A Knit, A Natter and A Yarn Bomb!

In the past 18 months a splurge of A-Listers including Sarah Jessica Parker, Felicity Huffman and David Arquette have all come out and proud as fanatical knitters. Whipping out their balls of wool and bamboo needles between shoots, this is the celebrity past-time of choice. Add to this the so-trendy-it-hurts Brighton Bitch & Stitch that is now sweeping the country and you will begin to realise that knitting - and its cousin crocheting - is no longer the reserve of the SWRI and ladies over 60.

So, when I heard about a group of women planning a Yarn Bomb in Perth I became more than a little intrigued. I’ve been following Eva Christie Hand Knitting on facebook ever since she started joining in with our #PerthLoveFest hashtag and her quirky posts about all things woolly really do make you smile. Lets be honest, slightly bonkers always does!

Eva is part of the local knitting group who go by the much less controversial name of Perth Knitters.  They meet in Blend Coffee Shop OR The AK Bell Library on Thursday nights between 6pm and 8pm. In the four years they have been running their youngest member was 17 and their oldest into her 70s. Surprisingly, the latter came along to learn!

When I rock up at Blend to meet Eva and co, I am handed a pair of needles - bamboo no less - some green wool and invited to join in with her and Babs as I find out more about their Yarn Bomb. (She does cast on for me, thank-goodness!) 

The group has about 20 knitters and they come from all walks of life. Men, Women, Single, Married, Mums, All Sorts…. They like to have a blether, chat techniques, styles and amazing finds on beautiful yarn.

“We do all like a ball of yarn. Cashemere, angora, man made. Anything really – it’s borderline addiction!”

They knit for the premature baby unit at Yorkhill every Easter and will often get together as a group to work on other projects – like the Perth Yarn Bomb!

"We are now the #YarnArmy!" 

Eva gets quite animated at this. “Usually a yarn bomb is completely covert but we need so many people to help us we’re sending out an appeal. It started after a chat with Leigh Brown in City Centre Management about colour coding the lampposts throughout Perth during the Ryder Cup. They had looked at painting them but it wasn’t terribly original and Leigh wanted to go a bit more creative. So, instead we’re yarn bombing each street in a different coloured wool to tie in with the visitor map. It’s going to be amazing!”

As well as lampposts there are lots of surprises to come (can you guess what’s in the pic here!?) and there are currently many secret emails flying back and forth, checking up on progress and finding out how the latest crazy idea is taking shape.   

Join The Yarn Army

The team need 76 items of quite substantial size and are calling on all Perth knitters and crocheters to get involved. Babs, who is sitting across from me crocheting up a storm while I’m on my second row of plain knitting, has taken two weeks holiday and has been clicking away all day, every day. Eva is planning a fortnight off before the Big Bomb day and many others are cashing in time off and leiu days.  This is where the appeal comes in!

They would love you to join them, either by popping along to a Thursday night session or simply contributing to the pile. They’ll supply the wool if you can supply the skills.

There is also a  "Wool Weekender" planned at The Fergusson Gallery – AKA Wool HQ - on 20th & 21st Sept, running from 10am to 4pm on Saturday and 10am to 3:30pm on Sunday. Crafters can pop in and out or join The Yarn Army for the whole weekend to help with the last of the woolly wonders.

THE YARN BOMB installation time will start at 3:30pm on Sunday, meeting at The Fergusson Gallery. 

Eva has asked me to let you know that the times may be amended for the Wool Weekender so I would encourage you to keep an eye on her facebook page for the most up to date news. And although she had a set for me, she's asking if you could bring your own knitting and darning needles (let us know if you'd like to help but don't have any!). 

I can't tell you how much I love this - it is eccentrically whacky and perfectly wonderful and just what Small City, Big Personality was made for! I have to admit, I’m feeling the woolly love. My wee green rows of plain knit WILL adorn a lamp-post somewhere and I’ve decided I’m going all out and making pompoms for the end!

Contact the wonderful Eva to find out more and to join in:

Click for her Facebook or leave a comment here! 

(You just know there is a Big Personality Knitter coming soon don’t you?!)