Yurt Alert

In an effort to keep ruminating on the yurt I wanted to post these great images of another crocheted structure that is a similar shape (though far larger) to what I’ll be building. This is part of Villa Escamp, a sort of temporary City Hall at The Hague and this is its wedding chapel. It is crocheted out of over 2 kilometers of white flexible ventilation tubing.

Interestingly it is built within a glass enclosure. I love how it glows at night and looks almost cloud-like.

It was designed and completed by DUS Architects and I think it came out fabulously. I wonder what will happen to it afterwards.

Per usual I get a lot of sheep and yarn related photos via email from friends and clients traveling all over the world. Rare is it though that there’s a yurt image for someone to send but recently I got one from my dear friend Val.

Thrillist must have an app that lets you click what you should do with you life and they tell you! Very cool. Especially since they’re recommending that people live in a yurt, what an awesome directive to get! Shortly there after I got a photo in the mail from my client, Jerry, who thought of me on a business trip when he saw this sign.

Story of my life as you all well know. I’ve been a busy bee with the yarn lately as I’ve been trying to finish all of my rewards within a year! I know…it doesn’t sound very fast but I swear I’m working on them ALL the time! I should be able to be more productive now that Cady my yurtern is back in the mix – yay for helping hands. I’m not sure how I got so lucky on the friend and client front but keep the pictures coming!

Yurt lovers, I’m taking a vacation! This crochet-aholic will be spending the next 10 days in Morocco visiting with local artisans who are the beneficiaries of Build a Nest’s micro-loans. I have a feeling I’ll get a lot of mini yurts made on my 14 hours of flying in the next few days and I also have a feeling I’ll be returning with many more craft materials than anyone could imagine.

While the above is not a yurt  Morocco also has a nomadic heritage and I’m sure I’ll be seeing some pretty cool transportable dwellings in the desert and in the mountains — we’ll be all over! On the rewards front I’m happy to report that over 45 packages have done out — with more to ship when I’m home! Some people are even blogging about receiving them, which warms my heart! If you haven’t gotten yours yet, keep your eyes peeled!

I know many of my donors have been itching to get their hands on their mini yurts and now, many of them have! The last two weekends have been heavily committed to getting the single mini yurts out for delivery, which became a multi-step process. First I got locally sourced and spun wool from Harrisville Designs. Then I crocheted the minis, wrapped them in roving, put them in little boxes, tied those up in a bow, wrapped them in craft paper, adhered the custom yurt labels my mom made me to them, addressed them, stamped them and got them to the post office!

Today, when I stop by the post office the last six of the minis will be heading out to their new homes! Then it’ll be on to developing the packaging to ship the larger wall art pieces made of minis too! It’s an exciting time over at Yurt Alert HQ 🙂 While in NH working on this with my mom she also had a beautiful number of daffofils from the UK in the house in Ball jars — so pretty I had to post that as well.

Not only do I love this John Mellencamp-inspired yurt pun BUT it’s also the title of the piece about my project in the latest issue of Vogue Knitting! I did an interview with Cheryl a while ago for Yarn Market News…or so I thought! I’m so thrilled at this — it’s so so wonderful — and to wake up to others being so excited for me was just beyond!

Cheryl hit the nail right on the head — I don’t really have an explanation for how I was able to reach my fundraising goal by the cutoff time and it is entirely thanks to all the people who believe that this is a cool project that I can complete!

Above is the clip from the magazine which I ran out an bought this morning! Yay for the yurt!

I was just able to initiate the fund transfer for the yurt — after all of the transactional debits  and donors that couldn’t make the commitment post-holidays the yurt will be made with 4,860.60, which is AWESOME! I’m excited to get working on everyone’s rewards now before the wool gets cleaned and ready for felting.

I can’t even begin to tell you how daunting this process is but I have to make 787 mini yurts for all of my wonderful donors! Ahhhh — I’m going to be crocheting night and day — just the way I like it! Look out for emails coming from Kickstarter in the coming days so that I can get everyone’s mailing addresses and preferences for things!

Today is New Year’s eve — I’ve completed my move to Boston, I just had dinner with my parents, we’re sitting around our tree and listening to the Beatles. Things couldn’t be better because I’m no longer counting down towards my funding goal for the yurt — we’ve far surpassed what I need to acquire the wool and get it ready for felting!

Yes, that’s an image of counting sheep, however, I will sleep easy tonight given all of the amazing support of my backers. With the start of 2010 I’m excited to get going on making my rewards for all 101 people! How humbling and amazing — I can’t wait to get felting! If you want to get involved please drop me a line — this yurt dream is coming true in 2010 everyone — look out 😉

Well no words might be a bit of an exaggeration…I have words but they’d all end up in capital letters if I had my druthers! Today was a huge day for the yurt! I woke up this morning at my parent’s house in Boston prepared for a day of last minute shopping and seeing Avatar in 3D when I began emailing and answering queries on the yurt — low and behold, Ready Made magazine posted on their blog about the project by none other than the Editor-in-Chief. So exciting to say the very least especially as there are only 9 days left to fundraise [we’re at 82% and I have faith we will make it]!

We come home, make a big family dinner, we open our allotted one early present each, we hang out around the tree, which is Tim Burton-esque this year…the usual. My Blackberry gave me the dreaded “battery too low for radio use” sign and for the first time in years I thought, oh well, and put it away. Of course, karmically, CRAFT: then posts about the yurt too! Beyond.

I can’t believe the amazing, outpouring of support for this project — it invigorates me and my love of the yurt — I can’t wait to make it reality with everyone’s help. So humbling. Thanks to everyone and Happy Holidays!

Today I was humbled by my largest donation to date that brought the yurt to 70% completion on Kickstarter — so we’re getting there! 18 days to go. It’s interesting — I’ve watched countless other projects on the site grow over time — especially those that launched around the same time mine did. Some have been recommended by the site itself, others have gotten similarly amazing press, others are being conducted by previously established artists, authors, etc. who have online followings already — each one grows with its own style and pattern: really fast and successful off the bat, all at once and then ultimately unsuccessful, slow and steady and successful, or gradual without success. I like to think that my project will be slow and steady AND successful. I have 18 days left to raise just under $1,800 and I’m hopeful that the spirit of the holidays will motivate lovers of the yurt to pledge their support. By far the best thing I’m doing, which is actually motivating a lot of great conversations, is writing people one at a time and seeing what they think of the project and if they’d be willing to support, impressing upon everyone that every dollar helps, no donation is too small. That said, I wanted to post a little picture of one of the rewards, a little mini yurt that I made this afternoon in the monsoon that was New York 🙂

Isn’t it so cute! I know it sort of looks like a medieval helmet in this picture — I’ve been asking for a nicer camera for Christmas every year for 3 years…but it gets the point across. It’s a crochet little house — with a door! Imagine this guy 10 feet tall — how could anyone resist supporting the yurt 🙂 Tell your friends — lets make it a reality! Also, check out a great article on the project from Dornob Design today!

I’ve been looking at various ways of being able to light the inside and outside of the yurt when it’s complete (yes, I know I’m getting a little ahead of myself). I’ve reached out to a few companies, groups, and artists that work with solar and electro-luminescent materials. One option that I find intriguing is the solar harvesting textiles of KVA’s Soft House — picture below.

This fabric would act as a solar panel for the yurt and could power things on the inside with ease! The other material I recently discovered was electro-luminescent wire, which is flexible and, unlike neon, doesn’t get hot while it’s on. One of the women involved in the Institute of Figuring’s crochet coral reef project, Eleanor Kent, uses it to crochet jewelry and coral pieces so I’m thinking I can weave it into the inside of the yurt and have a few rows of light towards the oculus on the inside!A few of Eleanor’s works are below.

Another piece of her jewelry made out of the wire is below.

Thoughts? Suggestions on how to make this work? Ways to light up the outside?