Needing to stretch our legs on the drive from Limerick to Dublin, we stopped in at the Kildare Village outlet shopping complex.
Initially I was looking for a unitard, or perhaps some new shoes to replace the ones I lost in South America, but I struck out on that front. The shops at Kildare Village had lots of high-quality, designer goods, but nothing quite fit the bill of what I’m looking for. One of the side-effects of living out of a suitcase for months on end is that I have become extremely picky about what I buy. Ridiculously, frustratingly picky. (Seriously, I need some shoes already!) If I don’t find the exact thing I want or need, no deal. There’s no room in my nomadic lifestyle for impulse buys.
What quickly captured my attention was the gorgeous, colourful needlework on a massive scale that cropped up around every corner at Kildare Village.
I’m fascinated by yarnbombing, which is the act of festooning objects in public spaces with knitting or crochet, often done clandestinely without permission. I saw it for the first time in the Tremont district of Cleveland, but I had never seen anything like this. The vibrant yarn was at least at centimetre in diameter and my inner maker stood perplexed, thinking about what it would take to knit with the gigantic yarn.
The installation is the work of Uniqverse Studio and was commissioned by Value Retail to create an experience in its shopping centres that would showcase wool.
There’s something inexplicably captivating about this yarn that awakened my senses. I’m a tactile person and even viewing the pictures now, in retrospect, makes me feel alive. After the Revolution, all public spaces shall be embellished with fuzzy, colourful textiles. That is my decree!
On that note, I will leave you to enjoy these purty pictures.
Disclosure and acknowledgements: On this trip I was a guest of Failte Ireland. Many thanks to Brian Kitson at Value Retail for hosting us at Kildare Village and helping me to delve deeper into the story behind this installation. Note that this post describes a temporary exhibit that may no longer be on display.
I enjoyed seeing the yarn bombing as well as we toured the lush limestone lowlands.
Yes, nothing beats those lush limestone lowlands. A pity we were unable to procure matching unitards.
From what I could tell from the pictures, at least some of that wasn’t technically yarn. Yarn, by definition, is spun. The close up shots don’t show the spiral indicative of spinning, it looks like it was knit with unspun roving. I can’t tell about the others from the pictures, although the cat may have been spun. What a great installation, though! I wish I could see it in person!
Thanks Brooke. Yeah, I noticed that and debated on whether to call it yarn or not. I couldn’t think of a better term to use, and certainly didn’t want to encourage the people who call all yarn “wool” (even though in this case it would be accurate.) ;)Now my word-nerdy self is wondering what the proper term is for something that is neither spun nor plied. This stuff is actually rather peculiar as it looks to me as though the roving has been felted somehow, though it’s beyond me how you felt something into a massive continuous string that won’t break when you knit with it. Any ideas? Cord? String?