It Was A Dark And Stormy Night - Guest Post By The Purl-ice

It was a dark and stormy night in Peterborough. Rain thrashed the grounds of the strike zone. Most sane people in the city had long since headed for cover from Mother Nature's fury.

Quietly, shadows began to stir and stealthy feet flitted across grass, ice, puddles and mud. It may have been too cold for normal mortals, but not those swathed in knitted comfort. Not for the Kninjas.

They crept, leapt and slid across the battle ground. Heard only were the SCHWINGs of darning needles and the low flutter of tags in the breeze.

It didn't last long. But the fun never does. The last light left the sky. The rain slowed. The shadow masters slipped back into the shadows. All that was left were the stitched tags of the Kninjas.

Until next time.

Stay Calm and Cast On.

The Purl-ice.



Picture Additions By KnitMama (just to give you a tiny glimpse):

The Final Teaser...

Alright... we can't tell you when or where still... but this will the last time we give you teaser pictures until the big group tag occurs.... that's how soon it will be!!

We've got Knitting Mermaid's piece completed after it was rescued!

Here is her completed piece

Knitting Wonder Woman along with KnitMama have their piece all done... including a pom pom!

Knitting Wonder Woman and KnitMama did this piece together (this is Knitting Wonder Woman's first knitting project ever)

I got my piece just done today.... I was cutting it close.  But a Knitting Kninja knows how to deal with deadlines!

This piece will fit all around the pole 

You can see on my label that I've left a message for the Man In The Tan Coat

KnitMama has knit up a few pieces:

This piece has some lacy work

This piece used up some ends of yarn... where will it go?

And... this is the piece that was made from all those smaller pieces... it's a tulip to bring on some spring weather!

It's all held together with a wooden spoon

Our bag is packed... we just have to wait for the right time....

Did you think we were going to tell you??

Links From February And March

On February 25th, we joined the world of Facebook.  Since then, many fans have liked our page (we have 83 fan now!).  But even better than that, many of our fans have been sharing stories and pictures of yarn bombing that they have read about or seen (and even one story about knitting sweaters for penguins).

We've decided that since some people might not have Facebook, we wouldn't want you to not be able to see these stories and pictures.  So every so often, we're going to share all the links in a blog post so people can see them that way.  Now... some are just able to be viewed on Facebook.. but many are links to outside sites.  We'll share them all though.

1. A New York City subway got yarn bombed for Valentine's Day

2. Esther Poon is a yarn bomber from Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

3. Penguins involved in oil spills need sweaters

4. But the sweaters were actually being used for fund raising purposes, not to put on real penguins

5. There was a giant hat in New York City

6. Wanna be a Knitting Kninja?  This site shows you how to do your first tag!

7. Look at this cross stitch bunny!

8. Here was a picture a fan shared with us that she had come across in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York City:

I wonder if the artist was intending this as a statement to Mother Nature in reference to this long, long winter!

9. I discovered this artist in a Chickadee magazine (March 2013), check out Agata Oleksiak's website, and specifically the playground she turned into an alligator (this is what was talked about in the magazine)

10. This we're just sneaking in.... if you are local, come and check out the Fibre Festival at the Peterborough Public Library this Saturday... it's sure to be fun!

11. An extremely cool staircase!

12. A beautiful yarn-bombed tree appears at about the 0:10 mark in this video.

Uh Oh! - Guest Post By Knitting Mermaid

I am Knitting Mermaid.  I have been working on a tag for the bench.  Soon we are doing a big group tag.  My piece is pink and purple and dark pink too and there was kind of some lightish purple in it as well.

This is my very first time knitting a tag.  I was having fun knitting my tag.

Friday afternoon, I was knitting my tag on our new couch.  I knit two rows!

But, I had gymnastics and I didn't want to be late so I put down my knitting and left.

I don't know what happened.  My knitting was left safe and sound sitting on the couch.  But... when  KnitMama came to pick me up from gymnastics, she had an awful story to tell me.

KnitMama was vacuuming on the floor in the living room and KnitMama heard an awful noise coming from inside the vacuum.  She immediately stopped the vacuum, but it was too late.  She saw my knitting all tangled up in the vacuum.

Here is my piece stuck in the vacuum

It was even worse.  I had been using cabled needles from an interchangeable set.  Those needles also got vacuumed up.  But since the needles couldn't go around, they snapped off of the cable.

Here is the cable

Here are the Needle Tips

They can no longer be attached

What was going to happen???  Could my knitting be rescued?  What a mess!

Do you think this can be saved?

So KnitMama took the vacuum apart and saved my knitting!  She changed my needles to a different set (which ended up being a bigger size, but that's okay).  I didn't worry because the new needles are my favourite colour and I have used them before.

Here is my saved knitting:

Phew... it wasn't broken forever!

I'm so happy that my knitting wasn't damaged and ruined forever and ever.  Keep your eyes opened for this piece.... I'll be done it soon!  You'll see in on a bench.

Guest post by The Detangler & KnittingYoshi

It was a bright and chilly end-of-March Sunday morning, and The Detangler and KnittingYoshi decided to put up one of their yarn bombs. After filling up with a good breakfast, they headed into the Downtown Core.

KnittingYoshi  couldn't make up his mind as to whether we would stitch our bomb onto a tree or a lamppost, but after scoping out the trees we decided that the trunks were too small and the branches were too high (The Detangler has some height deficiencies!).

With the KnittingYoshi standing guard, and ready with camera in hand, The Detangler got down to business!

(The picture above will give you a great hint as to where the bomb is located!)

The piece had to be stretched significantly, but The Detangler has some very strong muscles! When she finished stitching up the seam, we realized that we had quite a long bit of leftover yarn, and not wanting to waste even a centimeter, we decided to make a quick pompom.

So, The Detangler wrapped the yarn around her fingers over and over and over until there was just enough to tie a knot around the strands, then used her handy-dandy pocket snippers to cut the loops. Voila! Instant pompom!

After attaching the pompom, and the slick tag for identification, we were done!

THE KNITTING KNINJAS STRIKE AGAIN!

Now, can you find this bomb?

The Big Reveal

 Alright... here are the photos I promised.  The tag.. fully completed... hanging up.

The yellow side

The green side

 

The blue side

You can also see how fancy our new label looks:

See.. not as big as the first makeshift one we did

This is what the front of our new label looks like with our logo (we have lots of fun sayings/puns... this ones says "Keep Calm And Knit One!)

And on the back of the label, we've put who knit it... since soon, you'll be able to see all sorts of tags from the Knitting Kninjas!

And... (drum roll please!), since some people have already told us they've spotted it, we are going to reveal the location of this tag (this time we're actually going to tell you... no cliffhanger!).  This particular tag is hanging out at it's new home on Hunter Street, downtown Peterborough, ON.  It's between Alymer Street and George Street, right in front of the Historic Red Dog.

Click here to go to Google Maps for directions

If you have a chance, get downtown before this tag ends up gone and check it out.  Let us know what you think.

On A Cold Wednesday Morning...

It was a cold and frosty morning.  The date was Wednesday, March 26th, 2014.  Even though it was spring... the weather was not obeying.  It was bitter outside.... it was -12 C outside (but felt like -17 C).  For you American readers that is 10.4 F and feels like 1.4 F.

KnitMama and I decided today was the day.... our tag had to be placed!  We had been working long and hard at our tag and it was finally ready.

Excitement was in the air... it was bursting!

Knitting Wonder Woman had gymnastics first thing in the morning so that seemed like a perfect time to place our piece for the public to see.

We bundled up, but not well enough, and loaded into the van.  Knitting Wonder Woman and Little Knitter joined in on our mission.  Their role: The Lookouts!

We arrived at our destination... but knew we had to hurry. It was cold and Knitting Wonder Woman had to make it to her gymnastics class on time.  We had only 18 minutes to put up the tag and make it across town.... but we felt up to the challenge!

KnitMama was The Seamer and got right down to work.

 

KnitMama started seaming right away

This was not sew easy (teehee) because it was sew cold out!

I was The Photographer and The Organizer.  I had to make sure to get KnitMama the scissor when needed and pass her the final tassel when she was ready to tie it on.

This was on a busy street in downtown Peterborough, ON... and it was morning time.  We wanted it to be in a location where it would get noticed (and we chose bright colours too so it would easily be seen).  But.... there were cars driving past us the whole time we were putting up the tag.  I didn't notice them though and just did the jobs that needed to be done.

Cars to the West

And cars to the East

Knitting Wonder Woman (and Little Knitter) stayed in the van and kept a lookout for us.

Knitting Wonder Woman and Little Knitter keeping a lookout

Knitting Wonder Woman saw a man in a wheelchair coming down the street.  Fortunately, it was on the other side of the street.  She thought this was fine because we were on the other side of the street.

But then, she saw a woman in black coat and black boots carrying a rainbow purse.  She started on the other side of the street, but before we could do anything about it, she crossed the road!    Knitting Wonder Woman was worried we were going to get caught in the act!

KnitMama saw her from the corner of her eye and began to worry.  She just stayed focused on the job at hand and kept on seaming!

I was not nervous.  I am barely ever nervous.  And sure enough, the woman just walked right by and didn't even notice us.

Whew!

KnitMama was wearing her fingerless mitts again.  These are the best choice when it's cold and you have to seam.  These are the same ones she wore on our first adventure out to put up a tag (see While You Were Watching The Superbowl...).

KnitMama's hand being kept as warm as possible.

With how cold the weather was though, this was not good enough for KnitMama's fingers.  Her fingers were just aching with cold.  I didn't have on any mittens as I worked the camera.  I thought for sure I was getting frostbite (again!).  It was so cold!

Finally... the tag was finished being seamed!

We quickly inspected it and took a few last photos.

I double checked our label to make sure it said what it was supposed to

With such a busy spot for this tag, we really hope that our mission comes true of bringing cheer to the world!

We we done!  The tag was placed.  We rushed back into the van and sped off... across town and made it to Knitting Wonder Woman's gymnastics class just in time.  But it took longer than that for our fingers to thaw.

Would you like to see what the completed tag looks like all set up in it's new home?  Would you like to know where it is?  Well too bad... you'll have to wait until the next blog post to find out.

We've heard from some fans who have seen it already.  Let us know if you spot it.