Eat your veggies!

Over the last couple of weeks I have been busily knitting five chillis, one aubergine/eggplant, one courgette/zucchini, one tomato, one leek, one carrot and one sweetcorn. A few eyebrows have been raised, let me tell you! But it was all  for a good cause. . . part 2 of the Nutrition and Physical Activity (NPA) Programme yarnification.

Promoting healthy eating is a key part of the NPA strategy, so what better than to decorate their surroundings with a selection of knitted veggies?! Here's the NPA "Healthy As" website and their feature on fresh foods. . .

Oh, and while I was there I added another bike rack cosy, so at least the bike rack would be warm even if I wasn't! Today another wintry cold snap began and that bitterly cold wind fresh from Antarctica was going right through me!

Before my hands froze to the metal I added a couple of fence hearts too ♥♥



I finished off my afternoon of yarnification with a trip over to the main entrance of the hospital, and sewed another bike rack cosy on there too. . . the one in the front:



Hopefully these yarnifications will bring a few smiles to peoples' faces. . .

Knitted tree hug

The Accomplice has been very busy lately! Bit by bit she has been knitting a Tree Hug! It's a cosy for one of the trees beside the main entrance of the hospital. I haven't knitted any of this - it is all solely the Accomplice's work, but I have been helping to sew it on, and very good it looks too. 

The funny thing is that the Accomplice (who initially said she would knit or crochet for the cause but would NEVER be bold enough to sew any of the yarnifications in place) has now completely got over her shyness and thinks nothing of attaching knit graffiti in broad daylight beside one of the busiest areas of the hospital! We even roped in the visiting physio student to help sew on the latest part of the cosy this week! Bet she never thought Knit Graffiti would be part of her clinical placement in Nelson!

Nutrition and Physical Activity Dept, by special request - part 1

Last month I got a request to add a little yarnification to the "Nutrition and Physical Activity" part of the Public Health department at the hospital. I have quite a major plan in mind, but here is part 1 (the simplest!) Hope you like it so far, "Greenman and Booboo" ;-)

Fence post cosy

Bike rack cosies with fence post cosy behind

 The bike rack cosies look so short that I might well add some extra length to them at a later stage. I knitted the ribbed one in the foreground, and my Wifie (aka Partner-in-Craft) knitted the stripy multi-textured one in the background. The Accomplice knitted the rainbow fence post cosy, so this was really a team effort.

Talking of the Accomplice, when I drove past the front entrance of the hospital I spotted that the she had been bold enough to sew a cosy onto one of the trees, which she thought looked a bit cold in this wintry weather. Last Sunday we had snow in this area for the first time in many years. . . the tree certainly looks warmer now!!

Yarnificationz in the media

Hospital bike racks yarnification - 11.6.11

Recently I found out (thanks to a comment on my blog) that Knitapotamus/Yarnificationz had been mentioned in the local District Health Board's  "Healthy As" June newsletter. One of the articles in the newsletter is entitled "Knitapotamus Strikes Again!" I was so excited. . . this is  the first and only time (as far as I know) that any of my Yarnificationz have been noticed by the "media". Wooohooooooo!

In their comment, the writers "Greenman and Booboo" also requested that I might try to brighten up their little corner of the hospital grounds a bit too. . . Let's just say I am working on it! I have no idea who Greenman and Booboo are and it took me quite a bit of detective work to actually work out which newsletter they were referring to, but it was a real thrill to have my first bit of "media coverage".

With the "Dress Nelson" campaign, Nelson is putting on a big effort to get lots of knit graffiti in place for the Rugby World Cup 2011 which is being hosted in New Zealand. Being such a rugby-mad nation it's a huge deal here, and Nelson is hosting three matches and four teams (Italy, USA, Australia and Russia). The Nelson City Council has a webpage with all the relevant information. I am not a fan of rugby (or any sport unless a loved one is playing in the game!) but I am very interested in the knit graffiti aspect, so plan to get involved with that. You can read more about it here and here. If you live locally and want to help out "Dress Nelson" with donations of yarn, needles or knitting, the email address for more info is knitnelson (at) gmail (dot) com

Arohanui CHCH

Last weekend we did a flying visit to Christchurch (CHCH). Drove down one day and back the next, with a stop in Amberley overnight. I really wanted to leave some yarnification to brighten the place up a bit, but was not organised ahead of time. So, on the way down there when I wasn't driving I was knitting! A red acrylic square of stocking stitch, really rather boring but my plan was to embroider something on it. While we were in Amberley I finished knitting the square and embroidered a heart with CHCH in it.  Even attached a Yarnificationz label so anyone who finds it can check back here at the blog if they are interested.

The next day we continued down to CHCH, met up with a ravelry friend (awesome to meet her at last!) and did what we were there to do. On the way out of CHCH I suddenly remembered I had not put up my yarnification, so we stopped at the next likely spot we saw and much to the bemusement of my own family and passing drivers, I scurried out of the car and spent a hasty few minutes sewing "Arohanui CHCH" in place. If you live locally and want to find it, it's on Normans Road, just beside the intersection with Papanui Road. It looks quite good against the liquefaction grey, I think. . .

Hopefully this tiny bit of yarnification will make a few people smile and remind them that the rest of us are still thinking of them down in quakey-shakey CHCH. Talking of which, recently I was contacted by someone from NZ Kidz Mag and we are talking about the possibility of organising a yarnification blitz on CHCH over the next few months. . . so watch this space for more news, and if you would like to get involved please let me know. Only very basic knitting/crochet skills necessary and contributions welcome from far and near :)

International Yarn-Bombing Day. . . Part 3: Heart Fence.

Before the sun came up and we headed back home, we made a quick detour to the tennis courts to add a few fence hearts. . .

 Then it was stealthily back home for us, before the sun rose and the village came to life :)

International Yarn-Bombing Day. . . Part 2: Scarfies Sculpture.

For the second part of the IYBD yarnificationz, my lovely Wifie agreed to get up with me before sunrise today so we could put up our yarnifications under cover of darkness! She had also done half the knitting for this installation, but this was her first go at putting any yarnifications in place. . . Here she is in action, attaching one of the two scarfs she knitted:

And here I am, attaching a cable tie to help keep one of the scarfs in place, using my brand new head-torch to help me see what I was doing.

Here's the finished Scarfies Sculpture yarnification. . .

P.S. Here are the links to part 1  and part 3 of our International Yarn-Bombing Day extravaganza!