Pop des Fleurs -Pittsburgh- Guest Blog

My friend Roberta saw this colorful display in front of the Carnegie Library in Oakland and sent me these photos.  I didn’t get to see them in person but I’m pretty sure I saw some blooms being created at the Knit and Crochet Festival.

Pop, is right! Although the real flowers are beginning to come up, this art installation brightens up the city. 

Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh  says, “Pop des Fleurs is an outdoor installation planned for the winters of 2015 and 2016, designed to bring delight and color during the dark season through handmade, pop-up flower gardens”

Thanks for sharing Pop des Fleurs on the blog today.

   

 
   
 

How about the close-up of these gorgeous sunflowers? 

Knit the Bridge and Three Boats

View from the Roberto Clemente Bridge( 6th Street)
View from the Roberto Clemente Bridge( 6th Street)

Knit the Bridge on the Andy Warhol/Seventh Street Bridge. Night shot.

Photographed from the vantage point of the Roberto Clemente/Sixth Street Bridge on Fireworks night, A muddy Allegheny River reflecting the night light. I used the 70-200mm L series lens.

Just three more days of the installation so get down and walk across and back to experience the creativity of communities gathering together who nit and crochet the colorful panels now stretching across the span.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Knit the Bridge is All Over the News

I went to a Knit-In this morning.

You might have seen the Knit the Bridge project on or in the news.  Start time was at 6AM and was to go to at least 6PM.

I  got some coffee and grabbed a chair and a blanket to pad the wooden seat.  The group was on the North Side of the Bridge stitching while the teams who were trained ( insurance requirement) donned hard hats and sore fingers, using zip ties and floss like string to attach the pieces.

One hundred twenty more black railing covers were needed (12×75″) to cover the bottom rails in black, too.

It was fun and I met some nice knitters, crocheters and encouragers who came down to check it all out.  The organizers  headed by Amanda Gross and her team are working long and hard hours to get all the colorful  panels installed on the Seventh Street Bridge AKA the Andy Warhol Bridge.  I did hear someone say they were feeling a bit frazzled.  I can only imagine.

 There were boxes of bagels and supportive and interesting conversation as we stitched.  A woman next to me, Sue, has made 35 afghans this year for soldiers in Afghanistan.  There was a PR team documenting the project on film.  They interviewed her and she showed them photos of her work.  That’s a lot of stitching.

Then Veronica arrived.  Told me she had been crocheting for 80 years.  No kidding!!  She made two panels for the bridge and lots of railing covers, too.  Christina showed me how to double crochet so I could get finished faster. She was patient and a good teacher so I zipped along until I had to leave.

Thanks Leah for inviting me down, getting the word out!

Andy Warhol Bridge

Knit in at Knit the Bridge

Bringing people together from many communities- the Knit-In in progress on the North Side of the Bridge

Coffee and Knitting

Rigging Men Arrive

the Bridge is closed to traffic except for these riggers arriving.

Colorful panels

Sue is interviewed

Sue( sporting her son’s old bicycle shirt)  being interviewed by the PR team filming a documentary about the Knit the Bridge project

The Bridge is Closed

Knit the Bridge

Installing one of the panels.  Note the black railing covers and the zip ties.  And the volunteer workers!

Get in on Knit the Bridge Project NOW! Deadline is June 1st.

My friend Ellen sent me an email about the Knit the Bridge project.  You know how we Pittsburghers feel about our  bridges.

The Knit the Bridge project is a YARN BOMB thing planned for the Andy Warhol Bridge and is an outreach project for Fiberart International 2013   Knitting Communities together one bridge at a time 

We even got together with another friend and knit a bit one evening.  Well, not much. We were catching up on one another’s  lives now that we don’t teach in the same school anymore.  I was reluctant to commit to knit for the project as I had so many projects started.   I thought I would knit one 17×17 inch square to help out.  It has to be in acrylic yarn and bright colors are desired.  I even went to the Red White and Blue Secondhand shop looking for donated yarn to purchase.  No luck.  The knit or crochet pieces/panels are due June first.  There are directions and suggestions for the knit and/or crochet panels at the Knit the Bridge  (wordpress blog) and all kinds of information if you want to consider participating.  You can mail me your knit pieces and I will turn them in at a drop off point.  Of course I plan to photograph the bridge when it is KNIT!

Now I have signed up to knit an entire panel.   I’m just starting.  It will be 72″ x 34″.   Oh my.   They need almost 600 panels!

What have I done? I bought some yarn and started my granddaughter Anna (9) on a square 17×17.  Then Maura (4) wanted to sit on my lap and learn how to knit so I started her off and amazingly she seemed to “get it” right away.  Both granddaughters are left handed so I didn’t know how to do it any differently from how I already knit.

Just got in from visiting the family in Ohio this weekend and so took a quick pic of the bag of yarn to knit in the foyer after I unpacked the car. I put the phone camera down into the bag of yarn and the hall light on the desk illuminated it through the white plastic bag.

Knitting Yarn

Some crazy colors that should show up nicely.

I like to do plain knitting, back and forth, back and forth, watch it grow.

It calms me, sucks out my anxiety.  I am going to be very peaceful and relaxed when it ‘s complete

with all that knitting required!