Giving Tree Self Reflection

Self Reflection
Giving Tree has been a very rewarding experience. I had no idea what to expect when I started
the project and have been pleasantly surprised thus far. I did not expect people to interact with it
as much as they have and I definitely did not expect people to approach me
about it while I was working on it. I
have found that when I install yarn works in public, or work with yarn in
public I am effectively ignored. I had
someone cross the street he was walking on then cross back so as to not walk by
me sewing something to a tree and I expected this reaction from the
project. I was thrilled to have a
stranger waiting to meet me last Tuesday to talk about what crafting means to
her. We ended up talking for over an
hour and I also taught one of my friends how to knit that night. I have had 5 people ask me tech problems
since the project started. I’ve been
asked how to begin and end knitting, end crocheting, switch colours in knitting
and what yo (yarn over) means in a pattern.
(yo) means to flip the yarn to the front when making knit stitch instead
of behind making two loops instead of one.
This usually is called for right before a button hole for example.
The people that have approached me have surprised me. I had a gentleman I had never met before sit
beside me for hours on the night of the initial install. We talked philosophy, politics, and music and
would stop talking at times and he would play his guitar while I was
sewing. I appreciated his company very
much to help me stay awake. I had the
pleasure of having an informal artist talk with half of the members of the
heavy metal band 3 inches of Blood. I
was installing just after their performance in the multipurpose room. They came up to me and asked me to tell them
about the ‘giant kitty post’. I used to
be a ‘metal head’ and was very thrilled to be talking yarn with these
guys. They were all really, really sweet
and genuinely interested. I appreciated
it very much, a great deal of people still ignore me when I am working on the
tree during peak traffic times. I was
extra delighted to have anyone come up and talk to me about it, let alone these
guys. I tried to get them to add
something but they declined.

I have had more contributions from friends and strangers
than I imagined I would receive. Giving
Tree has received two scarves from strangers and the development of a chain on
one of the strings. It also includes a
piece of knitting my friend learned on last week. One person for sure has been using the Giving
Tree as a wishing well and I was very touched by this gesture. I have received numerous yarn donations from
friends and family. I put a shout out
for yarn in Jan/Feb and was touched by the response. So many people raided their stashes and had a
little bit they were not using or gave me a little bit of money to help throw
resources together. For those that do
not buy yarn regularly it can add up very fast.
Next time I would do up even more for the tree before the
install so it was more interesting on a daily basis. I would have liked to be able to pour more
effort in to it every single day. So
ideally I would be camped out by the piece constantly to add things. Bringing a domestic craft in to a public
space has been very interactive and successful.