Gen Con Yarn Ball Artwork!

Big Bertha of yarn balls is done!!

Yesterday was installation day in Indianapolis to put up this big yarn wall at GenCon 2021. You could feel the excitement in the air at the convention center with all the people being so excited to be back after no convention last year. 

We hope it will be a fun selfie station and good promotion for the game Arch Ravels, a nifty knitting-themed board game. (I assume knitters and crocheters nationwide are playing this game while actually stitching. That's what I plan on doing with my copy.)

To back up a bit, let's look at the state of my dining room for the last two weeks - I taped off a 12 x 10 foot area (moving my dining room table to the side) and tested out whether the pieces fit.

Everything has been covered in yarn!

 

In the end, it took about 7 weeks and half a dozen of my friends to make 44+ yarn circles and pieces. It was all I worked on during this time, which was surprisingly challenging for me. I normally work on 3-4 projects at any given time, a mix of sizes and also knitting and crocheting. Just doing double crochet for two months was ROUGH. My hand is also sore. Need to take a break and then start something fun.

The piles of circles pretty much filled up my back seat on the drive down to Indianapolis.

All the yarn in America

We arrived the night before and enjoyed some food and beer flights at Upland Brewing, then woke up early to bring our vast quantities of yarn and installation tools to the site.

One pile for each side!

The company had created an armature to secure the piece over the walls of the entrance; the armature was made of PVC pipe, some wood to enable stapling, and chickenwire to enable attachment and tacking. We got to work right away.

Getting started, when we were still bushy-tailed in the morning

Yes, that is Dave in there - I conscripted him!

Once it was secured to the armature, we finished tacking and sewing with the help of a ladder and lots of hands. The details of the loose yarn strings really help it look like yarn rather than a pile of rubber balls or balloons.

Keep in mind also that this is the first of two, one on each side of the entrance. Talk about second sock syndrome.

We got a lot of people stopping to look and ask about the game. I had a lot of helpers from XYZ Game Labs, the company who made Arch Ravels. This is in addition to my family and friends who made circles to contribute.

In the end, the circles really made a visual impact at the entrance, tying in well with the vinyl clings on the doors, too.

Finished entrance

I did a happy dance, not only because my fee for this commission will be going to the Chicago Foundation for Women's South Side Giving Circle (funds organizations who help women and girls on the south side of Chicago), but because now I can give my hands a rest and then make something besides circles! First on the list is sending some game swag to the people who made circles for me, next is organizing my yarn stash and picking out some projects to make.

As of right now, this is the last BIG project of the year, except for putting together an exhibit of fiber artists for the Columbia College window again this winter. It's been a wild summer season of yarn bombing.