Toronto Craft Alert

Come hang with your favourite local crocheters this Monday, February 16th, 2009, for a few hours of transforming plastic bag “trash” into yarn.  You are invited to join us from 4-7 pm at the Knit Café, 1050 Queen Street West.  Please bring some plastic bags and a pair of scissors.  If you can’t make it on Monday, bring us your trash!  The Knit Café will be accepting plastic bag donations until then.  The more colourful the better!

Hyperbolic model in progress - plastic bag yarn crochet - by Becky Johnson

This trashy yarn will be used for a collaboration between local artisans and the Knit Café Toronto, who will be crocheting a coral reef entirely out of recycled plastic bags.  The reef  will be displayed in the window of the Knit Café from the end of March to the end of April, 2009, to correspond with Earth Day, on April 22.

This project is inspired by the work of the Institute for Figuring (IFF).  The institute started crocheting coral reefs to bring attention to the plight of the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia, and the devastating impact of climate change and pollution on the world’s largest living organism, the reef.  Since the discovery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the IFF has encouraged crocheters to recycle plastic bags into yarn to make the model reefs.

Toronto’s crocheted coral reef will include all types of shapes to represent different varieties of coral, anemones, sea slugs and other reef inhabitants. The display will also include informational panels to provide brief information about the project, the health of coral reefs, and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.