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Hand Dyed Australian Yarn

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fair isle beanie pattern

Yarn Bomb Your Bike

18/06/2011 · In: Vintage patterns

According to Wikipedia, Yarn Bombing started in 2005 but in my recent haul of vintage patterns from the op-shop, I have found evidence to the contrary.

I picked up a 1972 copy of Mon Tricot –  one of the coolest knitting and crochet magazines ever.

It’s full of knitting and crochet patterns of course, a scary recipe or two and some decorating ideas.

What really caught my eye was an article about a small community in the northern Netherlands. The women all wear long frocks and headscarves and travel around by bike.

It all looks very quaint and picturesque and slightly creepy in the way most exclusive societies do. But the women of the village really know how to combine two good things – yarn and bikes – to make one great thing.

Every woman in the village has her own unique design which is pretty cool.

If my bike was a step-through, girly frame instead of a racer I’d definitely be doing this. I would not, however, be making a crochet seat cover. The line between yarn coolness and yarn embarrassment is pretty fine and I think the seat cover crosses it.

By: Jen · In: Vintage patterns · Tagged: book review, retro, vintage patterns

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Comments

  1. miek says

    21/06/2011 at 12:40 am

    hello Jen,
    i have lived for about 10 years of my childhood in a place nearby Marken (that`s the place`s name)
    The picture shows a very picturesque picture of a time that has past.
    and i`m talking about 40 years ago.
    by that time i already saw them rarely,whail i did come there often because my friends lived there.
    but i have been a long time an community of there own, and married inside family.
    so they often where sick, and you had more children whit the down syndrom.
    and you couldn`t hear what they where saying becose of the dialect they where talking.
    one of my first boyfriends came from that place, but it didn`t last.
    greetings from holland

    • Jen says

      21/06/2011 at 7:28 am

      Hello Miek,

      Thank you for your comments – it’s really interesting to hear from somebody who has seen this community. The magazine the picture is from is about 40 years old so you are right about it being a “time that has passed”. It’s quite sad in many ways.

      It is great to hear from Holland though! Welcome!-

      Jen

  2. miek says

    21/06/2011 at 7:11 pm

    your welcome, and thank you for your inspiring patterns.
    greetings

  3. Jen says

    21/06/2011 at 11:57 pm

    I don’t know about the crochet seat cover – if it’s actually going to make the seat COMFORTABLE then i’m all for it. I’m still maintaining a sore bum as the main reason for not riding my bike very often (and not that i am a) lazy and b) slack at getting it serviced and c) very uncoordinated)

  4. miek says

    22/06/2011 at 12:25 am

    haahaahaa,
    well, i think the cover is used as a raincover, allthough there are big holes in it. that`s 1
    we dutch are known as economical (he he) so maybe the seat is torn and then it is (ofcourse)comfertebly. that`s 2
    basically, i find it strange to see this in the picture, the colors are very differend than they normaly use, red, black, white. so it`s very…………strange. that`s 3
    most people use a plastic bag over there seat, to cover from rain.
    i have a teatowel in my biclycle bag, works good for me.
    i don`t use a cover, this one on the picture don`t look good to me, you can drift of your seat when it became to lose and when you have to make a panicstop i don`t know where you`ll end up 🙂
    greetings

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