Howdy folks! The post today is about a personal challenge I set myself that would force me well outside my comfort zone.
In early 2016, I decided to decorate the school sign so that it was more welcoming to pupils and parents alike. The school buildings and children’s garden areas are adorned with cheerful, colourful artwork so I thought a yarnbombed sign would fit right in. The then head teacher agreed and we set a date to do the yarnbomb in time for a Queen’s Jubilee picnic event the school had organised for the children.
I didn’t have enough yarn in my stash to do the entire project and I needed to keep new purchases to a minimum if I could. I contacted a lady I knew from the charity Knitted Knockers UK. She very kindly put the word out and to my delight, donations of yarn oddments, knitted and crocheted squares and crocheted butterflies arrived within the week. The squares were a massive time saver and allowed me to spend more time creating appliques.
I measured the posts that were to be wrapped and created paper templates at home. I laid out the squares on the templates and created appliques, laying them in place on the squares. Layout finalised, I sewed the appliques to the squares before joining the squares.
I took photographs of the layout for reference then joined the squares, finishing with a scalloped border to frame the sides of the sign. The post pieces are folded in the picture below because of the caps I crocheted for the tops to fix the post coverings in place.
Attic24 designed and wrote a lovely assortment of applique patterns that I used and were perfect for the yarnbomb. The head of her woolly sheep pattern are part of my fluffy sheep and goat’s heads – the goat is the school mascot.
The fluffy sheep are pompoms that I sewed head and legs to.
The school keeps sheep as well as pigs, rabbits, goats, bees and chickens. I adapted Attic24’s ladybird pattern to make the little piglet head below.
I crocheted hearts, stars, bees, ladybirds and flowers and made birds to hang in the trees over the sign. Lucy of Attic24 also wrote the Birdie Decoration pattern that I used for the birds below.
Tada!
A lovely surprise in my twitter the week after. (I didn’t have the heart to correct them on the spelling of my surname.)
I was again delighted and surprised when the school included the sign in a tweet the following month…
At the end of the summer term 2018, I took the installation down for cleaning and repairs. As I was removing it, a parent asked what I was doing and when I explained, said she was glad that it would be going back up because it was such a cheerful welcome to the school. Crochet isn’t everyone’s cup of tea so it was nice to receive such a lovely comment.
When I carried out the repairs, I did have to remove some squares as the yarns had stretched – partly due to gravity but more to do with rain soaking the yarns and adding weight.
The Stylecraft was one of the yarns used in this that held up the best – the colour did not fade one little bit over the 2 years the yarnbomb has been in place.
And here is it, back in situ. As you can see, the lighter coloured squares have faded but for the most part, the entirety has held up really rather well.
I was very nervous about taking on a public space project but thought it would be a colourful way I could contribute to the welcoming vibe of the school. It turned out to be an enjoyable and positive experience.
If you’ve been inspired or have done yarn bombs yourself, either solo or as a collaborative effort, I’d love to see pictures! You can find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Have a fabulously colourful, yarny day!
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