Hippystitch: York Festival of Ideas

Showing posts with label York Festival of Ideas. Show all posts

Thursday, 24 July 2025

Micklegate Arts Trail, York - 31 May 2025 to 15 June 2025

Micklegate Arts Trail - A Shoal of Knitted Fish

It occurred to me just the other day that I'd not blogged about the Micklegate Arts Trail (MAT) so for those who didn't get to go, I thought I should. It was great to be involved in a 2 week extravaganza of art, music, film and poetry where 14 venues showcased the work of over 30 artists...

Micklegate Arts Trail 2025 - Artists and Venues

MAT is organised by Navigators Art and is a collaboration between local businesses and artists and is part of the York Festival of Ideas. I took along some extreme knitting, big knitting, hula hoop weaving and crochet to exhibit on the railings of Holy Trinity Church.

Happy, Birds and Rainbow

These were mostly pieces that were originally developed for community art projects in Rowntree Park, which you can read about here (extreme knitted fish), here (big knitted fish), here (big knitted owl), here (hula hoop woven blue tit), here (crocheted Happy) and here (rainbow). Some of these were made by me and some were made or part made by people joining in with the community projects. It was lovely to see them all on display again!

Me with some extreme knitting

As part of MAT I brought along my extreme knitting needles so people could have a go for themselves. And here are just a few of the people who tried it out. It was very popular...

Extreme Knitting in Progress

There were some other great artists exhibiting in Holy Trinity Church and grounds...

MAT Holy Trinity Church - Peter Baker, Nick Walters, Lu Mason, Barry Lewis, Richard Mackness (from top left clockwise to centre)

And of course there were lots of fab artists exhibiting along the Arts Trail. Here are just a few...

Micklegate Arts Trail 2025(clockwise from top left)- Sinead Corkery at No. 84 Deli & Cafe, Fiona Kemp at Hudson Moody, Richard Thompson at The Hooting Owl, Nick Kobyluch at Skosh

It was great fun taking part. I hope everyone who came to visit enjoyed the trail. Thanks to Navigators Art and the York Festival of Ideas and to the venues that took part for making it possible. Special thanks to Nick Walters for organising the Holy Trinity venue. And then it was over...

Hippystitch Exhibit Taken down and Packed Up

Thanks to Deborah New for helping me put everything up (and who also helped with the original community projects) and to Lily Stone for helping me take it down. Watch out for next years Art Trail!

Sunday, 16 June 2019

Tree Leaves at Rowntree Park Cafe #2

Fab trees and leaves from the Rowntree Park Cafe workshop

Our final #TreeLeaves workshop took place during the York Festival of Ideas in Rowntree Park Cafe. We had a great turnout and it was also an opportunity to pick up some of the trees and leaves that had been left for the project.

Our youngest participant...

made this super tree...

Everyone was very busy, chatting, knitting & stitching...

making fantastic trees and leaves as you can see from the pic at the start. Anna had the idea to applique some owls on her trees...

Anna's trees with applique owls

and Gina added buttons and ribbon to her topiary tree...

Gina's topiary tree with buttons and ribbon

and what a fab stitched leaf from Angie....

Angie's leaf

Also we had deliveries of leaves from Denise...

Denise's leaves

and Sylvia...

Sylvia's leaves

and trees and leaves from Anna...

Anna's trees & leaves

and trees from Alyson...

Alyson's trees

Aren't they all great! Thanks to everyone for joining in and thanks to Rowntree Park Cafe for looking after us!

And you still have time to join in. Finished trees and leaves have to be with Rowntree Park Cafe or the Trafalgar Bay pub by Saturday 22 June 2019. Full details here.

The Tree Leaves Yarnstorm goes up in Rowntree Park on Wednesday 24 July 2019 (weather permitting) and will be up until the end of August. Sales of the trees in aid of the Woodland Trust will take place in September - more details on that later.

Wednesday, 3 April 2019

Tree Leaves Yarnstorm - The Details

What's happening?
Come and make trees and leaves with Deborah New & I so that we can create a giant Tree Leaves yarnstorm installation for Rowntree Park, York in time for this summer.

Yarnstorming Workshops

Some of our workshops are during the Get Creative Festival...

This is a huge national celebration of creativity that aims to give everyone the chance to get actively involved in a creative event in their local area and we are joining in! At our Tree Leaves workshops, you can unleash your creativity with knitting, stitching, pompom making, finger knitting and knitting with very large needles.

And we also have a workshop during the York Festival of Ideas...

This festival is taking place from 4-16 June 2019 under the banner of A World of Wonder. Featuring world-class speakers, exhibitions, theatre, music, films, guided walks, family-friendly activities and much more, York Festival of Ideas offers a huge range of stimulating and diverse events for all ages and interests – most of them free - and our event is one of them. Events take place at venues throughout the city.

Yarnstorming Workshop Dates

Saturday 11 May 2019 - Spark: York - Platform

17-21 Piccadilly, York YO1 9PB
14:00-16:00

Monday 13 May 2019 – Rowntree Park Café
Rowntree Park, Richardson Street, York, YO23 1JU
14:00 – 16:00

Tuesday 21 May 2019 – Trafalgar Bay
7 Nunnery Lane, York, YO23 1AB
19:00 – 21:00

Friday 14 June 2019 – Rowntree Park Café
Rowntree Park, Richardson Street, York, YO23 1JU
14:00 – 16:00

Drop in – all materials provided and leave your makes behind for display in the park.

Want to join in but can't make a workshop?
If you can't get to any of the workshops but still want to be involved you'll find some Tree & Leaf Patterns here. In all there are five different tree and four leaf knitting patterns. Why not give them all a try? If you'd prefer to stitch why not use the shapes of the knitted trees & leaves as inspiration for your stitching or go freestyle - more here.

Completed trees & leaves can be left at Rowntree Park Cafe, Rowntree Park, Richardson Street, York, YO23 1JU, or the Trafalgar Bay pub, 7 Nunnery Lane, York, YO23 1AB or dropped off at any of the workshops (see above). If you use social media why not post a picture of your tree or leaf and use #TreeLeaves and #urbanforest in your post.

And you don't have to use these patterns - we'd be happy to have a knitted, stitched, felted or crocheted tree or leaf of your preferred design.

All Trees & Leaves to arrive by Saturday 22 June 2019 please.

When will the installation be up?
The Tree Leaves installation goes up in Rowntree Park on Wednesday 24 July 2019 (by the tennis courts, near the café and beyond), weather permitting, and will be on display until the end of August 2019.

And afterwards?

We have a number of plans for all the Tree Leaves after the installation comes down.

Some of the trees are going to be sold to raise funds for the Woodland Trust which is the charity we are pleased to be supporting this year. The Woodland Trust protects and campaigns on behalf of this country’s woods, plants trees, and restores ancient woodland for the benefit of wildlife and people. Their vision is a UK rich in native woods and trees, for people and wildlife. With over 500,000 members and supporters, the Trust maintain over 1000 sites, a number of which are in the York area. They also maintain a database of publicly accessible woodland which you can access here to plan your venture into the woods. And with their online info about native and non-native trees you can find out more about the trees you will see.

Do watch out for details of our tree sales in September 2019!

Some of the trees from our installation will go to Bishopthorpe Road, York to bring an #urbanforest to the area round the recycling bins. All the leaves will be going on to decorate Spark: York.

Want to see what we've done before?

Yarnstorming Event in Rowntree Park - 2013