Tag Archives: derby

International Yarn Bombing Day!

Posted on by Abi

Last Saturday was International Yarn Bombing Day! In honour of this and because we had just Yarn Bombed Derby’s Silk Mill Anne decided to keep up the fun loving spirit, but this time she yarn bombed people!!

She returned to the Silk Mill where most of the creations from the previous weekend were still present. A bit or rearranging was required, all the bees had flown away to new homes, so the birds now took their place.

It was wonderful to see how well things had survived despite the awful wet weather during the week. Anne also managed to take a few dry pictures, which made a welcome change.

Here is a closeup of one of the chains that were hung from the building and as you can see it has survived really well.

Aside from international yarn bombing day, Saturday also saw a Red Cross Shop n Swap arrive at the Silk Mill. Part of the event was to bring along clothes you no longer wore and swap with someone else.

This went extremely well and everyone had a good time swapping and looking at a variety of stalls.

Anne had knitted five chain necklaces and both stall holders and customers took part in wearing them for a while and then they picked out someone new to yarn bomb. Each necklace had a small tag detailing the idea. Everyone really got into the spirit of it and was a lot of fun.

If you fancy seeing yet more yarn bombing, there is a website where people across the globe put the projects up for all to see http://yarnbombing.com/

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Yarn Bombing!

Posted on by Abi

This past weekend Derby was lucky enough to host a Maker Faire in the historic Silk Mill Museum. Maker Faires started in America to celebrate arts, crafts, engineering, science projects, technology and the Do-it-Yourself mindset.

Derby is the third city in this country to host one and as part of the celebrations a small group of knitters and crafters (Anne and myself included) decided to Yarn Bomb some of the outside area of the Silk mill building!

We began by deciding exactly how we would like to decorate the building. Two members simultaneously came up with the idea to knit ‘paper’ chains. The first photo is of one of the chains hanging in my garden and the second is of 7 chains hanging from the building itself.

We also decorated some large ornate gates, railings and posts outside the mill. Unfortunately like much of the country the Faire suffered from heavy rain on the day and this can be clearly seen in the photographs. Thankfully Anne had thoughtfully sprayed all the knitting with a waterproofing spray so the creations survived, much to the delight of all.

It was great fun creating and decorating with knits and felt and we now feel inspired to do more. In fact this Saturday (9th June) just so happens to be International Yarn Bombing Day, so if you fancying getting in on the action and bringing a little creative joy to your neighbourhood now is most definitely the time!

If you don’t feel comfortable yarn bombing a large structure then knitting a few decorations such as our chains can be a wonderful way to decorate your own garden and trees at home.

To Knit Our Chains

Use Double Knitting Yarn

4mm (or size 8 needles)

Cast on 40 stitches.

Knit 10 rows all in Garter Stitch, then cast off.

Then make them up as your would a paper chain, but instead of sticking the ends together, stitch them!

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Derby Feste!

Posted on by Abi

If you don’t live in this part of the world, then chances are you haven’t heard of Derby Feste. A weekend long celebration that has been called ‘One of the most exciting UK festivals for outdoor performance’ by The Guardian. It happened this past weekend and my brood and I went along to see what delights were roaming the streets this year.

We began the festival by meeting the Jelly Rollers Dragon. A wondrous red creature that is controlled by children cranking various wheels and cogs and making noise (much to their delight). Flags spin, horns sound and generally the kids get overexcited! He has an old world charm and I secretly harboured a wish to join in the fun.

Next we walked to the Cathedral Green and came across a giant pig! It’s eyes opened and closed lazily and ten children watched a show being performed inside the pigs belly. Unfortunately my children missed the show by Whalley Range All Stars, but I gather it was very good.

We then moved over to the Troll’s Kitchen where dozens of children were giggling wildly as a very charismatic chef (with a French accent as dangerously awful as my own) taught them to cook rather unsavoury dishes such as ‘Death by Cowpat’ or ‘Blackbeard Sushi’.

Back into the centre and we met two very large bugs. These gigantic green creepy crawlies were actually rather friendly, offering their bugging arms to shake. My son enthusiastically shook two at once and then bounced across the street!

After a short trip home for food (and large cups of tea for the parents) we made our way back and joined the parade. The Feste Finale was performed this year by the wonderful Surraga from Spain. It was the second time this wonderful company has lead the parade and this year they brought gigantic steam blowing fish with them. Presumably rather fit individuals ride a kind of bike contraption behind each puppet moving and animating as they go.

The first fish, a clown fish was similar enough to Disney’s Nemo to make every child in the city shout and squeal with delight. He spun and twisted while blowing steam upon unsuspecting victims who duly broke out in fits of hysterics.

He was followed by a Jelly Fish who bobbed about happily. This was followed by a very friendly (although keen to blow steam) yellow fish.

Then uh oh!

An exceedingly large shark put in an appearance, he spun his full length in circles above the crowd (causing some rather quick ducking so as not to be hit) and ominously loomed over our heads.

We followed them through the streets and down to Cathedral Green. It was so busy here that we thought we wouldn’t see anything else. Luckily we were wrong as a firework display had been planned on the river bridge, to signal the end of the days festivities.

We got home terribly late and my children actually slept in on Sunday, so all in all a wonderful (and free!) event.

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