windy monday morning

When we arrived at the gardens today it was blowing a gale, and cold, so we couldn't lay the stream out as it would have blown away.  Angel sat and knitted by the bank. By lunchtime though the wind had dropped and there was even some sunshine so we laid the stream out on the bank for a photo opportunity. Who knows if the sun will come out again before the end of the exhibition!  It was our first full day today and we found it takes quite a long time to get everything out and pack away again, so if you're coming to see us it would probably be best to come between about 10.45 - 3.15 to make sure the whole stream is out. Obviously, if it's wet we won't be there at all.  We talked to lots of people - there was a lot of interest in the work. Thanks once again to all who have helped to make the stream so long and to those who are still knitting away.

What a beautiful day

The stream rolled up at 500ft

When we first arrived the ground was too damp to display and the wind blew so the stream was displayed as below.

Displayed in circle because of the wind

Angel's knitted piece in the stream

Angel performs daily and knits into the stream. It is hard as the material is tugged by the current.

The fabric smells rotten and the piece changes shape and colour daily. The Ducks are wary of it and swim up to it look at it and swim away again.

The Knitted stream displayed on the path
Displaying all the knitted donations we are now at 500 ft

The beginning of Angel's knitting

More stream

Angel's knitting drying

knitted stream

knitted stream

Viewing the stream

We had lovely weather in the end it was cold and blowing  a gale when we arrived at 10am but as the day went on things improved and we even got to display the stream. Angel performed into the stream and knitted a further few feet. We are at 500ft at the moment  we are still knitting and receiving knitting to sew on. The exhibition finishes at 4pm each day. The stream takes a while to put away so it is only available to see until 3.15pm.There will be someone around to collect knitting till 5pm.
The stream is displayed weather permitting as we have no shelter  and we don't want it to get wet. We open at 10 am in the morning  and are open until the 7th Of May. If we are rained off we will post on the blog as soon as we know .

Rainy Sunday

As Angel said, it's too wet for us to exhibit today. It's a shame when eveyone has put in so much effort for the whole exhibition, but as it's all outside, we're very dependant on dry weather. Just hope the weather improves for the rest of the time we're there!
As we've mentioned before, we're really interested in your thoughts about knitting - whether it's why you knit, or remembering someone else who used to knit, or even about your thoughts as you knit.
I'm asking visitors to tell me their stories, or write them, and I'm going to compile them into a hand-made book at the end of the exhbition, so please help me! It can be a whole story or just one line, I don't mind which. You can do this anonymously or use your name if you wish. If you don't want to put your comment on the blog but would like to be part of my book, you can e-mail me on isobel222@hotmail.co.uk

Here are some examples taken from some stories we've received :

I knit because it makes me feel happy, it gives me pleasure making something for somebody special. I knit a lot of things for my mum and I know she loves them.

I remember having a crochet urge in my early teens and made a bedspread out of crochet granny squares - predominant colour was orange (it was the 1970's after all) and it was pretty hideous!

 I started knitting and crocheting when my daughter was a toddler because |I could sit and keep her company while she was watching her kids program and it kept me occupied.

I was sitting at the bedside of a critically ill relative. I couldn't concentrate on a book - my normal refuge- but I needed to do something besides just sit and worry.... On my way home I saw a wool shop and bought needles and wool and I started knitting as I sat in the hospital day after day.

Thanks for helping - we hope we'll see some of you in the gardens when the weather improves.

Rained off

Hi
 Looks like another rainy day the forecast  for today is rain and wind.
The Boss says it's a no go today. We have no shelter down in the lower gardens and the stream would
get ruined. As soon as the sun comes out we will be back.
This gives an opportunity for more knitting. However I am very disappointed as I was looking forward to being in the Gardens for 10 days. We cannot however control the weather .
Yesterday some of the exhibits were open but there were no visitors. It has to stop raining sooner or later
preferably sooner.

As soon as I find out I will blog to let you all know if we are open as I don't want everyone having a wasted journey and getting drowned in the process.
Maybe we should all do a rain dance and pray for sunshine. We need a few days where everyone can come and see this beautiful piece of work. It really is a fantastic achievement 481ft. I will keep updating on the length but I am confident we will reach 500ft by the end of today
Here's hoping for sunshine tomorrow?

Typical Bournemouth Weather

Hi
Not a good start to the exhibition at 10am it poured down raining cats and dogs and squirrels.
We checked in and decided to relocate to the aviary walk. We thought this was dry and sheltered but we still managed to get wet and cold. We didn't want to disappoint anyone.
We laid the stream out but as it was getting damper and so were we, a decision was made to call it a day.
We will hopefully be back tomorrow weather  permitting.
We have more donations streaming in and we are now at 481 ft. hoping to reach 500ft by Sunday Evening. Thank you for all the packages I have been receiving it is like christmas every day.

The Mayor and Lady Mayoress at the opening last night

Stream re located to the aviary walk just for today
left  piece knitted by  a  90 year old lady

More donations streaming in
Thank you to an Echo reader in Poole

Stream on the Aviary walk

more stream

more

more stream

A squirrel has managed to get in to the gardeners hut where we store the exhibits. We have told him not to make his bed in our stream. we have named him cyril. The stream needs to be displayed on dry land and we are hoping for a lovely dry day for photographic opportunities. I am told Monday's forecast is good so here's hoping. We have some more photos for you though as far as the stream is concerned the best are yet to come. Thank you for all your hard work. Sorry If you had a wasted journey but we will be back tomorrow at 10am

Well we Exhibited

Hi
 The weather held out for us and it was a pleasant evening with a good turn out.
The knitted stream is continuing to grow Angel is knitting daily into the stream as an art performance. whilst on the bank, The Building Bridges Bournemouth Stream flows. Thank you for all the donations of knitting today we managed to get them sewn on in time for opening. We still have a few flowers and pompoms to sew on,  we will keep sewing as the stream keeps flowing.

knitting the stream

We will also start photographing the stream sections. One or two of today's pieces escaped the camera but I will put them on the blog Saturday. A Big Thank you to the 90 year old lady who sent us a large section of stream which she completed in less than a week wow!!

Knitting into the stream (performance)

Knitted stream

latest pieces

latest pieces

we have reached 475ft and we are still receiving knitted donations. The stories are coming in too and the project is coming together nicely. Come and visit us and see the world's longest knitted stream.

The Epiphany School's stream yet to be added this will make the Bournemouth stream even longer.

Thank you Epiphany for all your hard work you have all been really busy

We are open 10am-4pm daily. Thank you to all those who have helped during this project we could not have done it without you. Thank you Epiphany for your photo

Opening night is upon us

Isn't this exciting one more sleep till opening night.
private view all welcome. 6pm-8pm Friday 27th April tomorrow Please visit us?
Exhibition is free come down and enjoy a free glass of wine or pop. After all these days it's rare to get something free.
Runs till the 7th May 10.00am-4pm daily 5pm to collect knitting.
A Big Big Thank you to everyone who has been involved in this project. Isobel and I have been blown away by the response we've had. We never dreamt in a million years that the stream would get so big. It has and it keeps flowing and we are truly amazed.
Yesterday it was 429ft long well the good news is that it has now grown longer. The Epiphany school have been in touch and they have managed to create a further 10ft of stream. Well done to you all. I also received another 4ft today which takes us to 443ft long wow!!

Knitting

We have a small following on twitter. please tweet to your friends facebook etc about us?
Knitting can be posted in the 2 boxes in the gardens. we will then sew your pieces on for you to see. The blog will continue, each piece will be photographed and blogged.
When we here from the Guinness Book Of Records you will all be the first to hear whether we are the world's longest knitted stream.
We will also keep you posted as to who is receiving the scarves for the winter.The exhibition will be covered on the blog also.
please keep sending your stories in and photos and knitting/crochet. Thank you

section of the knitted stream

small section of stream

We still have more donations to come in . we still could reach 3/4 of a mile which is 3960 ft. never say never. just to remind you of workshop times.

Work shop time table for knitting

27^th april- 6.30pm-8pm

28^th April- 11.ooam-1pm  Lunch  3pm- 4pm

30^th April 11.ooam-1pm

4^th May 11.00am-1pm    lunch   2pm-4pm

5^th May 11.00am-1pm     lunch   2pm-4pm

Other dates will be performance where artist continually knits

20 people can pre book

Please book in advance angelhomer@ymail.com

see you all tomorrow and throughout the week. Isobel and I look forward to meeting you all and thanking you in person.

2 more sleeps till we open!!!

Hi only 2 more sleeps till opening night.
The weather was not on our side today. so we only got to measure up and sadly not many photos as a Gale was blowing off the sea and straight down through the gardens.
The good news is we have reached 429 ft wow!!

Stream with attachments telling us why you want to knit your stories and memories of knitting etc.

decorative stream attaching your thoughts

measuring up in the rain typical Bournemouth Weather.

we started measuring from the bridge the stream goes past this bridge and onto the footpath. that's a fantastic achievement

We still have a lot more donated knitting to come in so we could still reach our target. Remember the target was 3/4 of a mile. We still need you to share your stories with us we have had a few but we would love some more. Any memories of knitting good or bad. Even telling us why you chose to help with the project. We have been amazed at the response from you all and we would like to thank you all as without you this would not have been possible. Our fellow students were blown away this morning by the sheer amount of stream. We are doing good with this project and there will be a lot of warm homeless people now thanks to your hard work. here's hoping for the next  11 days will be sunny ones
please send in photos for the blog please to the usual angelhomer@ymail.com. stories also and if you need collection also let us know. Thank you

Building bridges Bournemouth stream 2012: pompoms as promised

Building bridges Bournemouth stream 2012: pompoms as promised: Pompoms  made by the Happy club In Parkstone A Big thank you to you all.

pompoms as promised

Pompoms  made by the Happy club In Parkstone
A Big thank you to you all.

Exciting 3 more sleeps till we open

stocking stitch mixed colours

treble crochet

some photographs of all your hard work.

Loom flowers for the stream

Hi isn't it exciting three more sleeps till opening night.
I was out collecting Stream last night a Big Big Thank you to all of you who gave me lengths of stream . and a Big Thank you to the young lady who has made a  beautiful bag full of loom flowers  to decorate our stream. It is going to look very pretty.Can you pass on my thanks to anyone who is involved in this project. Some of you have mums etc knitting for us. It is really appreciated I have had lots of stream given to me so we must be heading for 400ft .I will measure up tomorrow.
Thank you to the Happy Club who meet at St Dunstan's church hall at 11am on tuesdays in Parkstone. They have been working really hard and making pompoms . These will appear on the blog later or tomorrow as in my haste, I placed them in the box that went to Isobel's for sewing. I will photograph them tomorrow as I see her then and upload for you. We have had some lovely donated pieces and the homeless are going to be glad of these gorgeous scarves afterwards.

crochet- crossed stitch.

interspaced double crochet.

crochet rib stitch

Garter stitch (knitted)

garter  stitch

garter

There are a lot of photographs.
Please keep sending them in.  Isobel and I are out and about  so if you want any work collected let us know?.angelhomer@ymail.com.
Don't forget to come and visit us we need your support.
27th april 6pm-8pm
28th april-7th may 10am daily till 4pm 5pm for knitting.
There is a piece in tonights Evening Echo top of page 24 about our Benchmark Exhibition. there are 19 other exhibits  for you to see. The stream is just one of them hopefully it will be so long we will reach the beach. Thank you to all those who have knitted, crocheted, made pompoms, ties, loom flowers crocheted flowers they really are great and we are really excited as to how decorative the stream is going to be.

More knitting donations

Knitting  

Hi latest photos of incoming additions for the stream.

lovely textures and colours. they will look great when joined together. I am out and about collecting work so if you need anything collected or you need more wool contact me angelhomer@ymail.com

A big thank you to all those of you that are helping with this project we couldn't do this without you. don't forget to visit us from friday 27th April in Bournemouth lower gardens. opening night friday 6pm-8pm and 28th-7th may 10am-4pm daily open till 5pm for knitting collection

garter stitch/ moss (knitted) tasseled

latest pile of donations,

15mm needles fancy wool.

We are photographing all knitting so we can have a visual piece after the stream has been donated .

15mm needles fancy wools alternated.

We will keep you posted with developments regarding our Guinness book of record attempt for longest knitted stream. we will also let you know which charities are accepting the scarves and when.
we will measure up wednesday and have some up to date photographs of our progress. it will be good to see how far we go along the stream. we are over the 300ft mark now. I am hoping when we open we will start in excess of 400ft maybe 500ft?

alternating chunky wools

brown and a dash of purple

garter stitch alternate blues

We have allowed purple due to another wool shortage.

camouflage chunky wool  garter on 15mm needles

colours we are now using blues, greens , browns purples. Any textured yarn any ply any needle size.

Alternate blue rows garter stitch