Three Bags Full of Love

As best I can tell, the word seems to be that the project to create a site-specific piece for the Cheongju Biennale is on. It is an ambitious project involving 1500 trees along 5 km of roadway leading from a main highway to the city center where the Biennale will be held.

The organizers first proposed a kind of yarnbomb project. I was not so interested in this idea but I was very interested in the idea of going to Korea. So we have been working on a compromise project - something with enough visual punch to make the organizers happy and one that moves beyond yarnbombing to have a little more specific meaning to make me happy. I think we found our compromise and so it comes to be that I collected three large bags of yarn from a friend yesterday. Her neighbor, a knitter, died this spring and her children were clearing out the house, including her large stash of yarn.


A cautionary tale for those of you who have achieved SABLE (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy)? Perhaps.


Would the knitter be happy to know her dear collection of yarn will find its way into an art project in Korea? There is no way to know. As I sorted the yarn (it is almost entirely acrylic, some of quite a mature vintage), I felt like I was reliving the creation of many baby sweaters, Christmas projects and lots and lots of mitts and socks. All this yarn that passed through her busy hands. May I put as much love and care into this project.

I am very grateful to have inherited this collection of yarn because, well, I'm gonna need it!


Yesterday evening, colours of a less petroleum-based nature were in evidence.