The Meadow Community Art Project

The Meadow Community Art Project
Led by Deborah New

"The Meadow" is York Learning's 2024 Community Art Project.  It uses denim as a focus to highlight the unsustainable nature of the fashion industry. 

The Meadow - detail

York Learning’s dressmaking classes collected denim scraps from past projects, which were sewn together to form the base layer of The Meadow. Then, Deborah New, textile artist and tutor, worked with women from the Kyra Women's Project.  The Kyra Women's Project support women to make positive changes to their lives. They stitched into the patchwork denim background inspired by Japanese boro and sashiko techniques.

The Meadow - detail

The participants also hand embroidered many different flowers and leaves which could then be added to the piece.

The Meadow - detail

Volunteers helped attach the pieces onto the background to create "The Meadow".

The Meadow - detail

Barely anything used in the project was bought new. Embroidery threads were sourced from the Cone Exchange in Harrogate. The Cone Exchange is the flagship community project of Bettys & Taylors Group. It is a scrapstore which repurposes waste materials from businesses and donations from the local community. The money raised is used for local good causes.

The Meadow - detail

Some of the participants embroidered their names which were added to the piece...

The Meadow - Embroidered Names

Routes2Success learners researched facts and figures about the scandalous nature of the fashion industry in terms of waste, pollution and carbon emissions. These were cleverly displayed as the tags you get on new clothing. The plastic which enables you to read these labels came from recycled plastic bags...

The Meadow - Labels

Deborah cleverly used recycled denim jean belt loops to hang the project - see first image.  

"The Meadow" is truly fabulous.  It's currently being exhibited at York Explore (York Central Library), Library Square, York, YO1 7DS till early September 2025. If you get the chance, do go and see it!  If you're making a special trip, do check with the library first to make sure it's still on show.

Garden Fork Weaving & a Butterfly

Garden Fork Woven Butterfly

I've been scaling up and being a bit creative with some fork weaving that I watched on YouTube.  On that video (which you can watch here) by Nakshi Kantha World, it shows you how to weave a flower petal on an ordinary, everyday fork and then combine the petals to make a flower.  I thought the petal could be adapted to become a butterfly wing and if done on a larger scale would make a great big butterfly. 

Where, I thought, am I going to find a large fork though?  After a trip to the garden shed however, I had my answer!

So, first wash your garden fork...

Luckily the fork fitted in the bucket!

Washing the garden fork

Find some big yarn.  I had some brightly coloured selvedge edge ribbon that I got from the Cone Exchange (which is a completely amazing place and well worth a visit - at the moment you have to book an appointment).  Alternatively you can make some yourself from old textiles or T shirts - try about 2.5 cm/1 inch wide.  

Start weaving in and out of the fork tines - this is one round

Next, begin weaving round your garden fork.  Don't forget to count how many rounds you do as you have to produce two the same size and then two more but a little smaller! These will be the butterfly's fore and hindwings.  I used orange for the hindwings and pink for the forewings with 15 full rounds for the hindwings and 20 for the forewings.

Continue weaving

You may have to push your yarn down the fork in order to fit on all the rounds you need. When you have done enough rounds, finish with your yarn at the same end you started at.  You will have to cut your yarn off now if it's on a roll.  Make sure you leave enough to feed up and down all the tines and knot the ends.  Err on the side of caution! Next, feed the yarn down between the yarn strands by the end tine.  Turn your fork round and knot your yarn to the end you started with.

Knot the ends together

Then continue threading your yarn up the next tine and down the following one and up the final tine.

Feed your yarn up and down the tines

Then take the yarn down the side of your weaving on the outside and take it up the final tine again.

Ready to take the weaving off the fork

You are now ready to take the weaving off your fork, after which you can pull on this final end and it will gather up one side of the wing.  You can use the yarn tails to attach the wings to the body.

Butterfly wings

I finger knitted a body on four fingers and tied the wings on.  I used the remaining yarn ends to plait some antennae with I attached by threading through the centre of the head. Et voilà...

Finished butterfly

My butterfly is about 46 cm (18 inches) - antennae to tail by 40 cm (15.75 inches) - wingspan.  He's going to be part of the Butterflies and Bees & a Happy 100th Birthday Yarnstorm in Rowntree Park York.  I'll be bringing my garden fork to the two outdoor Butterflies & Bees workshops in Rowntree Park if you fancy having a go.  Don't forget to book you place though!  You can book here. Full Yarnstorm project details here.

Big Knitting Brilliant Birds Owl

Big knitted owl and his much smaller friend

To accompany all the amazing birds that keep flying in for the Brilliant Birds Yarnstorm in Rowntree Park, York later this month, we are going to have a display on the tennis court fence with birds of somewhat larger dimensions.  You may already have read about the woven Hula Hoop birds.  Well, now there's also a big knitted owl.

25mm & 15mm needles

Using 25mm knitting needles and selvedge edge ribbon from the Cone Exchange, Gillian knitted the owl in record time.  (Quick aside - the Cone Exchange is a community scrap store in Harrogate set up by Bettys & Taylors which recycles and reuses waste materials from their own and other local businesses.  It's an amazing place!)

Selvedge edge ribbon for the owl and black yarn for the pompom eyes

Gillian, having finished the owl, works on another #BrilliantBirds project at The Winning Post...

So fast, Gillian had already knitted the owl (see far left) before I remembered to take a photo!

 
Next, using 15mm needles, I knitted the beak and part of the eyes with a couple of pompoms to finish them off.  And there you have it - a big knitted owl approx 56cm by 30cm (22 inches by 18 inches).  Watch out for him flying in!

If you want to join in with the Brilliant Birds Yarnstorm supporting St Leonard's Hospice in Rowntree Park, York this June, you can find out all the details here, the patterns here and you have until Saturday 10 June 2017 for your birds to fly into Rowntree Park Cafe.  Go on, #whatwillyoumake?

Hula Hoop Weaving & Brilliant Birds

Hula Hoop weaving

I've wanted to have a go at hula hoop weaving for some time but somehow just haven't got round to it.  As an incentive I decided it would be on offer at our #BrilliantBirds workshops.  And, in order to do so, I had to test it out.

First warp up your hula hoop

I cut up a yellow T shirt into 2.5cm (1 inch) strips and used these stretched across a hula hoop for the warp.  Then starting in the centre, I tied the first piece on and started weaving in and out. After a while I changed to blue and carried on until the hoop was nearly full but there was enough warp to tie off all the ends.  Then I cut all the warp loops and tied them - a little too tightly which made my blue tit curl a little.  You can find out more about hula hoop weaving from wonderfuldiy here.

Finished weaving cut off the hoop with the ends tied off

This was quite a small hula hoop - approx. 55cm (21.5 inches) diameter, but still took 4 or 5 T shirts to make my bird.  The blue tit has a 70cm (27.5 inches) wingspan and is about 43cm (17 inches) from the top of his head to where his legs begin.

For the features I made pompom eyes...
 

Pompom eyes

and recycled some finger knitting into a beak and legs...

Finger knitted legs and beak

Then using some of the cut up T shirts, I knitted some wings.  I used the same pattern for the wings as in the Blue Tit Knitting Pattern but with a few more stitches and bigger needles...
 

Knitted wings

Then I laid all the pieces out to see how it all looked...

All laid out

I sewed the wings on and then stabilised the body and wings by stitching it to some plastic fencing, added some more blue to cover up the yellow ties and then attached the other features...

Finished blue tit with his smaller knitted cousin

and off he flew to join his little cousin. 

Linda at Rowntree Park Cafe - photo by Peter Bayliss

Linda started another blue tit using selvedge edge ribbon from the Cone Exchange.  (The Cone Exchange is a community scrap store in Harrogate set up by Bettys & Taylors which recycles and reuses waste materials from their own and other local businesses.  It's an amazing place!)

Selvedge edge ribbon from the Cone Exchange

Lara also helped and in the end the size was constrained by the amount of blue ribbon left...

Not much blue left

Once finished it was cut and tied off the hula hoop...

Bird cut off the hoop

and it'll look something like this when finished...

Laid out ready for pieceing together

with a wingspan of about 80cm (31.5 inches) and a body diameter of 38cm (15 inches).

Watch out for the hula hoop birds flying in to join the Brilliant Birds Yarnstorm supporting St Leonard's Hospice in Rowntree Park, York this June.  You can find out all the details here.