project that’s right where I like it: fun & social at the same time.

It’s organised by The Craft Club Yarnbombers, which is a group of lovely ladies from Essex that yarnbomb mailboxes… and do a pretty neat job with that.
All you need to do is crochet 1 (or more) green squares, between 5 and 7 feet wide. The picture below links to their facebookpage. Mail thecraftclubyarnbombers@gmail.com for info where to send your contributions to!