It's April 2nd, a warm, breezy day with crocuses finally blooming and daffodils considering it. What a difference from last week, when I installed the yarnbomb of Hagley Museum's gates and pillars. It was the culmination of months of planning and crocheting, weeks of help from Hagley's handwork volunteers, and four days of enduring freezing temperatures, snow flurries, fog, and rain to put everything in place. I had pictured myself like an artist hanging a gallery show, albeit outdoors, perhaps wearing all black clothing and a chic scarf, scrutinizing placement to see if a piece of art should be moved an inch to the left or right. Instead I was dressed for the arctic, complete with quilted ski pants and a hooded parka. Oh, the glamour! It was quite challenging to get my fingers to work. I had warming packets inside fingerless gloves and I could curl the fingertips in once in a while to warm them, but that was only partially effective. Day 1 was spent sewing all of the green stems around the iron bars. The needle kept getting tangled up in my gloves, slowly destroying them.
Here are some photos of the preparations and of the Day 1 installation (apologies for how these render--they look one way in Draft mode, another way in Published mode, and not right in either mode):
Days 2 and 3 were for flowers and leaves, and the eagle filet crochet panel.
On Day 4 some Hagley folks helped me out with two 8-foot ladders and some extra pairs of hands to get the fleur-de-lis panels in place on the large stone pillars. Nobody fell into the Brandywine, so the effort was a success!
This Monday I returned to Hagley to thank the handwork volunteers, to donate some books and lots of yarn, and to have our pictures taken at the finished gates. Hagley put up a really official-looking sign! The yarnbomb was written up in Chadds Ford Live here in a piece by Kathleen Brady Shea, and in the Wilmington News Journal here in a feature by Betsy Price. Both of them mentioned the exhibit "Unraveling Stories" that was the inspiration for the yarn art. It's wonderful to have this publicity--I hope it sends lots of people to Hagley!
With that behind me, I turned my attention to finishing four projects (of ten) for a Leisure Arts book. The items needed to be sent to Arkansas for photography by April 1. Check! With the yarnbomb finished and the Leisure Arts things in the mail, it was a good opportunity for some spring cleaning and tidying-up. Now I can focus on the remaining six projects that are due May 1.
I'm working with Stackpole Books to figure out whether to attend TNNA in Ohio at the end of May. Might be the perfect opportunity to do a book-signing of Tunisian Crochet for Baby, which came out in January. I'd love to attend the designers' dinner that Marly Bird is arranging, too. I have two books for Stackpole in the works, and two for Leisure Arts.
My next task is to propose another large-scale installation to a local cultural institution. I'll let you know how it goes!