Fantasy Fish Statistics

At last - Fantasy Fish in the sunshine with the added bonus of ducks!

     
This is a quick round up of a few interesting statistics from the Fantasy Fish Yarnstorm.

Lots of people made fish and other creatures, pompoms & plantlife

The installation was made by over 130 people of all ages. We held three workshops in May 2016 as part of Voluntary Arts Week & Craft & Design Month in The Winning Post, The Golden Ball and Rowntree Park Cafe.  Five groups took part - The Fairfax Court Yarnstormers, Sew Chatty, The Good Humour Ladies Club, Year 6 pupils from Hob Moor Primary School and the North Leeds Rebels Craft Collective.  Most #fantasyfish were made in and around York (#fishfromYork) but we had #fishfromafar swim in from Holme on Spalding Moor, Leeds, London, Cambridge and Berkshire to #increasetheshoal too.

Jellyfish

The fish range in size from around 7 centimetres to over 2 metres and there are about 530 of them.  And there's also over 30 other creatures including hammerhead sharks, jellyfish, starfish, octopuses, a whale and a seahorse.  Then there's the plantlife on show together with more than 50 pompoms on display.

Fish, seahorse, hammerhead, octopus and starfish

We used about 200 metres of fishing line to hang the fish, and about 30 metres of finger knitting for the text, arrow and plantlife.

Just taking a coffee break

Deborah hard at work hanging fish

It took 18 hours to put up and that's after most of the fish had been strung together (which took a couple of days and was finished to the sound of Coldplay at Glastonbury - but fortunately didn't involve squelching in mud).

And it's all still there to be enjoyed if only for a few more days.  If you pop along on Sunday 17 July between 1-4pm you can see them and enjoy the Rowntree Park 95th Birthday Party at the same time.

But please don't forget to come along to the fish sales which aim to raise funds for the York Flood Appeal.  From 10am to 3pm on:

Saturday 27 August &

Friday 2 September 

you'll find us near the cafe, selling fish.  Do come and buy or you can donate now here (please mention fantasy fish in the message box).  We need your support!

Fantasy Fish #Increasetheshoal at Rowntree Park Reading Cafe

Just some of the fish, pompoms and finger knitting that came to #increasetheshoal at Rowntree Park Cafe

    
We had a fabulous turnout at our final workshop at Rowntree Park Reading Cafe.  I think we may have taken over all the seats indoors and a few outside too! 

As well as the fishy makes made at the workshop there were quite a lot of extra fish that swam in that day:

Gillian, Sarah & Imogen's fish

     
Gillian, her daughter Sarah, and grandaughter Imogen had all made lovely things to add to the Fantasy Fish Yarnstorm.  In fact Gillian had also used some of her Mum's yarn and her Grandma's buttons in her makes.  That means five generations of her family have had some input into the project - how impressive is that!

Mags's makes

Mags, who has come along to all our workshops and brought extra fish every time, had some new makes for us again.  Her starfish set off quite a trend as people started knitting starfish!

Sarah's octopus and fish

Sarah had been knitting an octopus at our last workshop at the Golden Ball and brought it along this time with some other lovely fish.  She also finished off the big knitting fish that Joanita from Radio York started when she came to visit me to hear all about the Fantasy Fish Yarnstorm.
 

Joanita & Sarah's big knitting fish is 67cm long

Everyone was very industrious

    
Helen and Sam brought a big bag of fish with them before embarking on a joint starfish.  And I believe they will be bringing some more fish from the Easingwold Knitting Group too - how fabulous!

Helen & Sam's fish

We had some tiny visitors who weren't too sure whether they wanted to share their mums with the project but they let them in the end - at least for a little while.

Knitting, stitching and finger knitting all getting done

Towards the end of our session Neil and Veronica brought some children along from the York Montessori Nursery and they made these lovely pompoms using a fork each!  We're wondering whether they took their new skill back to the Nursery and if it's now covered in fork pompoms!

Pompoms made by children from the York Montessori Nursery

And if that wasn't enough, Pie had brought along a bag of pompoms and Sarah had stitched some more #fantasyfish #fishfromyork at home so all in all we had lots to #increasetheshoal and with more than forty people at our workshop it really was a fab afternoon.  Thank you to everyone for all your hard work!  Thanks also to Rowntree Park Cafe for having us & for the fab drinks & cakes.

Fish knitting patterns

Our yarnstorm fish will be working hard to raise money for the York Flood Appeal.  And there's still time to join in.  You can find the fish knitting patterns here and you have until 10 June 2016 to get your finished #fantasyfish to Rowntree Park Cafe if you want them to be included in the yarnstorm.  (They don't have to be knitted - they can be stitched, felted or crocheted - to any suitable design)

If you want to find out more about the project's progress you can check out the following blogposts:

Fantasy Fish Yarnstorm - The Details

Extreme Knitting & a Fantasy Fish

Big Knitting & Fantasy Fish 

Craft & Design Month May 2016 & More Fantasy Fish

Fantasy Fish at the Winning Post, York

Fantasy Fish go to the Golden Ball, York

The Fantasy Fish Project is sponsored by the Friends of Rowntree Park and has been supported by Hobbycraft, York, Knit & Stitch, York and York School of Sewing.

Fantasy Fish go to the Golden Ball, York

Natalie and her makes

     

We were made very welcome at the Golden Ball in York for our second Fantasy Fish workshop in Craft & Design month.  We took over a whole room and only just fitted in.

Everyone soon got down to fish making

 

and pompom making, stitching and knitting

and serious concentration

and colour co-ordinating

not to mention chatting

and cross stitch & crochet

It was lovely to meet lots of new people and old friends and have a great afternoon as we #lovetoCREATE.  By the end of the workshop quite a lot of #fantasyfish had swum by and some swam off to be finished at home.  A big thank you goes to all who came along to help us #increasetheshoal and to the Golden Ball for having us.

Fantasy fish & pompoms caught in the net at the Golden Ball

   
Our yarnstorm fish will be working hard to raise money for the York Flood Appeal.  You can read more about the whole project here.  Some ceramic fish also swam by to help with the fundraising and quite a few have already found new homes.

Ceramic Fantasy Fish brooches

   

If you want to find out more about how the project is going you can check out the following blogposts:

Fantasy Fish Yarnstorm - The Details

Extreme Knitting & a Fantasy Fish

Big Knitting & Fantasy Fish 

Craft & Design Month May 2016 & More Fantasy Fish

Fantasy Fish at the Winning Post, York

and you can find the fish knitting patterns here.

Our final workshop is at Rowntree Park Cafe on Thursday 26 May from 2-4pm.  Do come and join us!

The Fantasy Fish Project is sponsored by the Friends of Rowntree Park and has been supported by Hobbycraft, York, Knit & Stitch, York and York School of Sewing.

Fantasy Fish at the Winning Post, York

Recent Fantasy Fish catch

   
We have just had our first Fantasy Fish workshop at the recently refurbished Winning Post in York and what a great time we had - thank you to everyone who came along!  

Fantasy Fish Yarnstorming at the Winnning Post

big knitting and stitching

There was a great turnout with both yarnstorming newcomers and regulars which was fantastic.  We had knitting (and with big needles - thank you, Emma!), stitching, pompom making, finger knitting and crocheting going on.

Big blue fish

swapping tips

Naomi from the Crochet Collective came along and crocheted some very cute fish for us.  But she wasn't the only crocheter amongst us - we also had some fab crocheted plant life & fish from other workshop attendees. 

great opportunity for chatting & laughing

It was great to join in with Voluntary Arts Week and Craft and Design Month to celebrate making.  People had found out about #fantasyfish from all sorts of different places so we were pleased that we'd managed to get the word out.

finger knitting, knitting & stitching!

Not only did everyone create fish on the night, we had several fish who swam in to #increasetheshoal and some that weren't quite finished were whisked off to be completed as "homework"!  One shoal swam in and out (so no pics) as it has another engagement before joining the Fantasy Fish Yarnstorm in Rowntree Park.  How mysterious is that?

lots of concentration going on!

And just in case you needed to see those fab #fishfromYork that will #increasethe shoal again, here they are for a quick recap!

Fish, plants & pompoms from the Winning Post Fantasy Fish yarnstorming workshop

  
And very importantly don't forget after the display we will be selling the fish to raise funds for the York Flood Appeal so do come and support us in that too!  For more details about when the sales are, when the display will be up in Rowntree Park, other workshop dates, knitting patterns etc. click here.

This was our first time at the Winning Post and we were made very welcome by owners, Fiona & Malcolm, and barman, Ed - thank you!   

The Fantasy Fish Project is sponsored by the Friends of Rowntree Park and has been supported by Hobbycraft, York, Knit & Stitch, York and York School of Sewing.

 

Big Knitting & Fantasy Fish

Big Knitted "Stripey" Fantasy Fish - 75cm long

      
Having completed my extreme knitting fantasy fish I quickly moved on to a bit of big knitting using these needles:

25mm diameter big needles x 580mm long

and choosing from this recyled material that I used for yarn:

Selvedge edges make good ribbon like yarn

I picked up the "yarn" at last year's Knitting & Stitching Show in Harrogate from The Starbeck Cone Exchange.  This is a Betty's & Taylor's community recycling project based in Starbeck, near Harrogate.  Here, people deposit their unwanted materials which are then sold as craft materials to support the Yorkshire Rainforest Project.  I bought some colourful reels of what looked like selvedge edges of a synthetic shiny fabric which knitted up a treat with my 25mm needles.

Silver & Navy "Fat Fish" Underway...

     
I've started on big fantasy fish no. 2, this time using the fat fish pattern, in silver & navy.  If you fancy knitting a big fish why not come along to one of our Fantasy Fish workshops in May 2016 and find out all about this year's Fantasy Fish Yarnstorm!  We'd love you to join in and if you can't make it to the workshops you can find Fantasy Fish Knitting Patterns here.  Send #FantasyFish from York (#fishfromYork) or send #fishfromafar.  Do post photos of your fish if you use social media.  Fish can be dropped off or sent to Fantasy Fish Yarnstorm, c/o Rowntree Park Cafe, Richardson Street, York, YO23 1JU