Pond Life Yarnstorm - Friends of Rowntree Park Craft Group

Frog - Friends of Rowntree Park Craft Group

 

The Friends of Rowntree Park Craft Group are celebrating pond life in their yarnstorm this year. You can find it in the arbour by the tennis courts.

Water Lily - Friends of Rowntree Park Craft Group

The Pond Life craft display was originally thought up by Rosemary Bentley who is much missed. Although she is no longer with us, the craft group wanted to continue with this theme in her memory.

Duck - Friends of Rowntree Park Craft Group

Spider - Friends of Rowntree Park Craft Group

Bird in Tree - Friends of Rowntree Park Craft Group

 Pond Life - Friends of Rowntree Park Craft Group

Check it out when you're next in the park and see what you can spot!

Our Final Butterflies & Bees Sale

Lots for sale!

We had our second sale of the butterflies & bees from the Butterflies & Bees Yarnstorm in Rowntree Park, York today.  

Sales poster

Our enthusiastic customers were ready to buy as soon as we had all the beautiful creations out on the table!  It was so lovely to hear how much people had enjoyed seeing the display but even those who hadn't seen it were happy to rummage for a special souvenir!

Rosemary helping out

Rosemary from the Friends of Rowntree Park (FoRP) was staffing the stall with me.  It was a lovely morning - thanks so much to everyone who came to support us and to all those who made all the lovely butterflies, bees and flowers.  We can't do any of it without you!

Butterfly garlands for sale

In total, from both our sales and from donations, we raised £485 for the FoRP who help maintain & improve the park and run events for the community.  We sold almost 400 butterflies, bees and flowers (including 2 snails, 2 caterpillars and the hive with all its bees).  Any remaining butterflies, bees and flowers are going to the FoRP for them to sell or reuse in other projects. Whilst all the items were popular, the knitted and crochet bees were particularly quick to fly off! 

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

Butterflies & Bees Yarnstorm - Rowntree Park, York

Butterflies & Bees Yarnstorm - Rowntree Park, York

Butterflies & Bees Yarnstorm - Rowntree Park, York

Butterflies & Bees Yarnstorm - Rowntree Park, York

Butterflies & Bees Yarnstorm - Rowntree Park, York

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!

Installing the Rowntree Park 100th Birthday Banner

Happy 100th Birthday Banner with Butterflies & Bees

The Happy 100th Birthday Banner and some ginormous butterflies & bees went up in Rowntree Park, York yesterday! The car was loaded with everything we needed for the installation...

Loaded up & ready to go

Once we got organised at the park, Deborah & I installed it with the much appreciated help of Geoff, who we stole from the volunteer gardeners...

Geoff hard at work with those cable ties

and here are Deborah and I doing some finishing touches - thanks to Mary Whitehouse (@yorkstitcher) for the pic...

Deborah & I installing the birthday banner
Photo credit: Mary Whitehouse - @yorkstitcher on Instagram

Here are a few close ups of the finished piece...

Giant crochet butterfly

A trio of giant stitched bees

Slightly smaller giant crochet butterfly

Flowers, butterflies & bees

Info sign

To find out more about the making of the banner (thanks go to Edna Shilleto for all the crochet squares - what a star!) look here or for the making of the giant bees, look here.

This is the first stage of the Butterflies & Bees and a Happy 100th Birthday Yarnstorm.  You've still time to join in with the Butterflies and Bees Yarnstorm.  All the details are here and the patterns are here or use your own patterns if you prefer.  All makes have to be in by the end of July 2021.  You can leave them in the collection basket at Rowntree Park Cafe.  

Collection Basket in Rowntree Park Cafe

The butterflies and bees will go on display in time for the August Bank holiday and will be in place till the end of September 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. 

So, go take a look at the Happy 100th Birthday banner, & keep a lookout for the Butterflies & Bees Yarnstorm at the end of August 2021 and for the sale dates in October 2021. 

Donation tin in Rowntree Park Cafe

Donations to the Friends of Rowntree Park

The Friends of Rowntree Park have sponsored this yarnstorm.  So, if you've enjoyed this project and would like to make a donation to the Friends of Rowntree Park, click here or pop into Rowntree Park Cafe (which is now open until 6pm for the summer) and leave a donation in the Friends of Rowntree Park tin.

Second Rowntree Park Butterflies & Bees Workshop

Workshop Participants

 
Today was International Yarnbombing Day which was quite appropriate as we were making butterflies and bees for the Butterflies & Bees Yarnstorm that's going up in Rowntree Park, York!  Although the weather wasn't quite as good as at our last workshop it was still warm.  Butterflies and Bees were being stitched, knitted and pompommed...

Stitched Bees & a Pompom Bee

Stitched & Knitted Butterflies

Some flew off to be finished at home.  Gina brought the butterflies she'd been knitting at home to add to the swarm...

Gina's Knitted Butterflies

A group of friends popped by...

Di, Beth, Anne & Monica

to deliver their makes...

Flowers, Butterflies & Bees

and after the workshop, Deborah & I went for a lovely coffee & pastry at Rowntree Park Cafe and collected a few more makes...

Crochet & Pompom Bees and a Fab Felt Butterfly

All in all it was an excellent day for increasing the swarm of butterflies & bees.  Thank you so much to everyone who has made some!

Want to find out more about the Butterflies and Bees Yarnstorm? Take a look here for details, workshops and patterns. If you can't make a workshop, you can 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.  Saturday is World Wide Knit in Public Day - so there's an opportunity to dust off your needles and get knitting - in public!

Rainbow Yarnstorm in Rowntree Park, York

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!