Here’s a sneaky peak at our latest knit graffiti project. Keep your eyes peeled to see where they end up.
Tag Archives: knit graffiti
We need your help
I am looking for volunteers to help stitch together panels for our Olympic knit graffiti project K2TOG. We will be working from our project pop up shop located in the Pavilions.
You will need to have good basic sewing skills. All materials will be provided. There will, of course be tea biscuits and our eternal grattitude.
If you have any availability between 1-15 July please contact info@stitchesandhos.co.uk
Park Your Yarn
Last week a group of stitchers braved the weather to install our Park Your Yarn commission in Wolverhampton. It was quite a dreary couple of days but we kept our spirits up with plenty of tea and biscuits.
For the past 5 weeks we’ve been holding drop in sessions all over Wolverhampton asking people to knit pieces. We had such a brilliant response with over 500 pieces of knitting being used in the final installation.
I’d like to say a big thank you to Helen, Lilith, Lauren, Cat, Vickie for helping out with the install. Also a big thank you to Katja for documenting the project and Zoe and Kate from Wolverhampton Art Gallery and Rachael and Cheryl from ArtYarn for making the project such a pleasure to work on. And finally a massive thank you to everyone who knitted a piece for the installation. It really wouldn’t have been the success that it has been without everyone taking part.
For more information about Park Your Yarn please visit the project’s dedicated blog.
K2TOG – Knit 2 Together
I am very excited to tell you about our big summer knit graffiti project K2TOG – Knit 2 Together.
This summer we will be covering the columns on the exterior of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery to celebrate the visit of both the Jamaican and American Olympic teams. A palette of 6 colours (red, white, blue, yellow, green and black) will be used to create the installation. The colours are taken from both team’s national flags and are also the colours used in the Olympic rings logo.
The project has been selected as one of the Kalaboration commissions.
To help make the work we will be calling on all of you stitchers to knit or crochet pieces for the final installation. More information on that later.
Right now we need your help to raise £2500 for the project. The money raised will help fund workshops in order for the piece to be made. We will be going out into the local community in order to pass on the skill of hand knitting to those who have little experience of traditional crafts.
The money raised will also help fund a pop-up shop in the Mailbox, Birmingham, a relaxing drop-in space where anyone can come to contribute to the piece and find out about the project. Staff will be on hand to teach basic knitting skills and local workers can pop-in over their lunch hour or after work to knit a square or just a few rows.
To support the project please visit the Sponsume website http://www.sponsume.com/project/k2tog-knit-2-together
Woolly Bully pics
The quite wonderful Katja Ogrin took some marvellous pics of yesterdays install.
Bullring Bull
Yesterday I spent all day sewing pieces of knitting onto a large bronze bull. Why? Because I’d been commissioned by the Bullring to do so. Below lies the tale…
In April myself and a small group of knitters from Stitches and Hos tried to cover parts of the Bullring with knit graffiti. Within 10mins of tagging the bull, 2 security guards came out and told us to leave. We ended up putting our pieces around the city centre instead (more info here). However, I still wanted to knit graffiti the Bullring. That place was still on the list. I knew that I’d have to go back, I just didn’t know how or when.
On 25 October I received an email from Lola Ralph through the Stitches and Hos website. She had seen the groups previous knit graffiti exploits and thought we might be interested in decorating the Bullring Bull for Christmas. I thought that all of my knit graffiti Christmas’ had come at once.
We set up a meeting to discuss ideas and came up with making the Bull a Christmas jumper. There was however one small catch. The work had to be done by 1st December. Just over a month…
Before I accepted the commission I put out a call to everyone who had taken part or expressed an interest in our knit graffiti. There was no way that I was going to be able to do this alone. Once I’d found out if anyone was available to help me I went to measure the bull. It was at this point I realised the enormity of what needed to be done. His neck was 238cm around, his body was 250cm long and he was 367cm around his waist.What a beast.
So I set about devising a pattern and a way to make the work. I also started shopping for wool. The budget was really tight so I needed to be canny about what wool we could use. I’d been given a colour pallette by the Bullring which I needed to adhere to and I’d agreed to include a sparkly collar to make the jumper more festive. Mikayla at Fibre Flurry in Kings Norton came to my rescue. So wool was ordered and a pattern devised. All we had to do was knit more than 12m² in just over 3 weeks.
The 3 weeks flew by and everyone worked really hard to ensure that all the pieces were finished in time. Yesterday I went with Vickie, Lilith, Helen and Emily with a suitcase full of knitting to sew it all together.
I hadn’t really thought about what a stir we would cause whilst we were installing. There was a constant stream of questions and comments from shoppers and passers by. Most people seemed cheered by his new attire, although there were some people who didn’t like it.
Here are a few pictures of the piece being installed taken by Rhiannon Davies.
I cannot thank the team enough, it really wouldn’t have been possible without you. Vickie, Emily, Helen, Lilith, Rhiannon, Nicola, Natalie, Sharon and Sam I salute you. Also big thanks to Katja for documenting the install, Mikayla at Fibre Flurry for doing a Saturday morning dash to Leeds to make sure we had the wool on time, support and much needed encouragement from everyone in Wardrobe at Birmingham Royal Ballet especially Lorna and finally extra special thanks to Matt who double checked my sums and believed I could do it.
What are we up to?
It’s been a very busy couple of weeks at S&H HQ. Myself and the rest of the knit graffiti faction have been busy with our needles in preparation for an exciting Xmas project.
There’s not long now until we can reveal what all the knitting is for. So before I let the cat out of the bag, it’s back to my knitting, as there’s still work to do.
knitters needed
I am looking for people to help with a large scale knit graffiti project for Xmas. You will need to be able to knit to a given size, gauge & stitch. If you could make a piece in the next 2 weeks please get in touch info[@]stitchesandhos.co.uk before Friday 11 Nov
Rainbow Roundabout
On Friday night our knit graffiti faction struck at the heart of a Birmingham suburb. We met after night fall and covered 48 safety bollards surrounding a roundabout in a rainbow of knitting.
I’m sad to say that at the time of writing (Monday 8 August) most of the pieces from the roundabout had been taken. I’m always perplexed why anyone would take a piece of knit graffiti. What are they going to do with it when they get home?
I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who helped make pieces for the rounabout. Tsz, Christian, Sara, Catherine, Emily, Vickie, Rhiannon and Teresa.
Mark Wilson has also taken some great shots of the knitting and put them up on Flickr here
A sneaky peak
Once again a small group of S&H stitchers are preparing for our next knit graffiti project. There’s not long to go now until our install day. As always I can’t tell you where we will be, but here are a few pictures of our work in progress
stitches and hos blog 