Garter Gang - Knit big for Clarence Jazz Festival

Rosny Farm have offered a great opportunity for the  Garter Gang to knit up a jazz inspired piano! The piano will be the center of attention at the Clarence Jazz Festival from 17th -24 of February.

 The Project in progress:

 Step 1: Purchase an old upright piano and stool.

 

 Step 2: Search for inspiration: 1940's and 50's jazz album covers

Step 3:The colour palette. We chose 8 colours for our piano. Mix and match patterns and designs. Take a vote...and the winner is number 8!

Yarn just dyed, hanging out to dry.

Dried yarn rolled into beautiful balls of colour!

 Step 5: Maths. After measuring the entire piano, breaking it down into panels,  calculating our gauges and allocating who wants to knit what, we start knitting!

Step 6: Start knitting and stitching, Back panel finished!

getting ready for something big

The scientific approach to yarn dying

 Pots simmering on the stove, 5.8 kilos of yarn, an array of pretty colours...we're getting ready for our most challenging project yet. Watch this space!

Garter Gang on YouTube

Garter Gang Mischief!

easy care cactus

This humble little knitted cactus is now a movie star. Catch him causing a bit of Western-style fuss over here. I used this pattern, with a few modifications of my own. 

St.Art Festival, yarn bombing the pom pom tree

Ooo-err yarn bombers with a sign, this looks official. A fun day was had in a wee historical (and haunted?) cottage encouraging folks to try their hand at pom-pom making. By the end of the day we had a fine brightly spotted tree, complete with a few vines and flowers.

We look the picture of serenity. It may be because of the peace-inducing nature of working with our hands, or it could be due to the spray paint fumes we were inhaling.

She's a vampire, in case you're wondering. And she was VERY keen. In fact she had to be threatened to put down her french knitting. There are lots of vampires around these days, but not many appear to knit. There should be more of it.

Yarn Bombing Rosny, 24th August, St.Art Festival

After many months of click-clacking away the Garter Gang converged on Rosny to adorn the bus mall in pink, purple and green. Initially some askance glances were cast. We may have looked like we were up to no good (as some are wont to do in the bus mall). But expressions of surprise and delight quickly followed when passers-by realised what we were up to. Teetering tots, teenagers, men in suits and grandpas, it seems pretty much everyone likes to see a bit of knitting gone feral.

A little further down the road we stopped for a couple of hours to sew on some stripey railcovers. It was an odd twisty workout and we had sore backs the next day. (Note to aspiring yarn-bombers: stretch before seaming). Only one visit from a wanna-be cop, who was swiftly dispatched. And one self proclaimed 'wowser' who thought we were wasting our time because "vandals would be onto it the moment we lay down our needles" (I may be making that quote up but you get the idea). Ironically it was the council who caused it to be removed first. But all is not lost, in the spirit of re-use and recycle these stripey babies will appear somewhere else in future. Watch this space.

St.Art Festival in progress

 Our brief was to yarn bomb the bus mall opposite Eastlands in preparation for the upcoming St.Art Festival. The knit graffiti should be bright and appealing to young females who populate the mall and to educate the public that not all graffiti is destructive,  it can have a positive affect, both visually and emotionally.

Before

After