Gorilla Knitting?

It was several months ago now, that during a meeting about publicity for our church flower festival, I allowed the gremlin inside me to say 'Hey, I know. Let's do some Guerilla Knitting!'. 

I mention, for the sake of clarity, that I was probably the most junior there by at least 20 years and church publicity stunts few and far between. Our activities are usually strictly coffee morning based, which plays to the strengths of our congregation, so I wasn't altogether surprised when the first reactions were exclusively blank stares and open mouths.

But, as is common, I had underestimated the older generation. There was one lady who asked what "gorillas, or any kind of animal, had to do with knitting?", to general amusement. On the other hand I heard others keenly discussing how guerilla knitting might or might not differ from guerilla gardening, which they seemed completely au fait with. I left the meeting bemused. Apparently I was now head of a keen illicit club of knitters, hell-bent on wrapping the village in yarn. 

As much as I tried to pretend to myself this was all an amusing mirage, I kept having conversations with people, in the street, at coffee after a service, anywhere, along these lines:

Elderly Lady: "Oh I have been meaning to talk to you"

Me: (trepidation set in ) "Yes?..."

EL: "I was on the internet looking at this knitting thing, and there are so many fantastic ones, it really is exciting, anyway, how much do you want and when?"

Me: "..... thanks.......oh. Scarf sized? Or maybe bigger....??!??!"

After more weeks I realised I had to get serious, visit Pinterest (I made a board to help me), blogland, twitter, get help! I had never done any guerilla knitting before, and now I was in charge of a community project that seemed to be growing before my very eyes. Panic set in. Luckily there are a lot of sensible and useful resources out there for the Yarnbomb Baby. Twilight Taggers blogposts on How To Yarn Bomb particularly caught my eye for providing practical advice.

I have to say the villages response has been phenomenal, considering how on the down-low I kept it. This just goes to show that a good secret club was what the ladies of church have been waiting for. Even this evening I was interrupted from bedtime stories by a knock on the door. On the step was a white-haired lady, glint in eye, clutching a bag of knitted squares. She thrust it into my hand wordlessly, and hurried away.

It is now the evening before the morning I am meant to put up this knitting. The weather forecast is propitious, the help has been arranged. I have gained approval from the owners of the trees/benches to be used (more on this another post I think). My head aches, there is Flu going around the children, but I think my headache is PRE-GUERILLA ANXIETY.

To be continued......