So what is the point of all this?
As we installed the yarn balls onKing Street, Newtown this afternoon, a woman approached us from the crowd. She bent over us and inquired in false joy, ‘What is the point of all this? Why don’t you actually knit something for some one who needs it?’ I couldn’t hold back my first thought – ‘Why don’t you?’
It took three months to piece together all the knitting that would today cover three of the seven balls that are cemented into the pavement at the hub. It took eight people to knit all the panels needed to fill in the pattern. It took 20 minutes and three people to install the balls and 30 minutes to take the photos. It then took another 15 minutes before we could bring ourselves to walk away.
As we walked back to the car I turned back and sore a tiny boy running towards a ball, arms open and laughing as he ran. He stretched his arms as wide as he could and smiled up at his dad. Another woman was lifting her child up onto the balls, getting him to smile for the camera as she crouched behind the lens.
So what is the point of all this? Head to Newtown and find out.
The point is ….. everyone likes knitting, those who can appreciate the work in it and those who cannot are in ore of those who can. Knitting makes you smile, knitting makes you happy and it is a kind of nurturing and motherly feeling that you get when you see a finished project.
When the balls were being bombed with knitting people smiled, chatted to the knitters and patted the soft warm covering over the cold, grey cement. Children sat on them and people took photos of them.
So the point is lets encourage more people to learn to knit ….
Recently I read a book titled Yarn Bombing – The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti written by Mandy Moore and Leanne Prain. Published by Pulp Press in Vancouver in 2009. The book is filled with inspiring projects with patterns for any lover of knitting or crocheting to get their hook into.
In this book there is a quote from another knitter – Magda Sayeg and she is the founder of Knitta.
‘People have responded. They see this obviously hand
knitted piece that has been wrapped around something
that is completely inanimate, and it turns alive. In fact,
it not only turn alive, there is something comforting and
loving about it. You don’t look at the pieces we wrap and get
angry or mad. You are happy…’
So lets keep knitting or crocheting and spreading the good word – wrapped up in brightly coloured pieces of yarn that will keep everyone talking and everyone warm.