Bomb, Yarn Bomb

I am so excited about what I have to share with you today. Yes, it's time for the big reveal! 

We yarn bombed campus. (I'll give you a moment to jump up and down with excitement.) 

Overall, the planning and execution of the project was a ton of fun. I'm not sure how many Stitch 'n Bitchers I heard exclaim, "This is so much fun!" during last night's bombing. And that, dear readers, is what it's all about. Fun. 

We started things off with the rather unique statue that was added to campus last year. It was a gift. Anyway, it's called "The Dance" so it was practically begging for a pair of leg warmers! This set was fashioned out of some panels Mary crocheted. Chelsea added a belt and BAM, instant improvement.  

 I nearly placed the leg warmers on what everyone else considered to be the statue's feet. Damn you abstract art!

So excited about yarn bombing I can hardly secure the safety pins!

I mean come on! Instant improvement! 

Apparently the powers that be didn't agree. While studying for a test outside of Magruder, I watched two Physical Plant employees roll up in their golf cart and take everything down in two minutes. Fun suckers. 

After we had properly outfitted the dancers, we ran to the Sunken Garden. It was my task to adorn the statue found here. I have to admit, I'm pretty thrilled with how it turned out. 

Knitting. Bliss. 

It's amazing what a little yarn can do. 

As I type this, the lady in the Sunken Garden is still wearing her knitwear. 

Keeping in the statue theme, we next high tailed it to the Joseph Baldwin statue. I can think of no better way honor the first president of the university than with a hat and mobius cowl. Seriously. Just try to think of something better. That's right, you can't. The hat was whipped up by Katherine and Clara made the stylin' cowl.

I see more yarn bombing in Clara's future. I wish I was that cool as a 10 year old!

Lookin' cozy.

J.B. is still rockin' his handknits. I have a feeling the inaccessibility of his head is the only reason they haven't been taken down. No middle aged man is eager to slink up the side of a statue. 

Continuing our "honoring" theme, we walked calmly and quietly to the library to adorn a bust of our namesake. Yes, Truman got a scarf. Megan was nice enough to knit it up. 

Lookin' good, Harry!

I was surprised that it was the first yarn bomb removed. Madeline found it sitting on a shelf next to the bust. I mean come on! It's purple! Giving Truman a purple scarf is the definition of school spirit! 

Long time Stitch 'n Bitch members will recall talk of the "Blue Light," a glowing orb intermittently visible from the HUB windows. Madeline, keeper of the Blue Light, updates fellow Stitch 'n Bitchers on its status throughout the meeting. "Blue light's on. Oh wait, now it's off." As it turns out, the light comes from one of the emergency button thingies (EBT) that are scattered all over campus. Madeline made a little cozy for the EBT, being sure not to obstruct any of its important emergency features. If I were on the run from a rapist, I'm sure I would find the soft, cushiony creation to be a great comfort.

"We should be scared of that man following us, but this handknit is so wonderfully comforting."

Like any good blogger, I've saved the best for last. Madeline and Mary teamed up to deck out the bells on the quad. Everyone was thrilled with how they turned out. 

All hands on deck to adorn the bells.

Mary posing with her handiwork.

From left to right: One cozy bell, Madeline

Seeing them in the daylight made me even happier. 

A brilliant piece of advertising, courtesy of Mary.

Sadly the bell cozies were taken down this afternoon. I'll admit that I was a little upset by this, since they looked COMPLETELY AWESOME. Luckily my friend Dylan was in the right place at the right time and snatched them up. Stephen was nice enough to model them for me this afternoon. 

He makes a beautiful bell. 

I'll admit that this feels like the most sneaky and delinquent thing I've ever done. And boy was it thrilling! Sure, they don't tell you not to cover campus in knitwear, but it's implied. Yes, I wish some of the decorations had stayed up longer, but that's part of the excitement. I will say that the Physical Plant employees are just begging to have their break table yarn bombed. Maybe they think yarn bombing is a gateway to more serious acts of vandalism. The kind that can't be removed with a pair of scissors. In that case, maybe I should return all that spray paint I just purchased...

 

Yarn Dash!

Madeline had a wonderful idea. A yarn dash to Columbia! Just the thing to get me out of the knitting rut I've found myself in the past few weeks. I cast on for three different projects but couldn't really get jazzed about any of them (secret knitting project aside). New yarn was just the thing I needed! 

So we made plans to get brunch with former SnB regular Sarah and hit the road at 8:30. There was also a chance that SnB founder Alex (please refer to History tab) might just drive from St. Louis to meet us in Columbia. Madeline decided to tell me this wonderful news while we were careening down the highway at 70mph. My enthusiasm is not well contained in the driver's seat and there was some concern that I might bite my own finger off. After an hour and a half of driving through a gray and dreary northeast Missouri, we arrived in Columbia. 

Before we headed to our favorite Columbia yarn store, Hillcreek Yarn Shoppe, we had brunch with Sarah at an establishment that wanted very badly for us to feel like we were in Paris. I've never seen such a high density of French memorabilia. 

During brunch we brainstormed at least three occasions for Sarah to make a Kirksville trip.

After brunch we spent a half hour getting lost in Columbia while trying to find the yarn shop. It's not like both of us had been there multiple times or anything...

Finally!

 The best treat of the day was seeing Alex waiting inside for us! Reunited at last!

Alex modeling his new tote. 

I tried to take a picture that would do Hillcreek justice. Sadly every picture I took was only able to show a fraction of the splendor

~1/10 of Hillcreek splendor

The folks at Hillcreek are super helpful without being annoying (that is, they don't breath down your neck!). The store if very comfortable, with plenty of sitting areas if you'd like to take a break from shopping to work on a project. They also carry a great yarn selection. I always know they'll have my go-to yarn brands in a wide variety of colors. If you're looking for yarn in central Missouri, I suggest you check them out. But be careful. You'll want to snatch up every yarn you see. I kept turning down a basket because I was only going to allow myself to purchase the yarn I could carry in my arms. I have a yarn budget. It feels very adult.

Methodical yarn buying. Each skein purchased with a project in mind.

Four of the five skeins are for gifts (the fifth skein is being scanned in the picture above) but one is just for me. It's a sumptuous skein of Malabrigo. More about that wonderful little skein once I finished all my gift knitting!

Even great yarn stores like Hillcreek have their quirks. Then again, maybe striped overalls just aren't my thing.

To each their own

 After Hillcreek, our adventures took us to Hobby Lobby. To be perfectly honest, Hobby Lobby has sort of always freaked me out. It's just...strange at times. Take the creepy furry orbs that greeted us at the door.

What are you!?

We thought we might find some sock yarn deals, but really the knitting section just offered comedic relief.

"Rustica" Really? It's pink acrylic!

The fun wasn't restricted to the knitting aisle.

Snake/Dinosaur battle

Chipotle was the last stop on the Yarn Dash trip. In true Alex fashion, he surprised Madeline and I with some handknits. We each got to take home one of four handmade creations. He's too good to us! 

Brioche stich keyhole scarf, Option #1

Madeline inspecting Option #2

Option #3, a shawl with construction too intricate for me to explain in a caption

Option #4, a beautiful shawl in punchy colors. 

I bet you want to know which Madeline and I picked, right?

Madeline went with Option #3.

Overjoyed with my new shawl, Option #4.

Basically, the Yarn Dash ended up being better than I could have imagined. Yarn buying is always delightful, but seeing Sarah and Alex made the trip truly memorable. Plus I got another sweet Alex creation. I just reorganized my handknit drawer and realized that shawls Alex has knit me now outnumber ones of my own creation. Yowza. 

I got chills. They're multiplying.

When I woke up this morning I could sense the change. My bed was particularly cozy. The room felt, dare I say, cool. Then I looked out the window. Hooray! Drizzly and dreary. Knitwear weather has arrived, my friends. I don't care if temperatures skyrocket this weekend and I'm forced to visit friends who have air conditioning. The official end of summer might be a few weeks off, but I'm declaring it knitwear season. I might even bust out a hand knit sweater this afternoon! After a summer in protective plastic bin storage, my sweaters will be singing, "Free, free at last!"

I'm sorry, dear reader, but the knitting secrecy of last week's post must continue. In fact, now I can barely show you what anyone at Stitch 'n Bitch is knitting. But there is an end in sight. Two weeks. Just two weeks and at least one reader *cough*Kaitie*cough* will be able to sleep easy again. 

To distract you, let's focus on how generally awesome Stitch 'n Bitch was last night. Even with some members missing due to illness, we still had a great turnout. Here's proof!

Just look at the diversity! Men, women, professors, a child! We're a regular melting pot. 

I was tempted to make that picture extra big to try and make up for the fact that this post is rather light on pictures. 

There was one finished project from last night that I can share. Chelsea finished a very, very cool looking hat. 

Superb color choice!

I'm off to do more clandestine knitting. If you knit, rejoice in the arrival of knitwear season. If you're reading this and I personally knit you something, go find the thing I knit you and wear it. You know who you are! Report back about how warm/cozy/loved it makes you feel. No excuses.

Sneaky

It was a sneaky week at Stitch 'n Bitch. 

Kat, in a homework frenzy, had to sketch ten people during the meeting. When she had exhausted the resources available in the circle, she took to creeping on other HUB patrons. At least she has an academic excuse. For me it's something of a hobby. 

Kat, gettin' her creep on

I demanded to be one of the ten subjects. But I couldn't sit still long enough to be a good model. Kat took a photo of me on her phone to work off of so I was free gesture, trip, and dash off to my heart's content.

It's MEEEEE!

Some parts of the meeting weren't very sneaky at all. Like this "knitwear in action"picture of Madeline. I made her stand there for several minutes while I tried to take a non-blury photo.

Then there were the parts of the meeting that are too sneaky to even mention. They were too sneaky to photograph. All I can say is that they will lead to legendary, hilarious shenanigans. But I can speak no more of them...I can only say that they are the reason interactions with me recently have gone something like this: 

My apologies if you've been on the receiving end of this interaction. Soon, all will be made clear. 

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Hello there fellow knitters! Hello to those of you who don't knit but for some reason find yourself reading this blog anyway! Truman Stitch 'n Bitch is back after a bit of a summer hiatus. That doesn't mean the knitting stopped, just that I was a bit too busy to update. As you may recall, I spent the summer doing research (and a bit of knitting) outside of Boulder, Colorado. My summer can be summarized in a collection of three photos.

So that was Colorado. Any questions? 

I did manage to knit a bit. The crowning glory of my summer knitting was my hedgehog hat. I'm not sure if I've mentioned my fascination with hedgehogs on the blog before, but it's something that comes up rather frequently at SnB meetings. Sometimes when I'm sitting around knitting I think, "Gee, if I had a hedgehog, he could just snuggle in my lap as I knit this." Now if I actually did get a hedgehog, I'm sure it would be a squirrelly thing that would hate sitting still. Instead I'll just spend a few seconds (or half an hour) looking at adorable hedgie pictures online when I feel like it. Perhaps I'll even knit another one of these creations: 

It makes me soooo happy. It might be some of my finest work. Seriously. Just look at the color combinations! Taylor obliged to be my male model, but I kept the final product for my own head. I really love the stocking cap shape. I might have to make a few more hats in this style. 

And now to more recent knitting adventures! Stitch 'n Bitch has moved to a new time. We now meet on Tuesdays from 7:00-10:00pm. The location, HUB of Truman State's Student Union Building, remains the same. Just look for the awesome people with yarn. We glow. 

All the regulars showed up for the first meeting of the semester. 

Chelsea and her curent hat progress. Superb color choice.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that Kat is knitting fingerless gloves on SIZE 000 NEEDLES. 

Clara is working on her first garment, a bright, striped top.  

Here's Madeline knitting with abandon, as usual. Yes, that's another skein of Harry Potter sock yarn. Well spotted!

I'm itching to get some new yarn in my stash. I have several hats to knit for my fellow summer interns and my current yarn supply simply will not do!