ALTERNATIVE STREET ARTS

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In this piece I was interviewed to talk about the knitting variation of the new street arts: yarnbombing.
I love the guerilla gardening idea! Might take that up one day. Sounds like your cup of tea Tijm?!

YARNBOMBING & WILDBREIEN

The last couple of months I've been interviewed by a handful of journalists talking about my yarn bombing activities. Suddenly something I did on the side became a small label, a (knit) tag if you will.

Thing is... I haven't been extremely active lately. All around me, everywhere people have decided this form of street art is a fun, cool and creative way to spread some joy and wonder. My scraps were calling me from the attic and so I spent my weekend working in 3 small yarn bombs. I started one and made it an exercise in 'letting go'. it was a challenge.

And I'm not making the story better. I seriously found it hard to just let go and knit without thinking about the looks of the item. I had to correct myself several times and keep myself from 'designing' it too much.

As I finished 'the therapeutic bomb', I found myself knitting another one. It was a reaction. I couldn't help it. I knitted 'something'. A figure. I can't be cured, it's a curse....


Another small piece I whipped up in a couple of minutes just to have an extra yarn bomb to make the group complete and have more recognition chances with the public.

I made 'Berkely M.' my accomplice and at 22:30 we took gaffer tape, scissors and a needle and got to work.
We were joking around each time a car arrived. Not taking it all too serious. Two minutes after we left the scene, 3 police cars drove by. Now let me explain. I live in a village. There is only one copper.... so they must have called for backup from the city. Just saying...
This morning I spotted 2 of the 3 yarn bombs, still in place. Tonight I'm checking the third. Hope they'll be there for a while. Gotta go, the scraps are calling....

Gisteren heb ik samen met 'Berkely M.' in ons dorp, Berkel en Rodenrijs, 3 wildbreisels opgehangen. Wildbreien is zo populair aan het worden dat ik onmogelijk mijn eigen dorp 'ongebreid' kon laten. Zeker niet omdat ik de laatste tijd veel interviews heb gegeven over het fenomeen wildbreien. Mijn restjes op zolder riepen steeds harder en dit weekend heb ik een therapeutisch stukje breien gedaan. Een wildbreisel moet vooral vrolijk zijn, maar ik kan het niet laten om er (te) hard over na te denken en er meteen maar echt iets tofs van te maken. Maar daar was geen tijd voor, ik heb mezelf gedwongen om gewoon maar te breien en niet na te denken. Leuk joh!
Twee minuten nadat alles hing kwamen er 3 politie auto's langsrijden. Bizar, want volgens mij heeft Berkel maar één politieman. ;-) Toch wel spannend. Niet omdat ik bang ben voor een discussie, maar omdat ik het zo zonde zou vinden als het breiwerk erafgehaald zou worden. Maar we waren op tijd weg van de 'crime scene'. Moet gaan, de restjes roepen me weer....

SPOTTED!!

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picture: Zita B.

The Bandwagon

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SAS Knits It Again got a lot of press this week. Thursday a national newspaper (Algemeen Dagblad) placed an interview with Francine Oomen and me talking about yarn bombing (aka knit tagging or in Dutch; 'wild breien').
Francine is the author of a series of childrens books on 'How to Survive...' different things in life. Her last book covers Yarn Bombing. I thought it was kind of a weird choice in the series but I love the fact that she's promoting knitting to the next generation. One way or another I got on the bandwagon of the media hype that she started and I was happy to join in.

In a reaction to the piece one of the most popular morning shows on National radio called me and spent quite an amount of time talking to me about the same subject. In spite of having worked in marketing and communication for years, I still suffer from stage fright. I used to promote the bands that played at the venues where I worked on the radio on a monthly basis. I even got myself to present an arts & culture talk show for a while to get over my fear. But when I used to DJ I still had to kill a whiskey before I could start playing. It's the main reason why I never started a band. (I love to sing) I start to shiver, can't eat, feel sick to my stomach and can't function right.
Strange thing is, when I'm in the middle of 'the thing' I'm fine and most of the time I can look back on a good interview, show or whatever.
It's a strange thing...

Listen to the radio interview here