Remembrance Poppy Project

Our next project is to create poppies for Remembrance Day. We are going to create a display for the window of Young and Co, and hopefully, also in the grounds of the library, though that has yet to be confirmed.
If you would like to join us, there are lots of lovely patterns out there. Try Ravelry as a source of inspiration. Below is a link to a lovely crochet pattern that is fairly easy to make and looks great.
http://craftylion.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/free-crochet-poppy.html

More information about dates and where the poppies can be dropped off will be available soon.

Great Malvern Floral Festival Yarnbomb

Earlier this year, Yarnbomb Great Malvern was invited to take part in the Great Malvern Floral Festival.  The theme for the window dressing competition was 'Once Upon a Time' which was a great kick start to our ideas.  Sue had the brilliant idea to make a life size fairytale princess with a dress festooned with crocheted and knitted flowers.  After a lot of planning and many many hours crocheting and knitting, the princess had been constructed by Sue, and was ready to be decorated.  By this point she had evolved to become Maybelle, the may Queen.  We had invited people to make crocheted and knitted flowers to be included in the dress and used to decorate the surrounding railings and were very pleased to see how many had been donated.  The flowers were applied to the dress and she was ready to be installed in pride of place on Belle Vue Island in Great Malvern.

On Thursday 1st May, Sue, Christine, Lois, Jo and Jo's husband John gathered on the island to put the installation in place.  It took several hours but finally the railings were decorated with garlands and wreaths of knitted and crocheted flowers, and the May Queen was in place.

Another idea that we had during the planning stages was for a certain number of flowers which people could take away with them.  Sue created a tree in a pot which we then decorated with individual flowers with tags saying 'Take Me'.  This was placed near the May Queen so people could take a flower to remind them of the Yarnbomb.

The following day, Sue Christine and Jo gathered again, this time in the grounds of Malvern Priory to create the May Queen's Secret Garden.  There were lots of little details for people to spot - fairies, toadstools, a frog prince, flowers of course, and even little bees and a birds nest in the tree.

We had so many lovely comments from people who had seen Maybelle the May Queen and her Secret Garden and people who loved the Take Me Tree.  It was wonderful to hear how much people enjoyed our display.  It was also great to have so many people involved with the project - thank you all!  We had many people say they were sad to see it all come down on the 13th, but that they were excited to see what we would be doing next.

A few of the beautiful flowers donated for our Floral Festival project

The Take Me Tree

We will be introducing a new element to our project tomorrow - a Take Me Tree.  In our previous projects we have found that people have really liked our displays and wanted to take some of it away with them.  So Sue, Christine and Jo have made some extra flowers specifically for people to take home.  These will be on a small tree behind the princess, with little tags saying 'take me'.  This should ensure that the beautiful flowers which people have so kindly made for the display remain in place for as long as possible, whilst letting people take home a memento of the project.

Instructions and yarn now available!

You can pick up information and instructions from the Knitting Parlour, Graham Road, Malvern and information, instructions and yarn kindly donated by Yeoman Yarns at Iapetus Gallery, Belle Vue Terrace, Malvern.

Knitting Pattern

One of our fabulous organisers Sue came up with these patterns for us.  Thank you Sue!

Roses

Cast on 60 sts

Rows1-4 Knit

Row 5 (Right side)* K5, rotate left hand needle counterclockwise 360degrees, repeat form* to end

Rows 6 and 7 * K2 tog, repeat from * to end

Row8 K1, *k2 tog, repeat from * to end

Row 9 repeat row 6 (4 sts)

Pass 2nd, 3rd and 4th stitches over the 1st. Pass yarn through stitch and break yarn leaving a tail to stitch up. Twist into a rose shape and sew to secure.

Petal - can be used as a leaf

Row 1 (right side) K2, yo, k1, yo k2 (7sts)

Row 2 and all even rows, Purl

Row 3 K3, yo, k1, yo, k3 (9sts)

Row 5 K4, yo, k1, yo, k4 (11 sts)

Row 7 K5, yo, k1,yo, k5 (13sts)

Row 9 and 11 Ssk, k4, yo,k1 ,yo, k4, k2tog

Row 13 Ssk, k9, k2 tog (11sts)

Row15 Ssk,k7, k2 tog (9 sts)

Row 17 Ssk,k5, k2tog (7sts)

Row 19 Ssk,k3, k2 tog (5 sts)

Row 21 Ssk, k1, k2 tog (3 sts )

Row 23 Sk2p( sl 1 st as if to knit, k2 tog, pass slipped st over k2 tog) (1st)

Fasten off.

Great Malvern Flower Festival Yarnbomb

On Thursday 1st May, from 10.30am we will be meeting on Belle Vue Island to assemble our display.  We are constructing a fairytale princess with clothes made if crocheted and knitted flowers, and decorating the nearby railings with garlands of flowers.

If you would like to take part, instructions will be available from the Knitting Parlour in Great Malvern from tomorrow afternoon, and instructions and donated yarn will be available from Iapetus Gallery thanks to the generosity of Yeoman Yarns.

Completed flowers need to be dropped back at Iapetus Gallery by Saturday 26th April to be included in the princess's costume or made into garlands.  If you have a garland or single flowers with a long tail of yarn still attached to hang them by and you would like to bring  along on the day that is great.  The more people we have to help the better!


For up to date news and information, please visit our Facebook page www.facebook.com/yarnbombgreatmalvern

Flower patterns!

as promised, here are a list of links to some free patterns that you can use to make flowers for our Flower Festival project.

The flowers will need to be dropped off at Iapetus Gallery, Belle Vue Terrace, Great Malvern by Saturday 26th April at the latest, or if you'd like them to be included in the main display.  If you'd like to join us to help with the setting up of the display, this will be happening on Friday 2nd May (this may change, and time to be confirmed).

Knitting Patterns
How to knit flowers: 13 easy knitting patterns
Knitting Pattern Central: Flowers
Knitted rose YouTube tutorial
40+ flowers to knit and crochet

Crochet Patterns
(some of these are US sites, so you made need to transpose the patterns to English terms - hint, if sc/single crochet is mentioned, this is a pattern in US terms as the UK equivalent is dc/double crochet.  This handy chart will help you change the pattern to UK terms http://www.simplycrochetmag.co.uk/tutorials/uk-and-us-crochet-conversion-chart/
Free crochet flower patterns
25 free crochet flower patterns
Crochet flowers
Crochet rosette pattern

Here a couple of great patterns designed by Christine, one of our co-organisers for us - thank you!

Plain, flat flower with 6 petals

1.

Make 5 chain stitches

Join to form a ring

2.

Into the ring – make 12 half double stitches

Join to top of first of the half doubles

3.

Make 3 chain stitches

Into base of this chain, make one slip stitch

Into same place, make 1 treble stitch

Into next stitch:

1 treble stitch

3 chain stitches

1 slip stitch

Into next stitch: **

1 slip stitch

3 chain stitches

1 treble stitch

Into next stitch:

1 treble stitch

3 chain stitches

1 slip stitch   **

Repeat ** to **  around the rest of the ring.

Finish.

Flat flower with 12 petals

1.

Make 5 chain stitches

Join to form a ring

2.

Into the ring – make 12 half double stitches

Make slip stitch, to join to top of first of the half doubles

3.

Work in the first stitch:

Make 3 chain stitches

Into base of this chain (into the first stitch), make one slip stitch

Into same place, make 1 treble stitch

Into same place, make 3 chain stitches

Make 1 slip stitch into the same place

Into next stitch in the ring make:

1 slip stitch

3 chain stitches

1 treble

3 chain stitches

1 slip stitch

Into next stitch in the ring make:  **

1 slip stitch

3 chain stitches

1 treble

3 chain stitches

1 slip stitch **

Repeat ** to **  around the rest of the ring.

Finish


We are working on simple patterns to print out for those who would like to pick them up, and hope to have free yarn for people to use soon too, thanks to our very generous supporters.

Flower Festival Project - we need you!

Would you like to contribute to the next project?  We need as many crocheted and knitted flowers as we can get for our Great Malvern Flower Festival display.

We'll be creating a larger than life fairytale princess on Belle Vue Island and decorating the surrounding railings with daisy chains and flower garlands.

We hope to soon have basic instructions and yarn available to pick up from Iapetus Gallery on Belle Vue Terrace.  If you have a pattern you'd like to use and have yarn already, completed flowers can also be dropped off at Iapetus.  I'll try and post links to some flower patterns in the next few days too.

Flower Festival Planning Meeting

We will be meeting in the café of Malvern Library tomorrow (Friday 21st) at 10am to discuss the details of our exciting plans for the flower festival.

Please feel free to join us if you'd like to be involved.

Flower Festival Planning

We are having a planning meeting for the flower festival project next Friday (7th March) at 10am in Costa Coffee, Great Malvern.  Everyone who is interested is invited to come along.

If you can't make it but have any ideas you'd like to suggest please let me know so we can discuss them.

Thank you!

Valentine's Day 'Love Malvern' Project

Yarnbomb Great Malvern has an exciting 2014 planned, with the hope of starting a regular group meeting, and the invitation to create a project to complement the Great Malvern Flower Festival in May.

We thought we'd have a gentle start to the year with our Valentine's Day project. We are making crochet and knitted hearts which will be installed in the town centre on the 11th February. Details and time to be confirmed. Please see our Facebook page for further information and regular updates.

In the mean time here is a photo of a selection of the hearts I've been making to inspire you.

An appeal:

Thank you for all the wonderful snowflakes which have started coming in, and to everyone who's working hard making more.

What we desperatly need help with now is putting up posters and fliers.  I'd planned to take a poster to as many shops in Malvern as possible, but then I broke my ankle and have to keep it elevated meaning I'm in a bit of a difficult situation!  If anyone could pick up some poster and fliers from Iapetus Gallery, Belle Vue Terrace, Great Malvern it would be greatly appreciated!   Thank you!

And thank you to the person who has picked some up, you're a star :)

Thank you!

Thank you for all the get well soon messages, and all the new enquiries from people interested in getting involved.  Sorry if I haven't got back to you, I think I missed a few while I was in hospital.  Please contact me again if you haven't had a reply, thank you :)

Slight delay with instructions, sorry!

Unfortunately I fell down the stairs this morning and it looks like I've broken my ankle (the perils of having a black kitten!).  This means the instructions will be a bit late getting to Iapetus Gallery today as I'm stuck in a&e sorry!

Yarn & printed instructions

From Monday thanks to a very kind donor, you can pick up a ball of white yarn and a sheet of printed instructions for a knitted and a crocheted snowflake from Iapetus Gallery, Belle Vue Terrace, Great Malvern. 

Completed snowflakes can also be dropped off at Iapetus Gallery or can be brought along on the 29th November at 10.30am for the big installation if you'd like to help put them up.

The snowflakes can be made to any pattern, in any size and yarn, all we ask is that they're white.  I'm making mine with DK weight wool with a 4mm crochet hook if that helps anyone.  Several of the knitting patterns I've put links to in the previous post are actually for stars, but knitted in white they'll make lovely snowflakes.

Thank you to Margaret for suggesting that children or people who can't knit or crochet could make snowballs by making pompoms  with white wool.  These will also be very welcome and look great alongside the snowflakes.

If you could leave the end of the yarn on the snowflake/snowball approx 30-40cms (12-15") that would make it easier for us to put them up.  Don't worry if you've already woven in the ends though, we can attach a thread for them to hang from.

Snowflake Patterns

I have been searching the internet for free snowflake patterns that you can knit or crochet for our Christmas Yarnbomb.  There are countless crochet snowflake patterns, but knitting ones are harder to find.  If anyone has one they would like to share, or knows of one which I can add a link to here, please leave a comment on this post or email YarnbombGreatMalvern@gmail.com.  I'll add more to this post as I find them, but this seems like a good starting point.  I would recommend signing up to http://www.ravelry.com/ there is a wealth of patterns, both free and apid for on the site and it's free to join. 

And thank you to all of the super-talented people who have posted their free patterns online.

Knitting

Snowflake Star
Cable Snowflake
Christmas Star  You will need to be a member of Ravelry to see this pattern but it is free to join.  Technically a star but knitted in white yarn would make a lovely snowflake.
Star decoration Again, this is a start as above but in white would be beautiful.
Lace snowflake



Crochet
Lion Brand yarn - lots of free snowflake patterns You need to be a member to access the patterns, but it is free to join.
4 beautiful patterns
Quick crochet snowflake
Pretty Snowflake
Snowflake 
Lots of Ravelry crochet snowflake patterns  You will need to be a member of Ravelry to access thses patterns.  There were so many here, something for everyone I think.

Malvern Gazette Article

Today I braved the wind and rain with a photographer from the Malvern Gazette to photograph some examples of yarnbombing to accompany the article which will be in the newspaper on Friday.  Hopefully this will raise the profile of the project and encourage lots more people to get involved!

Here are a few of the photos I took after the photographer had finished.

Our Christmas Project

Our first project will be a very exciting one connected with the turning on of the Christmas Lights in Great Malvern. On Friday 29th November (the day before the lights get turned on) we will be decorating the railings and gas lamps of Belle Vue Island with crocheted and knitted snowflakes.

We will meet on the Island at 10.30am to install all of the snowflakes. If you can spare some time to help it would be very much appreciated.

If you'd like to help by making some yarn snowflakes, these can be knitted or crocheted in any white yarn. If you have a pattern you'd like to use that's great, or you can contact me and I'll send you links for free patterns online.  I'll be posting links to both knit and crochet snowflake patterns in the next week or so.

(Photos are examples of crochet snowflakes I have made.)

Welcome!

Welcome to the website for Yarnbomb Great Malvern. We are a new group set up in conjunction with Pulse Great Malvern to encourage people back into the town centre through innovative and creative methods.

Yarnbombing is a form of street art where people decorate public spaces with crochet and knitting. It is non-permanent and does not damage the environment.

We would love anyone who is able to to get involved! If you knit or crochet we need you to help us with the creation of the Yarnbombs. We also need people to help with the organisation and installation.

If you'd like to get involved or would like to know more, please visit our Yarnbomb Great Malven Facebook Group or email YarnbombGreatMalvern@gmail.com. 

We would also appreciate any donations of yarn if anyone has any extra lying around.