I Heart Vancouver

Putting the Heart back into Downtown [Vancouver]

Hi Yarnbombers,

Well! 24 hours can certainly turn it all around.

I took the day off on Thursday. I’m trying to finish my Masters these days, so I try to work every day – it doesn’t matter when the weekend is. When I realized I really didn’t have the heart for anything but community spirit, I officially made it a weekend day for myself. And then shit happened!

I wrote that blog post very slowly, trying to figure out what exactly I’m frustrated about, how the riot affected me, and what the hell to do with the situation.

After hours of reflecting and a slowly written essay, I concluded I would put a heart or two downtown. But then the blog was posted and I had a bigger idea.

What if rallied a few yarnbombers? What if a group initiative happened? I visualized knit/crocheted hearts and bandaids put up around downtown. Of course I’m sure you all have better ideas!

So I emailed Leanne of Yarnbombing, the book I credit with making a yarnbomber of me! I emailed an author! And suggested a group effort! And she replied the same day! And mentioned my idea on her blog! This alone blows my mind almost beyond repair.

I’m so touched by the efforts made to clean up the city, as well as the efforts to document it and show the community what Vancouver is really made of – kill ‘em with kindness, right? Let’s build upon this amazing initiative made by the public servants, good samaritans, and volunteers – as a thank you to them, and as a way to show Vancouver we care about the city. And so:

CALL FOR YARNBOMBERS – LET’S PUT THE HEART BACK INTO DOWNTOWN.

Saturday, June 25^th, I intend to inject some yarnbombing spirit into downtown, and I would love some company. I plan to have a bit of a knitting sit-in at a coffee shop downtown followed by some good old-fashioned yarnbombing mid-afternoon.

Feel free to make whatever will represent your feelings about the riot, the good samaritans, the city, and/or the clean-up efforts. I’ve been making these:

…and will continue to all week.

Please contact me if you wish to join me on Saturday and would like the details, or even if can’t join but simply want to know about the patterns I’ve been using! My (shiny, new) email is tightknitthebomb [at] gmail [dot] com.

-Tightly

What to do with a bleeding community….

Hi all,

Where do I begin?

Vancouver is my home, and has been for 3 years. I love the Canucks. I consider myself a Canucks fan, though some might call me a bandwagoner. Usually I think to myself, “a fan is a fan is a fan…” in response to this bandwagoner mumbo jumbo – but not last night, not today.

When 3rd period ended last night, I immediately turned the TV off to avoid watching winning team celebrations. Then my boyfriend, cousin, and I decided to watch a funny movie to cheer us up and keep the good times rolling. Oddly enough, not once did it cross my mind to set fire to vehicles, smash business’ windows, cause harm to strangers, and rob stores. It did cross my mind, however, to turn the TV back on and ensure the fans in Rogers Arena were giving the Canucks the support they deserve for a hard season – and they were. I risked seeing Chara hold the cup to do it!

So we watched a stupid movie and attempted to play a drinking game (I gave up way early), and as we did so, my cousin started to see photos of police car fires on her phone. Then my mom called, up late in Ontario, because my parents were worried I had gone downtown for the game. Nothing sobers you up like a call from across the country telling you your city is being literally burnt and smashed (and you’re sitting there like a sucker watching Dodgeball).

So I told my mom that we had planned in-advance to go downtown if we won, but we knew to stay away if we lost. Isn’t that pathetic – that I had assumed days before game 7 that violence would most likely brake out if we lost? I’d heard about the ’94 riot and I saw the aftermath of the bits of Olympic hooliganery last year. I didn’t know how “right” I’d be to stay away from downtown last night. It was despicable. I was disgusted and ashamed of these “fellow citizens”.

I am so frustrated by the fact I saw footage of two grown men, both wearing official Canucks jerseys, fighting each other. I saw Luongo jerseys and Canucks tshirts standing proudly atop overturned cars. I so badly want to brush off these rioters and troublemakers as saying they are not real fans, but …don’t those jerseys cost a pretty penny? So hey, maybe they are fans, maybe they watch hockey on a regular basis, but did they really go downtown to be supportive of their team and city? Not for a second. On twitter, coming from the fingertips of folks who were downtown last night, it was reported that many people had balaclavas ready to go as soon as the game ended…to which I ask what was on these idiots’ minds last night? Did they give a shit what happened in the game? I think they saw a huge excuse, in the name of which they had pre-planned to take out their shitty life frustrations on the rest of us.

The point I’m slowly making my way towards, nestled into a blog about knitting and crocheting, is that I don’t know what to do now. What the hell do I do for my community now? Would an oddly-placed crocheted square really brighten anybody’s day today?

This morning I woke up and did what I ended up doing last night, well past my bedtime – I watched the news, obsessively checked Facebook and Twitter to get real-time updates on the damage. I saw Peter Mansbridge tweet that news stations across the world, especially in the US, are currently having a field day with the events of last night, and I don’t even blame them.

But what I fear is that the clean up efforts will not be given the same amount of media attention internationally. And as I “predicted” about the violence downtown, I feel sadly confident that I will be correct.

Within 1-2 hours of the riot beginning, there was a huge union of community via social media. A Facebook Group popped up for anyone to join and post photos, so that the police may use them to identify the rioters. While I think that is an excellent idea, I also read Alexandra Samuel’s excellent and sobering article on the perils of using social media to survey fellow citizens. Given that the Facebook Group isn’t exactly being taken seriously by everyone (just check the photos), I am wondering how useful that page truly is.

What really hit my heart was the quickly-organized initiative to clean up Vancouver come morning. There was a Facebook event page and a twitter account created early last night (complete with a bitchin’ logo), which consulted with the Vancouver Police Department to figure out an appropriate time to go downtown in the morning. The mission is to volunteer time to clean up our city, wearing our Canucks jerseys and t-shirts, of course, to remind our community and the rest of the world what true fans are.

This morning, I watched the news broadcast the boarded-up windows of The Bay, upon which somebody had posted a sign apologizing to the world, ashamed of what Vancouver became last night. Volunteers and citizens started to write messages on the boards. I couldn’t read them over the TV screen, but I saw the word “PRAY” and I’m guessing there were a lot of messages to do with a mixture of shame, support, and community spirit.

I considered going downtown today with a handful of yarn bombs, to patch up the cuts and bruises of a city in my own little way. But I don’t think yarnbombing is what the city needs right now. I would probably be looked at by some of the wonderful clean-up volunteers as someone who is tarnishing the city – and I don’t want to hurt any citizen’s heart more than was already done last night.

All things considered, I am beyond frustrated with the intentionally public destruction of a community. Yet I am beyond inspired by the wonderful organizers and volunteers who show me what community really means. I am frustrated with how I expect this entire ordeal to be broadcast to the world, moreso because I don’t know that I can do anything to help how we’ll be represented. I am frustrated that the future of public viewing sites for games of all sorts are now compromised – a strike against a really popular community-building initiative. And I am most frustrated that I knew to stay away from downtown in the event of a lost hockey game. That is just so wrong. And what do I do with the fact I was right?

And so I shall crochet my heart out. As I have written this essay/post/rant/ I have come up with an idea to make a number of those crocheted square hearts, pictured above, and put those around downtown in the near future.

If you have any suggestions, comments, anything, remember that this is a conversation! Post below.

-Tightly.

Arsenal, Label.

Back when I winter wonderland tagging in late February, my dad, ever the business-savvy dude he is, gave me suggestions on my website and branding. I took his advice seriously. Because of our chats, I revamped my “about” page, which I posted about a while back. And though I may have considered a similar idea beforehand (I can’t recall), he inspired me to create a unique label to put on every tag…

..and so I came up with this. And I love it. It’s rather simple to do, as an added bonus.

Look at the blog banner and look back at the photo! Square brackets! Consistency! tight! knit! Heck! Yes! I like the geometry of it, if that makes any sense at all. I think it’s sharp. This particular square is something I plan to always keep as a memento of this project. However I’ve already put this label in numerous tags…

…which I haven’t convinced you of, considering it is nowhere in this picture aside from the sample square. These are yarnbombs I’ve been creating upon evening (or multiple-evening) whims. I have become confident enough in the shape of the world around me that if I knit or crochet a rectangle of any size, I will eventually find a structure that will fit within it. And so I just keep makin’ rectangles.

In terms of lacking the label, 2 out of 5 of those yarnbombs are crocheted and I have yet to figure out the label in crochet – though I can imagine it translating in single crochet stitch. The other 3 are either too small or variegated to figure out a contrasting colour for the label text…or I was lazy when it came to the YOU bomb.

But I promise you will see the label in 2 new tags in my next blog post! Celebrations!

Cheering up landscapes

Today, a friend sent me a link (included below) which inspired me to post about some amazing creative efforts happening internationally. Enjoy!

Beautiful Parisian Pothole Repairs:


Photos copyright of artist Juliana Santacruz Herrera.
This project is made from fabrics, though I can imagine a crocheted version of it as well! View many more photos in her photostream and a short description of how she does it (and some skeptical commenters at the bottom of the page ha ha!).

Yarnbombing the Blue Line in Philadelphia:

Photo copyright of StreetsDept
A fantastic (and gutsy!) project by yarnbomber Ishknits captured with some excellent photos. Read the photographer’s blog post here. His blog is amazing, check out more than just this post.
Ishknits has her own website which showcases blog design and knitting skills that dwarf this wee project! You should check it out and be inspired.

And of course, Calgary Traffic Barrier Capping:

Photo copyright of Calgary Art Bomber.
Here again is CAB’s blog and here is some coverage the project has received 🙂 You can see Don’t Give Up near the middle of the lineup in the picture above.

Don’t Give Up

Remember this?

Speaking of meaningful creations…I haven’t forgotten to update you on “UP”, which I posted a teaser of here. The reveal will happen late March/early April, and you will meet a new friend of mine.

I won’t blame you if I don’t. My last post was much too long ago.

In early February, I created a yarnbomb for an installation project started by a new friend, Calgary Art Bomber. Based on a PDF call-for-projects that my officemate came across and sent to me, I became involved in yarnbombing Calgary, Alberta, remotely.

I present to you: Calgary Art Bomber’s Traffic Barrier Caps 2011

Here’s my yb, “UP” as I have previously called it here.

Don’t Give Up. My biggest, floppiest, funnest-to-knit yarn bomb to date. It was a challenge to knit – there are no existing patterns for a concrete traffic barrier cap, imagine that! I used the pattern for a drawstring bag and after frogging the first attempt a few rows in (for having too small a diameter) I created this beast. I used white yarn and a whole lotta bright scrap bits. I miss it!

You can see Don’t Give Up in the playing slideshow on CAB’s blog linked above. The project turned out AMAZINGLY. I am so happy to be part of it, and am really pleased to see how many yarnbombers participated. Is this a community or what!?

I wonder if many Calgarians (?) saw it and smiled. I hope so. I wonder where the pieces are now that they’re all gone (as indicated on CAB’s blog). Did somebody need my message? Is the yb treasured or trashed? I wish I could follow the lives of the pieces I put up (or send away), though daydreaming about the mystery is fantastic as well.

In other, less dreamy news, I went on a little weekend trip recently and did my part bombing along the way. I will post about this soon. I have other neat blog ideas. Stay tuned.

Winter Wonderland Tagging Part 2

Continued from the last tagging post, I didn’t just tag one day in the Winter Wonderlan. I filled my pockets with tags on more than one occasion, and had lots of fun picking locations with my dad.

Enjoy.

Still kicking! This tag was there for at least 7 days (we passed this spot on the trail a number of times).

THINK GREEN...stayed at least 4 days.

Stitching up the tree.

My cutest amigurumi creation, a sweet little snail.

Sweety snail stayed for at least 3 days!

After I made my first amigurumi tags, I thought I better move beyond them as they had less meaning than what I dreamed of creating. Now having tagged in a very nature-oriented place, I think I will make them again for similar situations. They fit in well in a hiking-type location, and so they shall stay in my yarnbombing “repertoire”. Hopefully sweety snail has found a nice warm home by now.

Speaking of meaningful creations…I haven’t forgotten to update you on “UP”, which I posted a teaser of here. The reveal will happen late March/early April, and you will meet a new friend of mine.

About

The mission statement on the About page has been updated and reflects this project’s purpose much more clearly.

I invite you to go see what I’m all about.

Winter Wonderland Tagging Part 1

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to go to a winter wonderland for a week! I used that time to do lots of work and do lots of snowshoeing…complete with yarnbombing opportunities.

In order to yarnbomb while I was out and about, I had to tell my snowshoe-mate about this project, and telling your dad about the new and wacky form of graffiti you partake in is a little nervewracking. Perhaps I didn’t approach it the best way by starting the conversation off with “This is going to sound really weird, but…”; luckily dad has an open mind, and started giving his input on bombing locations! After I ran out of yarnbombs he kept pointing out good trees or stumps that would look nice with a tag! It was the cutest.

Enjoy, as I enjoyed that lovely week with daddio.

Hiding in the bark

...a wee pinky mushroom.

Mushroom #2 planted in a beautiful tree

Part 2 of this snowy adventure will be posted in the next few days. Stay tuned….

🙂

Morning bombing

As promised, I put out some of my yarn bombs this week, and now they’re where they belong: trees.

I was out at 6:45 this morning. It was pretty fun minus the cold hands! There were a couple passers-by, but mostly in cars so my level of anxiety wasn’t too bad.

Enjoy!

LOVE THIS TREE.

What could this tagged creature be?

A flower in a tree!