Sunflower Field Yarn-Bombing + Craft Activism Book Giveaway

Our sunflower field was a bit of a bust this year. The weather didn't cooperate too well and we just got too busy to make it look as good as it usually does. I did what I could and crossed my fingers. Lo and behold, we had lots and lots of blooms - not enough to sell at our our roadside stand - bit enough for me to make many gorgeous photos and bouquets for the house for my summer classes. I never even got a chance to put them on the blog. So here is a particularly beautiful shot of a single sunflower. By single, I mean that with each seed, you get one stem with a largish sunflower at the top. These are the kinds of sunflowers that are grown in greenhouses and that you find in the grocery store.

This is one of my favorite varieties. It is called The Joker and the seed is hard to find. Johnny's stopped carrying it and I have no idea where I ever found it.

 I like it because each plant yields at least 20 flowers and they come in many different patterns. Some all yellow, some yellow and henna, some darker rust. Each of the flowers usually has a little frill around the center of the flower.

As the season was waning, I got a little sad about what could have been. That's the way it is with gardening and farming - you live for the possibilities of next year, what you are going to do better, what you are going to let go, and you think about how the heck you can fit it all in with only the daylight hours and all your other responsibilities in your life. We all know how that can change depending on the people in your life and what they need from you, never mind what you really do to make money to feed your family. 

As Sunflower Season was winding down, I came up with one of those "brilliant ideas" - you know, you're driving around in the car, letting your mind wander, thinking of new things to make, bake, cook, visit, do better, or just plain stop doing. I thought about our sunflowers - I think about them a lot in the summer. But summer was turning to autumn and my mind always wanders towards knitting and designing in autumn - when things stop growing outside and I have to make things grow in the house. It's basically a move that I make creatively - from outdoors creativity to indoors creativity.

This was just about the time that I heard about Joan Tapper and Gale Zucker's new book CraftActivism. The thought of the knitters all over the world "yarn bombing" places in their communities was just so much fun. Fiberart and knitting reaching the masses is very cool. But then, where I live, there aren't that many people. But on my blog and website, I do reach the masses - like you all who are reading today. That's when it struck me. I will yarn-bomb our sunflower field - just as the blooms are dying away.

I started knitting and knitting. I didn't stop - for fear of frost. I had to get this job done quickly.

Today, I would like to present to you all my own little bit of yarn-bombing country style. My version of The Joker.

A single handknit and felted Autumn Beauty.....

A branching sunflower full of knitted, felted, and embroidered blossoms.

Pattern for these coming soon.

BUT here's the good news. I have a giveaway for you today.... one copy of Gale Zucker and Joan Tapper's new book CraftActivism donated by their publisher Potter Craft. Their book's blog is here.

Here's how to enter......
Answer this question in the comments: Tell me what you think of yarn bombing.... Have you ever done it? Has it happened in your town? What kind of "craft activism" do you do? (Making things for charities counts). Or do you just think it is plain silly?

Contest ends at Sunday November 13th at 11:59 p.m. Please leave an easy way to get a hold of you!

p.s. Just found this bit of yarn-bombing in the form of handknit scarves left for anyone who wants or needs one in Easton, PA. Knit on all you "Chase the Chill" knitters!