back at last + what to do, what to do?

nearly two months later, qknit returns with absolutely no work to show for that time span.

classic.

what did i do while i was gone?
well, you see, i did end up finishing those banners – five of them, to be exact (that’s 22.5 square feet of crochet, just in case you were wondering)! however, i judged it to be a bit too risky to enact my plan to put them up around the city – if you were in toronto at the end of june, you know what i’m talking about. the city was crawling. anyway, now i have 22.5 square feet of crocheted fabric hanging out on my floor, which does nobody any good. thus, i made another plan: to yarn bomb my friend’s house! strictly speaking it’s not fully a yarn bomb as much as a yarn… deposit… because i have her consent (which is good, because it’s a basement apartment and the windows are far too small to climb through). i get to take up one wall of her house with crocheted panelling sections – i’m so excited to see it go up. i will definitely have pictures of that.

anyway here’s a few of the banners in their current home on my floor…

so… next steps. it’s about time i put up another project… i’m just searching for the right location. keep your eyes peeled for signs of qknit! peace, love, and yarn for all!

Filed under: banners, g20 protest, planning, rambling

banners

production is in full swing on a series of 4 1/2 foot long, 1 foot tall crocheted banners in a variety of hideous colours and textures. i think my favourite misfit banner thus far is the green and black sparkly/fake mohair one. it just has so much to offer…

actually crocheting the banners takes time (although i managed to pump one out in a record 24 hours) and it’s definitely taking away from opportunities to put energy into other endeavours. however, it’s all going to be worth it once the g20 rolls around. these banners are meant to draw attention to the g20 and the protest efforts going on around it and the g8. my hope is to distribute them throughout the downtown core in strategic locations that have key significance to the protest actions. that said, i’m not looking to get instantly arrested, so i’m staying away from the perimeter fence in the financial district.

keep an eye out for the banners!

peace, love, and yarn for all!

Filed under: banners, g20 protest, planning, works in progress

make life beautiful.

yeah, so i have a new catch phrase. i’m dropping scraps of paper decorated with beautiful kodomo inc stamps to let people know about qknit.wordpress.com. it’s mostly just an excuse to stamp things; i have a bit of an obsession.

i don’t have any yarn bombs i’ve put up recently; there’s been a bit of a lull in the production process lately. excuse my lack of updates. more will be along soon!

peace, love, and yarn for all!

Filed under: uncategorized

removals

it’s always a sad day when i walk past a location and see that a piece of mine has been removed. here’s the latest on what’s been taken down:

queen + ossington and dundas + ossington: these two were taken down so quickly that i didn’t even have time to take pictures of them. i think they were gone within two days. to make things a little stranger, i swear the entire pole is gone from dundas + ossington. like the whole thing. gone. weird.

queen + morse: not really removed, but it’s doing that annoying thing where it slips to the bottom of the pole. i’m going to sneak out with some duct tape and remedy the situation.

queen + empire: again, not really removed, but someone in the community has alerted me that one of the bench arms has nearly fallen all the way off. i’m going to try to get there before the whole thing goes and i lose all the fabric. if i get there in time, i can save the fabric and just sew it back onto the arm of the bench.

balwdin + beverley: the yarnbomb was sagging a bit and i didn’t have time to go back and fix it up before someone got sick of it and tore it down. however, the one across the street that’s attached to a tree is still there. it’s doing quite well; i think it’s learning to live in harmony with nature.

and here’s part ii of my collection of photos of me with drank (for those interested, this magical 98.1 CHFI mug contains extremely sweet orange pekoe tea. i chose the mug because it’s the biggest one in the house.):

that’s all for now, my friends. peace, love, and yarn for all!

Filed under: park benches, poles, rambling, removal

part three: dundas + ossington

for the final stretch of our journey, i picked out a telephone pole of suitable girth on the north side of dundas, just west of ossington. we passed somebody on the walk over from ossington but we hadn’t started work yet so they paid us no heed. i had to do a fair amount of improvisation on this one because the rectangle i crocheted ended up being a bit too wide for the pole. i just scrunched the fabric up and crocheted it tightly to the pole – i’m hoping it stays up. the pole is fairly slick, unlike trees or wooden poles, so i’m running the risk of having the yarn bomb slide down the pole. if that happens, i’ll have to take it down and redo it.

after a job well done, 2tog and i retired to his porch, where we smoked a celebratory cigarette and drank various chilled beverages. he went back to bed, but i was up for the day – once i’m up, i’m up!

check back in the next few days for photos – they’ll be here by friday.

as always, check me out on other sites – twitter, ravelry, and facebook! you know you want to be a fan of qknit.

actually, i’ve been informed by facebook that you can no longer become a fan of a page; instead, you can “like” it. so like me, like me do!

Filed under: facebook, poles, ravelry, twitter

part two: queen + ossington

we ambled down bathurst to dundas, and then across to ossington and down the street a little bit, close to queen. this yarn bomb can be found about half a block up from queen on the west side. notable landmarks include a large metal fence due south of the site. i used the sparkly stuff again for this yarn bomb, this time in red – it’s everywhere! can’t avoid the sparkly. by now it was about five after five and we passed one or two people on our way up to our next yarn bomb at dundas + ossington – see part three for details!

Filed under: trees

part one: college + bathurst

after arranging for a place to stay in the west end, i made a nest on the floor of my friend’s apartment and settled down for the night. at 3:58 am i awoke to the hilarious sound of “rich bitch” by die antwoord and i was ready to go. i managed to coax my accomplice out of bed with the promise of iced tea and good times. we took off around 4:15 and after a quick stop at the 24-hour metro we were on our way to the first site. this yarn bomb is dedicated to a friend of mine who runs ace of spades tattoo over at college + bathurst. of course i had to incorporate the image of a spade into the yarn bomb. sadly it was in that weird sparkly green stuff that seems to be growing like a weed in my yarn pile. every time i look back there, there’s more! what the hell?

anyway, 2tog, my new accomplice, was an excellent lookout and we didn’t run into any trouble on this leg of the journey. check back for parts two and three!

pictures to come.

Filed under: poles

tundra tuesday (?) stencil

i love the word tundra, how it just rolls off the tongue. i wish i had an excuse to use it more. that and whimsy.

anyway this is the stencil i whipped up this morning. i’m still working on perfecting my spraying technique.

that’s all for now. peace, love, and yarn for all!

Filed under: g20 protest, poles, stencils

strangers in the street

there weren’t many strangers to be found this morning. good old insomnia woke me up at 3 45 and i had that definitely-can’t-go-back-to-sleep feeling so i got up and finished working on a stencil i started last night. it kind of logically followed that if i was done the stencil, i should try it out, so i put on some pants (i make my art de-panted; it’s the way to go) and a jacket and my disguise and headed out. i had a great time and learned a bit about stenciling technique, as well as getting spraypaint all over my hands and the inside of my bag. luckily this time i was smart enough to leave little tags to hold onto on the stencil so i didn’t have to soak my fingers in paint as much.

pictures are on their way; i’m going to head over and photograph a few of the better ones and then i’ll throw something onto here.

again, i’m doing a call-out for volunteers and donations – if you know how to or want to learn to knit or crochet, and are interested in the qknit project, please do contact me. i can be reached through comments on here or by email at qknit [at] hotmail.com. if you have yarn, particularly large quantities of one colour or texture, same goes – contact me and we’ll set something up. donations are super super appreciated and are my main means of survival.

catch me on facebook, ravelry and twitter! peace, love and yarn for all!

Filed under: facebook, g20 protest, planning, poles, rambling, ravelry, twitter

qknit gets mentioned on yarnbombing.com!

amazing! yarnbombing.com mentioned me in their blog on march 31! i am so excited that the word about qknit is getting out there.

i haven’t been super active lately, i’ve been mostly working on banners for the g20 protest and they take up a lot of time and yarn. i’ve still got two yarn bombs ready to go but i’m waiting on shelter in that end of the city, which looks like it’ll happen closer to the 20th. i’m going to start working on some stuff closer to home in the near future while balancing my other life with one hand. it goes though, it goes.

i wish i could be like that traveling gnome and take pictures of myself with a bright yellow suitcase in various cities across the globe. alas, i cannot; partially because i haven’t yet learned the many ways of the gnome, and partially because i’m broke as a joke. one of those concerns is far more pressing than the other (hint: it starts with a g and ends with n-o-m-e). instead, i shall post photos of myself in different hats with different drinks. this will be difficult since i usually only drink two things: arizona iced tea and coffee. especially bad coffee.

don’t forget to check me out on facebook, twitter and ravelry! peace, love, and yarn for all!

Filed under: banners, facebook, g20 protest, planning, rambling, ravelry, twitter, works in progress