Yarnstorming Poppies in the Park

What are we doing?
In May it's Craft & Design Month 2015 which celebrates crafts across the UK, and with your help, Deborah New & I plan to make a giant red and white yarnstormed poppy installation for Rowntree Park, York to commemorate the First World War and to hope for peace.

Why are we doing this?

Rowntree Park was gifted to the City of York in 1921 by Rowntree & Company as a permanent memorial to the Rowntree Cocoa Works staff who died or suffered during the First World War and as a public park for the benefit of  York people.  One hundred years on, we are now in the midst of events commemorating WW1.

One of the memorial plaques in the park says:

 “This park and the adjoining playing fields were given to the city by Rowntree & Co. Ltd at the close of the Great War (1914-1918) as a tribute to the memory of those members of the company’s staff who at the cost of life or limb or health and in the face of indescribable suffering and hardship served their country in her hour of need. Many were inspired by the faith that this war might be the end of war – that victory would lead to an enduring peace and to greater happiness for the peoples of the world. The creation of the League of Nations will be a fitting crown to the faith and hope of the men who have fought and a true memorial to their endurance, heroism, comradeship and sacrifice.”

Remembering those who died or suffered through war whilst hoping for peace is therefore an intrinsic part of the Park’s existence and we hope our installation will encourage both thoughts of remembrance (red poppies) and peace (white poppies). 

One of our workshops is also in Voluntary Arts Week 2015 (15-24 May).  This is an annual celebration of cultural creativity across the UK & Republic of Ireland.  At our poppy making workshops, there will be knitting, stitching, pompom making, finger knitting, arm knitting & knitting with very large needles.  We hope to be doing some felt making* too!  

Workshop Dates

Tuesday 12 May 2015 – The Golden Ball Pub 
2 Cromwell Road, York, YO1 6DU 
19:00 – 21:00

Saturday 16 May 2015 – Tesco Community Room * 

Tesco, Askham Bar, Tadcaster Road, York, YO24 1LW 
10:00 – 12:00 

Tuesday 2 June 2015 – Rowntree Park Café 

Rowntree Park, Richardson Street, York, YO23 1JU 
14:00 – 16:00

Drop in – all materials provided

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 Poppies in Park knitting patterns and details of where to send your finished poppies if you click on the link.

Knitted poppies

When will the installation be up?
The Poppies in the Park installation goes up in Rowntree Park on Thursday 11 June (by the tennis courts, near the cafe) and will be on display until after the Rowntree Park Birthday Party on Sunday 12 July 2015.

And afterwards? 

After the installation comes down the poppies will go for fundraising purposes.  The red poppies will go to the York Branch of the Royal British Legion, who provide financial, social and emotional care and support to all members of the British Armed Forces - past and present and their families and the white poppies will go to the York Friargate Quaker Meeting to be sold to raise funds for the Peace Pledge Union who campaign for a warless world.

Want to see what we've done before?

Yarnstorming Event in Rowntree Park

Knit a Bike Yarnstormed Installation

The Poppies in the Park project is sponsored by the Friends of Rowntree Park, Boyes & Duttons for Buttons

Spring Knitting & Stitching Show at Olympia, London

Modern Empress - Eleanor Newton

Here's a quick whizz round the Spring Knitting & Stitching Show currently on at Olympia, London.  Those shortlisted by the National Fashion Textiles Exhibition were on display (16-19 year old students studying fashion & textiles were eligible to enter).  See my 2 favourites above & below ...

Reptiles & Birds - Kate Lynch

Then there was TOFT's #crochetjungle designed to inspire and teach adults and children to crochet and raise money for Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity and Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice ...

And of course the knitted farm, knitted by members of the public...

There were some fabulous World War One Commemorative Quilts by London Quilters.

In Memory of Harry Alexander McKillop - Lyn Fry

Detritus of War - Maggie Paykel

Marlene Cohen

and some amazing quilts by members of the Quilters' Guild in the Inspirations exhibition.  This one was fantastic ...

Barge in the Mist - Marian Hall

Marian even had the image of it made into a jigsaw for her mum - now there's a cool idea. You can find her blog here

And I learnt how to knit a square on the diagonal too with Terry Harper ...

In between all that I managed to take a look round all the stalls and found these that especially took my fancy ...

Textile Garden,  Silkindian, Mrs Moon, Sheep on Mars, Sew Me Something, The Maker's Atelier, Hannah Bass

Chris Gray at City of York Embroiderers' Guild

Afghan Bodice - richly embroidered 

This month Chris Gray came to talk to us to share her inspiration and work.  Chris is inspired by the textiles of Central Asia and Eastern Europe with their rich symbolism and fantastic detail.  She brought some amazing world textiles for us to see and handle.

Child's Hat

Blanket from India/Pakistan area made from collar and cuff edges

Detail from a door banner

Shisha mirrors are used to ward off the evil eye and cowrie shells are fertility symbols.  Chris likes the idea of work being more than just decorative and uses symbolism in her own richly decorated pieces.

Decorative scroll pouches - Chris Gray

Decorations - Chris Gray

120 hours stitching to make this triptych - Chris Gray

Beautiful patterns (detail) - Chris Gray

Chris says, "You don't have to visit (a place) in person to interact with other cultures and allow influences to enrich our lives and what we do."  Thanks for the inspiration, Chris. 

Yarnstorming the Fulford & Fishergate WI

Yarnstorming, yarnbombing, graffiti knitting, fibrestorming, guerilla knitting or whatever you want to call it - that's what was on the agenda at the Fulford & Fishergate WI this week. 

They had very kindly asked me along to talk to them about yarnbombing and wanted to try out some of the techniques used.

They all had a go at finger knitting and arm knitting

and got to hear about my yarnbombing adventures.  Hope I've inspired them to join in with our Poppies in the Park Installation in Rowntree Park, York later this year!

A lovely evening and great tea and biscuits - thank you Fulford & Fishergate WI!

Fabric Bowls

I belong to a textile group called Nest of Makers - who are a very friendly bunch.  We get together and sometimes we do our own thing and sometimes we have a skill sharing session.  At our last meeting Heather Chalkley showed us how to make fabric bowls.  I've only ever made these using hand stitching before and that was very time consuming.  Heather showed us how to make them using a sewing machine and we made rapid progress.

Fabric ripped into strips and ironed - it's good to have more than one fabric

You need fabric + matching thread, polypropylene rope, a sewing machine, some pins and a small bulldog clip.

Polypropylene rope

Then away you go ...

Sewing in progress!

You can see how much rope is needed for one bowl!

By the end of the day there were some lovely bowls ready for use!

After our lovely bowling day I went home enthusiastic to make more.  I decided I would use neutral fabric and stitch with neutral cotton thread and dye them.  So that's what I did.  After dyeing them all over, I then inverted the bowls in a shallow dye bath to get a contrasting colour on the rim.

An undyed bowl

Finished bowls

Here's what I learnt ...

It's quicker to use patterned fabric to get a colourful result and you don't need that much!

If you put a wet inverted bowl in the dye bath you get a rim that is just the area covered by the dye bath.

If you put the inverted bowl in dry the dye rises much further up the bowl but you get a nice shading effect ..

If you don't like the colour you have some scope to change it

 

Blue with green

Becomes blue with black!

 
and it can be quite addictive ...

Lots of bowls

The printed fabric bowls have gone to new homes and after some more dyeing this is what I've ended up with in the dyed bowls line ... 

In the end I made 8 bowls and used about 50m of rope.  Hold on to your washing lines - they may not be safe with me about!

A Day with Mandy James at Hope & Elvis

Did a fab workshop with Mandy James aka Daisy Moons Sewing Days at Hope & Elvis recently.  Mandy uses vintage papers, fabrics and haberdashery to produce her collages.  If you haven't seen Mandy's work then take a look here ...

After inspiration overload, Mandy talked us through various techniques with tips and demos.  Then we were let loose to raid the supplies provided by the lovely Louise Presley from Hope & Elvis ...

Vintage papers and a working typewriter to use

Vintage fabrics galore

and together with our pack of goodies from Mandy we set about producing our own vintage pieces ...

Templates, papers etc.

Hard at work

The results were great ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

A really lovely day with a lot of lovely people.  Can't wait to visit Hope & Elvis again!  (Check out the workshops on offer!)