Yarnbombing - for Immrama and Lismore's Travel Writing Cyclist

A colourful attraction!

I just had to share this with you all in the blogosphere and knitting and crocheting community - a craftosphere perhaps - as it is the coolest thing to hit Lismore since the Barber of Seville Yarnbombing of the previous weekend, which you can see here.

An unlikely Urban Guerilla.

In the Tuesday Knitters at Angela's Design Workshop we had a plan afoot for the Immrama Travel Writing Festival, especially as this is the 10th Festival and has just concluded last night after a very successful weekend. I will blog about the festival anon. Meanwhile, a bicycle yarnbombing seemed most appropriate given that it's the preferred mode of transport of our own renowned traveller Dervla Murphy. Dervla is world-famous is travel writing circles as an octogenarian who has written of her journeys through life from her first book, Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle, through her autobiography Wheels within Wheels to her latest work The Island that Dared - Journeys in Cuba and she is soon bringing out her book on Palestine. She has a wonderful body of work, Lismore is very proud of her, and we are delighted to have her as a friend. She visited Laos after we told her what a wonderfully unspoilt place it was back in the 90s, and she is a real inspiration to all generations.

My crocheted contributions

Street art!

So this is the outcome of our endeavours! Angela kindly supplied the bike, which was somewhat past roadworthy and its prime, and we embellished it with love and lots of crochet and knitting and weaving to make this fabulous work of art. Many Tuesday Knitters made various parts - mine was the half-moon rear-wheel "skirt-guard" which is a peculiarly Dutch innovation - "Jasbeschermers" or coat protectors. I found these wonderfully colourful embellishments online and on Ravelry and adapted one to my end procuct, which I love. Then Dairiona made the beautiful front-wheel covers in crochet shades of blue, while sisters Annie and Agnes made the basket - in basketweave stitch with a pre-patterned yarn. I can't name each and everyone as I'd be sure to omit many but suffice to say there were myriad contributors!

The ornate basket - bees making honey!

Last Friday, coinciding with the Immrama Festival, the bike was placed on the steps of the Heritage Centre, a nerve centre for tourism in Lismore, and the visitor numbers were certainly up this weekend, due to the festival but of course we take some credit with our own visitor-magnet! I saw lots of people photographing it, being photographed beside it, and in one case, in it! A little  baby was placed in the basket for the sweetest photograph, which I saw on Facebook! Some people thought it was Dervla's iconic bike, Roz (Rozinante, the Quixotically named bike that took her to India and beyond in 1963 and which found a home in the Lismore Library, where her father was once County Librarian).

So what do you think? We are totally biased and love it and hope it finds a long-term home in Lismore, as a tourist attraction in its own right. Who knows, it might even go down in history.

Yarnbombing The Barber of Seville - A First for Lismore

Lismore's "Opera Lane" aka The New Way

Angela, Brian and Minnie

This June Bank Holiday weekend was marked by the staging of Rossini's The Barber of Seville by the Lismore Music Festival in Lismore Castles's salubrious setting. The Opera was staged outdoors, a risky venture in itself given our unpredictable climate and indeed it didn't disappoint as last  night's performance took place in a veritable deluge. Luckily they had the presence of  mind to erect a tent to protect the audience and hopefully the stage could be covered as well. The previous night was the dress rehearsal which I already blogged about in this post about the visit of our President Michael D. Higgins to the Castle, where we met him afterwards at a reception. 

A yarnbombed pole

In Angela's Window - Mary's knitted banner!

All roads lead from Lismore! 

The Tuesday Knitters from the Design Workshop, our self-styled Knitting Circle, decided a while ago to get into the whole yarnbombing movement, which seems to be a global phenomenon. As the name implies, items made from yarn either knitted or crocheted are bombed into public spaces to decorate street furniture, and it can be themed or random. We decided to mark the Opera weekend with yarnbombing on the theme of Barber poles - lots of red and white stripes along the lamposts of Lismore especially en route to the Castle from the town - our very own Opera Lane.

My Granny Squares pole

What makes Yarnbombing special is the surprise element - not for nothing is it also called Guerilla Knitting - so nobody outside the select members of the Knitting Circle morning and evening groups were told what all this frantic red and white knitting or crochet was about, and it was assumed we were knitting up the Cork colours, our rivals on the fields of sport, who are always pitched against the blue and white of Waterford. Alas no, it was much more than an homage to Cork, and by yesterday morning the town was blitzed. 

En route to the Castle Avenue

Like a duel of old, it was up at dawn for Angela of the Design Workshop and some other trusty members who were out in force with the lengths of knitting and crochet, cable ties, stepladders and darning needles.  Sadly I slept it out till 8:30 by which all the hard work was done and I went around taking photos feeling rather sheepishly guilty for not having been there - but Saturday mornings are sacrosanct and the alarm is silenced - I forgot to reset it.

My crochet stripes - concertina-ing!

My yarn bombs pre-deployment! 

So when I arrived on my bike Angela and fiance Brian and trusty dog Minnie (who is a prima donna star in her own right, with a whole range of greeting cards in her image) were breakfasting on the terrace of the Lismore House Hotel, and I was delighted to see the end result of the poles draped in Barber Pole stripes - some quirkier than others. Mine included a length of granny squares in alternating colours and they looked lovely on the pole, and it was great to see them on the corners of the Main Street too. 

The Barber's this way!

We have plans afoot for next weekend and the Immrama Festival of Travel Writing, so watch this space! Like Arnie, we'll  be  back - and it's gonna be fun. I hope you enjoy the photos of our venture into this brave new world of knitting and crochet!