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.