Yarn Bombing: Westhoughton's Festival

Yarn bombing is hardly a new phenomenon these days.  Most people have heard about something public being covered in knitting or crochet even if they don't know what it's called.  Wikipedia also notes it's other names, including: guerrilla knitting, kniffiti, urban knitting or graffiti knitting which all lead a rather dangerous air to something that wraps parts of a town's landscape in snuggly, brightly coloured yarn creations.  Cosies for street furniture.  Blankets for bus stops.  All in all it's a rather attractive way to decorate the, often grey, town centre near you! 

Westhoughton has a whole weekend devoted to this rather entertaining craft/street art.  Yup.  A whole weekend!  Westhoughton is a rather small little town in the North of England, unremarkable perhaps to those that drive through it on their way to the bigger nearby towns of Wigan and Bolton.  But like most little towns, it has its pride.  It also has it's own bizarre story involving a farmer from long ago, his brand new gate and a silly cow.  Consequently the inhabitants are fondly knows as "Keawyeds" (cow heads).  It's a cracking yarn.  I'll tell it to you sometime, over a pint at my local, which is has many pieces of art to illustrate our local heritage.  Anyway, back to yarn. 

I love that my hometown has a yarny festival and this time I wanted to be a part of it.  It's only the second year of festivities, but I'm hoping it's the start of something that'll last for years.  So, Planet Yarn had a stall!  It was a lot of fun setting up and decorating my own little shop for the day.  Sadly day one was rather too windy for our little gazebo and we had to take it down in the very early afternoon.  However day two was splendid! 

With the help of my lovely husband and my yarn-obsessed (and also lovely) sister the gazebo got put up and all my yarny goodies were put on display.  It looked really pretty I thought...but then I'm biased! 

See that little table at the front?  Want a closer look? Go on then...

Ta daaaah!  The pom pom table!  Me and my sister Tania were inundated with small people who were quite eager to learn the dark arts of pom pom making.  We made cute little pom poms with forks and gave them googly eyes.  I had far more fun than a 41 year old maybe should have making pom poms.  Heh!

 

Here are a few of the younger pom pom experts, they made tremendously adorable little pom pom critters:

 Now here's some photos of the fantastic creations that adorned Market Street, there was too many to take photos of all of 'em but here's a few that caught my eye, aren't they fabulous?

I also got to meet Westhoughton's very own town crier,

 who also happens to be a bit of a poet, here's his specially written poem in honour of the occasion, (he performed it my the Yarn Planet gazebo!):

 

WHEN YARNBOMBING

WHEN YARNBOMBING YOU DO,

TO LET YOURSELF GO,

WHY LOOK FOR THE YOU THAT YOU ALREADY KNOW,

IT'S YARN & WEAVE THE THREAD & THE STYLE,

THE COLOUR THE KNIT &THICKNESS OF PILE,

PRESENT IT WITH PASSION,

SO HOPEFULLY,

IT WILL NEVER GO OUT OF FASHION.

 

by Johnny C, 2016

 

There was also entertainment from The George Formby Society and local amateur dramatics group, The Bethel Crowd, who were on a stage very close to Planet Yarn.  There was a kids tea party too, but it was on a different site to us, so I didn't get to see that.  The theme this year was Alice in Wonderland so I also saw a few familiar characters wandering around like the Mad Hatter and Tweedledee (not sure where Tweedledum was!). 

 

The Planet Yarn collective had a lovely sunny time and I'm very much looking forward to next year's festival.  Hopefully this year I'll be able to actually contribute to the yarn bombing instead of panic preparing for my stall!  Maybe I'll see you there!

 

 

 

Knitting and crochet for health: myth or reality?

Knitting and crochet as a tool for wellness doesn’t really come as a surprise to those of us who wield pointy sticks or a hook.  However, it’s easy to see why the non-knitters and crocheters are sceptical about it.  However Betsan Corkhill, formerly an occupational therapist and non-knitter, noticed how knitting in particularly helped her patients.  Fascinated by her own observations and anecdotal evidence she became inspired to find the science behind this phenomenon, believing the impact of knitting should not be taken lightly.

 

I first came across Betsan’s work through reading by Kathryn Vercillo’s book ‘Crochet Saved My Life’.  Personally I have my own battle with anxiety and depression, so it was through self interest I downloaded this interesting and deeply personal exploration of the relationship between needlecrafts and recovery from mental illness. 

Kathryn refers many times to Betsan’s research, particularly in relation to Betsan’s organisation Stitchlinks.  After a quick look through www.stitchlinks.org I became intrigued with the concept of crafting not just for specific health issues but for more general health and wellness.  When I found that Betsan was leading a ‘Theraputic Knitting’ course locally it made sense to sign up and find out more.

 

On the day of the course I was astonished by the science we were quickly presented with behind why knitting, or crochet, works as a tool for wellness.  My employment background is in education and I have some training in counselling so it really shouldn’t have come as such a surprise to me, perhaps especially with the current focus on mindfulness in mental health circles.  But it did.  Betsan presented satisfyingly detailed information about how our brains work, both biologically and chemically and how the chemistry of stress causes so much damage to our minds and bodies.  But here was the revelation to me: there are so very many aspects of knitting and crochet that complement our own inbuilt wellness systems.  And not just the physical process of knitting but also the accompanying processes of learning, being challenged and being part of a social group to name a few.  The revelation that people living with chronic illness and pain have successfully integrated knitting and crochet into the management of their conditions truly shocked me.  How could something as simple as stitching make such a massive impact to a person’s life?  We were introduced to research that agreed again and again it did.  The ‘Pitching for Stitching’ campaign by the Neuro Orthopaedic Institute, Australasia was particularly compelling.  I have observed, first-hand the benefits crochet has for my own mental health so this element wasn’t a surprise to me, but it was very interesting to find out how it works, why it helps me to cope.

I bought a copy of ‘Knit for Health & Wellness: How to knit a flexible mind and more...’ and Bethan kindly signed it for me.  It’s extremely useful for reminding me how much benefits I gain from knitting and crochet and provides practical advice on how to get the maximum benefits.  For example having a few different projects on the go is actually a good thing, it gives you a choice of activities for what you need most right at that moment, from a straightforward project requiring little focus on a pattern to allow more focus on the calming, rhythmic and meditative nature of the process, to a more challenging project which develops our skills, therefore building new neurological pathways in our brains, keeping us interested and involved in life.

 

If you already knit or crochet then Betsan’s work shows you how to get the best results for maintaining your own health and wellness.  For those who don’t then it’s an appealing argument for why you might want to take up the hobby.

Useful links:
www.crochetconcupiscence.com is Kathryn Vercillo's blog and an informative and fun place for all things to do with crochet and wellness.

www.stitchlinks.com is an ever evolving hub where newest research findings can be found, forums for support and encouragement and many other resources to both fuel your own wellness journey as well inspire other people’s.

Betsan’s personal blog: www.betsan.org/blog is another place to find encouragement and information.