It’s great when two fiber-related events occur at the same time. June 2012 features two notable events for yarn lovers in general and knitters and crocheters in particular.
Wordwide Knit in Public Day
The first event is World Wide Knit in Public week, which occurs from the second Saturday to the third Sunday in June each year. Founded by Danielle Landes in 2005, WWKIP has as its main goal to “[show] the general public that knitting (and crocheting) can be a community activity in a very distinct way.”
This year, Worldwide Knit In Public Day will be celebrated on June 9, 2012. You can learn more about World Wide Knit in Public Day by visiting the WWKP website.
International Yarn Bombing Day
If you haven’t heard about the yarn bombing craze that has been sweeping the globe, then you’ve been living under a rock. Yarn bombers use crocheted and knitted pieces to “decorate” an urban landscape, be it a city park, an office building, or a city sidewalk. This fiber-based street art goes by many names, including yarn storming, guerrilla knitting, urban knitting, and graffiti knitting.
“Guns, Lisburn (2)” CC BY-SA 2.0 by Albert Bridge
Yarn bombers from around the world have been clandestinely or openly and with permission bombing city light posts, parking meters, statues, signs, railing, fences, bike racks, trees, and even rocks with beautifully designed and executed knit and crocheted covers, cozies, and amigurumi dolls.
The go-to primer for learning everything you ever wanted to know about yarn bombing is the book, Yarn Bombing: The Art of Knit Grafitti by Mandy Moore and Leanne Prain.
This year, June 9, 2012 has been designated as International Yarn Bombing Day. First held a short year ago on June 11, 2011, International Yarn Bombing Day was founded by Joann Matvichuk, a knitter from Alberta, Canada.
Yarn bombing individuals and groups from around the world are gearing up to participate in this year’s event. The fiber group, AlohaKnitters ,for example, is debuting an installation at a major, local venue in Honolulu, Hawaii on June 12, 2012. Contributors to the installation include local area knitters and crocheters, myself included, as well as local school children. The details will be revealed on the day the installation debuts, so I’ll have more to say about it (and photos, too!) in future posts.
In the meantime, visit Yarn Bombing dot com to view photos of yarn bombing projects and learn about knit and crochet graffiti groups from around the world.
What are your plans for celebrating these two events?
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