After my dentist appointment this morning I decided on another yarn-bombing spree and on the way up through the car-park I spotted a row of 3 or 4 metal bollard/posts all in a row and just behind them a very lonely single one looking all forlorn. I decided he needed a bit of cheering up so I dressed (blessed) him with a lovely blue/green hexagonal mandala piece, and he was so full of himself afterwards, and the others looked on with envy.
I was doing it at about 10.15 am so it was in plain view of any passers by, and it is all the more exciting when people catch you in the corner of their eye and don't know whether to stare or pretend they didn't see.
TAG #8
look at him all alone....
and here he looks out at the row of others in front of him....
I didn't pay but I did display!!!
Then I remembered a small wooden post that holds a chain attached to the Castle wall by the Main Entrance to Hay Castle that I had spotted when I had no tags on me so I decided to give it a visit...
TAG #9
I then walked over to the Tourist Information Office and spotted the most exciting opportunity yet...
... The Wishing Well which raises money for a local cause..... this deserved one of my favorite motifs that I have crocheted for this project...
TAG #10
As I was attaching this one there was a handful of Tourists milling around, and some of the Elder generation - one man especially seemed to hover and then approached me.
"Excuse me..." my heart leaped a little - I thought I was about to get my first protest against what I was doing... "Could you tell me which is the best Bookshop?" OMG we are in Hay on Wye, Town of Books - with over 30 of them to choose from!!!????... "I would especially like to find old books about Birds..." phew! maybe I won't need to justify my actions after all? I sent him off to the Hay Cinema Bookshop as I didn't know which was the best bookshop for that subject but if the HCB wasn't my friend Lesley who works there is more than likely the best person to point him in the right direction. He said thanks and mentioned nothing about what I was doing.
I would so love to acquire an invisibility cloak (as in Harry Potter) so that I could place my tags in plain view without people seeing where they 'pop-up' from, that would be so much fun!
R.I.P. TAG #4 is gone.
TAG #10 is so pretty, the best so far.....
ReplyDeleteI think someone has left you a message! I went past Tag 6 today and there was a piece of paper tucked in it. I was sooooooooo tempted to read it, but resisted! Great work. Do more!
ReplyDeleteFor Sian: thanks and (perhaps immodestly) I agree!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: Oooh I wish you had read it! Hubby is gonna pop out and see if it is there in a moment, I shall post what it says (good or bad). I wish you weren't anonymous, I'd love to meet some more Hay Dwellers through this blog!
OK. I'm Arthur's mum. I tried to identify myself as that, but it wouldn't allow it, so I stayed anonymous!
ReplyDeleteHi Arthur's mum, nice to virtually meet you... maybe I will meet you and Arthur's dad one day in person?
ReplyDeleteThe note say "potatoes, bread, shampoo, conditioner".... you get the picture! I am appalled that someone used my Tag to litter!
Hubby says that Tag#10 on the wishing well is gone already, I do hope it was removed and kept by someone who liked it rather than ending up in the bin.. (hopefully Sian has taken it?)
Hi, my friend from Hay-on-Wye sent me your link - I love your tags, and will look out for them next time I visit (and may add some!). I was asked to tell you about 'knitshare' - which I am keen to establish in Huddersfield (as well as a bit of yarnbombing). I discovered a knitshare project while I was visiting my family in Norwich. We went for a drink at a pub called The White Lion - their furniture is a mish-mash of lovely secondhand pieces - we sat down with a drink at an old kitchen table and my dad was feeling curious, so he pulled the cutlery drawer, expecting it to be nailed shut, but it opened, and inside was a piece of knitting - cream wool, 39 stitches, with the note 'please knit me' attached. It was hard to resist, so I knitted a lacy zig zag and a row of moss stitch hearts and put it back in the drawer - I moved on to crocheting a beret that I had brought with me at the next pub. It would be great to have had a website so I could check on it's progress, so I may work on that idea when I start a project. Thank you for putting up with my rambling if you reach the end of this comment!
ReplyDeleteHi Colleen, thanks for your story I love it soooooo much!!!! What a great idea. If you do a blog, please link it to mine / let me know so that I can follow it.
ReplyDeleteHappy stitching : )
Lovely new tags. Can't wait to seem 'em. I thought the wishing well one (whata lotta double-yous) was especially fab. Wonder where it went ?(wwwww).
ReplyDeleteEr, see 'em, not seem 'em!
ReplyDeleteNot guilty!
ReplyDeleteAlthough it would look nice round my apple tree!
Sian, I would happily make one for your Apple Tree : )
ReplyDeleteYarn wrap NON LIVING THINGS ONLY!
ReplyDeleteYarn Bombing is UNHEALTHY for trees!!
Most yarn being used is ACRYLIC, which is PLASTIC, is NOT biodegradable & gives pests a safe cover from birds looking for food a place to hide while they bore into the tree, weakening it.
PLEASE, Yarn wrap NON LIVING THINGS ONLY!
Hi Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteIn response to your concern about yarn bombing trees.
Firstly, I appreciate your concern and respect your need to express it : )
The decoration I made for the tree for the festival was a very flexible, open lacy design which I felt wouldn't harbour anything harmful to the tree as did my husband who is a Bonsai enthusiast, a professional gardener and tree-lover like myself.
His professional opinion is that my tag would not harm the tree in any way. Nurseries, tree-specialists and Bonsai/Niwaki Masters use plastic wrapped round trees to graft or air-layer with no detriment to the tree. Some Japanese trees worth thousands of pounds and hundreds of years old are wrapped all winter by professionals of ancient arts who are preserving and maintaining a style of tree (admittedly not in always in plastic but usually tightly bound cotton or raffia) - it is called Waramaki - if there was any concern about pests and wrapping it would have been well documented in one of our two dozens specialist books on Bonsai and Niwaki.
There are some people concerned about the thousands of tree-guards used every day by landscapers and in the forestry commission which are solid plastic and left on for years, but they would not use the method to protect growing trees if it weakened them.
I had also heard from other Yarn Bombers that their research showed that there was no concern regarding health of trees bombed this way, but I will do further research and double-check and if there is ANY doubt I will refrain from doing any similar tags again.
If some lacy yarn can indeed harbour boring pests and weaken the tree in just a few weeks or months (tags are usually taken within a couple of months at the most) then I would be horrified and extremely sad.
I DO agree that acrylic isn't ideal and I long to win the lottery so that I may afford to tag with pure natural bright coloured yarn (that would truly be my dream) but luckily for now most of my tags are usually snaffled by someone who likes them and takes them home.
As it was probably yourself who removed this tag I do hope you found somewhere at home to put it to enjoy the work that went into it and not in the bin to waste it, or maybe gave it to someone else to enjoy?... and I do hope I haven't caused you any distress due to my actions 'appearing' to be uncaring about nature.
My best regards to you.
Tag #10 is my favorite of this lot. Those colours brightened that space in a great way! Can you point us to the pattern? I've got a spot in my town where that kind of tag would be perfect!
ReplyDeleteHi Emthe, this is Motif #143 from "Beyond the Square - Crochet Motifs". Highly recommend the book anyway it is full of fab motifs! Happy Bombing : )
ReplyDelete