Guerilla crafters dress Brisbane in winter woollies

If you’ve been in the Brisbane city heart this week, you may have noticed that it is a bit more colourful than usual.

Pompoms are hanging from trees, green hearts and mushrooms have sprung up in the quirkiest of places, and the statues have put on their woollies to ward off  the winter chill – like this little fella in King George Square, who’s sporting a very nice stripey scarf (in Biggan yarn, of course!):

© Stephen Jaensch. Used with permission.

They are all part of I Knit Brisbane, a community knitting and crochet project that brought together crafters from all over Brisbane – school students, artists, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups, seniors groups, knitting/crochet groups and associations, and the craft businesses that service them.

Hundreds of hours of knitting, crocheting and assembly went on behind the scenes, culminating in a massive effort on the night of 31 May, when the guerilla crafters took to the streets of Brisbane to ensure the city heart was warm and cosy for the first day of winter. I wish I could have seen the faces of the city workers when they came across their first piece of woollen sculpture that morning – I hope it made them smile!!

Biggan and I were awed and inspired by the army of fantastically creative guerilla crafters who put their hearts and hands into making Brisbane a warmer place this winter. We were honoured to be a small part of this amazing community by providing some of the wool for the installations.

Channel 9’s news story about the project can be viewed here (and yes, that is Biggan being interviewed behind Sebastian di Mauro’s hand sculpture)

If you’re in Brisbane and want to check out I Knit Brisbane, this map will point you in the right direction…

Part of the art

So what do knitters get up to on a lazy afternoon in the River City?

Well, yesterday a group of us became part of the art at the 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT6) at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art.

One of the exhibits is Untitled 9, a gigantic plinth which dominates the gallery’s River Room. The plinth is topped with a circle of chairs, where various groups have been invited to meet during the exhibition. Yesterday, Biggan and I joined other members of the Brisbane SnB group for a spot of public knitting as art.

From the top of the plinth, we knitters had a fabulous view of the river and the new Kurilpa Bridge, a pedestrian and cyclist bridge which links the city heart to the art gallery precinct. It’s an interesting structure, and a very apt view for our group, as people often liken it to knitting needles!

If you would like to read more about the concept behind Untitled 9, have a peek at the blog of its creators, the art collective DAMP.

A cuppa with friends

All of us here at Biggan Design are big tea drinkers. So when it came to hosting a small knit-together with twelve of our friends recently, a tea party in the beautiful garden of Biggan’s home was the natural choice.

Sophie, Stephanie and Henrietta

With the flamboyant tropical flowers heralding the Australian spring, it’s easy to see where Biggan gets the inspiration for her work. Nature has an unerring eye for combining colours — the purples of the jacaranda and tibouchina blooms, the scarlet and cerise bougainvillea, and the orange and indigo Bird of Paradise.

Giving Mother Nature stiff competition, though, were the colourful projects we were all working on! Biggan was knitting a version of her Light and Shade shawl in shades of green, while Henrietta worked on a pair of scarlet wristwarmers. Judith was finishing up a lampshade in shades of pink, Valerie was working on Stefanie Japel’s Two-Tone Ribbed Shrug in turquoise and deep turquoise, and Anita was working on a baby blanket in an untraditional light khaki.

Biggan works on her shawl

And, of course, there were pots of tea and plenty of yummy home-baked biscuits, buns and cakes to keep our strength up! The tea was Stockholm Blend from The Tea Centre, a firm favourite with Biggan and Henrietta. It’s quite a common blend in Sweden — black tea lightly scented with calendula, rose, safflowers, orange, vanilla and apricot — and its floral aroma is unmistakeable.

Judith in shades of pink

Apart from giving us a reason to catch up with friends over cups of tea and balls of yarn, the party had a second exciting purpose. Henri’s friend Hannah — a talented photographer — was on hand to capture images of the tea party that will eventually make it onto the pages of our upcoming pattern book, along with recipes to many of the home-baked goodies we enjoyed at the party. We’re working hard on the book at the moment, and we’ll be keeping you updated on our progress.

The Biggan Design team: Henrietta, Biggan and Anita