Hippystitch: community knitting

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Friday, 27 August 2021

Butterflies and Bees (Yarn)Swarm into Rowntree Park, York

Butterflies & bees strung ready to be hung up

Today's the day that all the butterflies and bees swarmed into Rowntree Park, York to form a yarnstorm or perhaps more accurately a yarnswarm! This installation is part of the celebrations for Rowntree Park's 100th birthday. We have had over 725 butterflies and bees fly in to join the display. There are almost twice as many butterflies as bees and a handful of caterpillars and snails, not to mention a whole host of lovely flowers. People have knitted, crocheted, stitched, pompommed, felted, origamied (is that a word?) and funky foamed a fabulous swarm for us to display.

Deborah hanging up the butterflies & bees

Here I am doing the same

Deborah New (& Polly - thanks, Polly!) and I have strung them together and hung them in the arbour at Rowntree Park, York for you to enjoy. We hope you like them and that you have fun spotting your favourites or the ones you've made. Why not take your own pictures of the Butterflies & Bees yarnstorm and post them on social media using #butterfliesandbees and tag me in - @hippystitch - to be sure I get to see them!

Butterflies & Bees Yarnstorm - Rowntree Park, York

There's an information sign if you want to find out more about the project - or you can take a look here.

Information Sign

And don't forget to look carefully so you don't miss anything...

Don't miss spotting all the bees!

The butterflies and bees will be in place until the end of September 2021 after which they will be sold to raise money for the Friends of Rowntree Park, who work hard to help maintain, improve and promote the park for everyone's enjoyment. Sales will take place below the cafe on these dates:

Sunday 10 October 2021 10:30 - 12:30
Saturday 16 October 2021 10:30 - 12:30

If
you have enjoyed seeing this installation and want to make a donation to the Friends of Rowntree Park, pop into Rowntree Park Café where
there is a tin for your donation.  Alternatively, you can donate directly by
visiting the Friends of Rowntree Park website here.

If you want to read more about this project and the Happy 100th Birthday Banner then take a look here.

Happy 100th Birthday Banner

Looking forward to seeing your pictures and to seeing you at the sales!

Sunday, 6 June 2021

First Rowntree Park Butterflies & Bees Workshop

Workshop Participants

We had our first Butterflies & Bees workshop in Rowntree Park on Saturday. It was lovely to have an in person workshop. The weather was glorious and there was plenty of room to spread out. We had knitting, stitching, pompom making, crocheting, some garden fork weaving and finger knitting going on!

Plentiful supplies were available...

Plentiful Supplies

And lots of fab things were made. This lovely garden fork butterfly was a team effort by Charlotte, her step-mum Mandi and her dad, Martin...

Garden Fork Butterfly

Candi, Alice, India and Louise stitched some fab bees...

Stitched Bees

Sara crocheted and Louise knitted some super cute bees...

Crochet & Knitted Bees

Val, Iris, Cara & Agnes stitched some beautiful butterflies...

Stitched Butterflies

Cara & Iris, Vicki & Heidi & Charlotte made pompom bees...

Pompom Bees

Heidi also knitted a tiny purple and blue bee which is sitting on a lovely leaf that Muna crocheted...

Knitted Bee Perching on Crochet Leaf

It was a very productive afternoon!

We have another workshop in Rowntree Park on Friday 11 June 2021 - International Yarnbombing Day (how appropriate!). There are still some places available. You can book here. Let's hope for more lovely weather. If you can't make the workshop you can still join in by making at home or with friends. You've got till the end of July 2021 to get your makes to Rowntree Park Cafe. All the patterns are online here or use your own. More project details are here.

Sunday, 19 July 2020

Rainbow Yarnstorm in Rowntree Park, York

You may remember, back in April, I told you all about the Friends of Rowntree Park Craft Group's plans for a Rainbows for Rowntree Park Yarnstorm and how you could join in. Well, thanks to everyone who did because the yarnstorm is now on display in the park and looks fantastic! The display is a big thank you to the NHS, carers, key workers and anyone who has helped others throughout the last few months. The rainbows are also a celebration of the park itself which has been a special place for many, especially recently! And it's to celebrate the Park's 99th birthday. Rainbows are a symbol of hope and in some ways that was why the Park was created - to symbolise a hopeful future for the people of York.

Firstly, there's a truly magnificent gigantic rainbow yarnstorm on the tennis court fence. It's a collage of knitted, crocheted and stitched squares.

Rainbow Yarnstorm Detail

On top of these squares there's extra interest added in the form of flowers and other stuff. See if you can spot the frog, the car and the whale!

Check out some of the extra decorations

It even looks good from the back...

Back View

Fun facts - did you know there are 86 red squares, 77 orange, 64 yellow, 55 green, 42 blue and indigo and 49 violet. That's more than 370 altogether! The whole display was made by over 40 people, from primary school age to over 90, from all over the city and further afield.

Rainbow Bench

You can even sit on the rainbow bench and have your photo taken which quite a lot of people were doing when I was there. It seems to be proving very popular!

Lots of people like the yarnstorm

You can then move on to see the individual rainbows which are hanging in the arbour. Here's a sneaky peak...

Rainbows in the Arbour

and a bit more detail...

Rainbows in the Arbour

Don't forget to take a look at the display board by the cafe...

Display board by the cafe

because there's alot of interesting rainbows and rainbow coloured pieces there too!

Detail from the Noticeboard

The Friends of Rowntree Park Craft Group hope to keep the yarnstorm up until the end of August so you've got plenty of time to take a look. Why not take a pic of yourself with the rainbow and post it to social media with the hashtag #RainbowsforRowntreePark.

Thanks to the Friends of Rowntree Park Craft Group and all who took part for such a fabulous display!

Wednesday, 24 July 2019

Treemendous Tree Leaves

All loaded up and ready to go!

Today Deborah and I installed the Tree Leaves Yarnstorm. It was a lovely day for it. We arrived at Rowntree Park with all our equipment and everybody's fab makes and set up camp...

Tree Leaves Base Camp

And look, we had an audience straight away...

We definitely made progress, with Deborah concentrating on the little trees and leaves...

Deborah hangs all the little trees and leaves

while I concentrated on the big ones...

and finally it was finished...

Extreme knitting, big knitting, finger knitting and some fab knitted, stitched and crocheted leaves

So if you are wondering what this is all about, keep reading. The installation was designed and made by Deborah New & I with the amazing help of the local community and those further afield. We came together to celebrate craft and creativity, to put “Art in the Park” and to fundraise for charity. This installation will be in place for about one month. (It will be coming down in late August).

The charity we are supporting with this project is the Woodland Trust. They protect and campaign on behalf of this country’s woods, plant trees, and restore ancient woodland for the benefit of wildlife and people. Their vision is a UK rich in native woods and trees, for people and wildlife. After the display is taken down, the trees will be sold to raise funds for the Woodland Trust.

Sale dates are as follows:

Saturday 21 September 2019 - RowntreePark (by the café) 10-3pm

Thursday 26 September 2019 – Trafalgar Bay Pub, York 7-9pm

Or if you've enjoyed seeing the installation, why not pop into Rowntree Park Cafe where there is a tin (just by the till) for your Woodland Trust donation. Alternatively you can donate directly by visiting the Woodland Trust website - click here.

What do you like best about the Tree Leaves Yarnstorm? And which tree or leaf is your favourite? Please post your pics on social media using #TreeLeaves and #urbanforest.

If you want to see more about the Tree Leaves Yarnstorm check out these blogposts: