The German edition of Knit the City’s shiny new book featured a squid celebrity on the front cover. Witness Plarchie the handknitted stitched squid lounging in the lap of his pal and the father of modern biology Charles Darwin! So a squid celebration seemed rather appropriate as part of the book launch day.

Plarchie and Chuck D on the cover of the German book

And who better to celebrate with than the knitters of the city of Berlin? We sent out a crafty cry to the sneaky stitchers of the city and asked them to join us in a yarnstorm on the banks of Berlin’s River Spree, featuring all manner of ten-tentacled terror. Plarchie came with us, being the only piece of knitted graffiti we have never been able to get rid of. He follows us where ever we venture.

We sent the pattern for the Finger-fighting Stitched Squid, featured at the back of the Knit the City: Maschenhaft Seltsames book, to sneaky stitchers across the city. They arrived on the day clutching handfuls of glorious handmade molluscs and huge handmade hero smiles:

A lovely load of Berlin knitters

We broke out the fishing line and spent a little time in the freezing cold persuading the stitched squid to be suspended…

Tidy piles of handmade Tintensfisch

First up his Royal Squidness himself, Plarchie, took his place at the riverside. He found four arty (and rather bare) friends immediately and wrapped them in a little tentacled tenderness.

"Hello, New Friend One!" on the banks of the Spree

Plarchie attempts to save the dignity of New Friend Two

Plarchie gets friendly with New Friend Three

Plarchie and his new chums on the bank of the Spree

And then it was time to release the Berlin knitters’ tiny stitched squid…

A Spree-side Tree of Tintenfisch

Things to love about Berlin:

The next day, when the clouds had blown away and the sun shone, every single stitched squid was still there.

Still full of swinging squid

Happy handmade molluscs

Woolly squid in the Berlin wind

And they were still there at sunset too…

Sunset and swirling stitched squid

Perhaps they are still there now.

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A huge thank you to every single stitcher who arrived with stitched squid and smiles (both in our crowd travelling from the UK and those from Berlin). It was an honour to yarnstorm with you all. We hope our pics do your Tree of Tintenfisch justice. Lots of pics over on our Flickr of you all releasing your squid into the wild too.

Berlin City Knitters: MissMcNastie, ChemieEmma (see her squid on Ravelry here), TracyTriumph, DannyKay and others who didn’t leave their names.

Stay tuned for one last German yarnstorm, and this time it’s sausagey…

Check out Baby Button’s debut yarnstorm here.

Baby Button gets yarnstormed

And you can follow Deadly Knitshade‘s adventures in solo stitching as she joins the defined by _____ project in the Germany city of Augsburg all this week.

Plarchie eyes the German public

Along with five other international artists Ms Knitshade (along with Plarchie the ever present giant knitted squid) is working in a giant glass fishtank called ‘The White Room’ in the middle of city. She and her fellow artists will create a piece of art on a ‘White Page’ (a white sheet of paper) each day which will be published all over the place.

Follow the yarn-flavoured madness over at Whodunnknit. Go on.

We’ll be back to catch up on KTC’s other Berlin Yarnstorms, a little light graffiti knitting for Worldwide Knit in Public Day and exciting news about our UK book very soon. Feel free to have a cup of tea and slice of Battenburg while you wait.

Woolly Wills and Kate

Royal Wedding bells are clanging so loud across the UK that most of us can barely hear ourselves knit.

Love the Royal madness or loathe it there is no escape, and back in February we gave our own woolly Royal wave to the big event and wrote London a handmade love letter, with our Hubbub of Hearts.

There was a some squishy engagement bling, two cheeky Greek gods, and even a woolly Wills and Kate with a fabric flurry of Web Hearts celebrating the worrying world of web-based weddingmania.

Our crowning glory was a handmade heartstring that waved in the wind 7-metres above love-sick London.

Want to see how we gave the city our hearts? Watch and wonder no more.

To set the mood and make sure love was on its way it, Deadly Knitshade called on the wildly cheeky Greek Gods of sweet, sweet loving.

Anteros, the god of good old-fashioned requited love. Hair like Hugh Grant.

Eros, the sassy god of intimate love. *blushes furiously* Likes long walks and firesides.

Baby got back

It wasn’t long before love appeared…

These handmade hearts like you. They really like you.

Next up the fibre-flinging Fastener got down on one knee and popped the question with a bit of squishy bling.

A little handmade L-O-V-E

Button-covered amour

How could anyone resist?

Lovely loveness was now filling the dim back room of a secret London pub. A Royal inspection was due to make sure everything was up to snuff. Enter woolly Wills and Kate handstitched by stealthy Shorn-a the Dead.

Wools and Kate, purly future King and Queen(ish)

And who could forget the harrying hounds of love that follow the crafty couple wherever they roam? Lady Loop‘s woolly Web Hearts tagged along behind. “The web is a weird place” immortalised in wool.

Here they all are. We have linked each heart to the websites they were crafted to commemorate. Loony Royal love stuff abounds.

Royal couple get minted

One will now down a flaming sambuca

Royal Wedding craft shizzle

Kate of many colours

Always good to have a spare

"Made tha anthem 4 Prince William's bachelor party n all bachelor parties round tha wrld"

It's not Prince William, is it?

Bridal beer. Classy.

The resemblance is startling!

A whole lotta heart

All present and correct. Now to add a bit of weight so they don’t get nicked by pigeons. Curse those pesky knit-stealing pigeons!

The Fastener's handsewn heavies filled with popcorn and pulses. Yum.

Testing, testing. We have dangle! I repeat, we have dangle!

A tag or two and the creation of the fluttering Handmade Heartstring.

Label of love

Several of the hearts were feeling a bit strung out

All was prepared. You know it’s time to leave a pub when a mysterious face appears in your cider and tells you so.

Leave, thee unruly yarnstormers! There is work to be done!

And so to the yarnstorm.

Up above the world so high...

If you missed it you can see the whole Hubbub of Hearts here.

But how on earth did we get the heartstring to sit on the end of Anteros’ bow?

Hmm?

That’s 7 metres. Over 22 feet in the air. Nearly 276 inches.

Clearly one of us must have the eerie power of flight.

Or really long legs.

Or some kind of Darth Vader-like control of that mysterious element they call The Force.

Ladies and gents, meet 6-metre Stringer and our test subject, Mr Cox Pippin.

The yarnstorming game is da yarnstorming game. Truedat.

Stringer and Mr Pippin spent a good hour with Deadly Knitshade in an undisclosed location perfecting the ‘hook and hang’ move. For the record Mr Pippin ended up so high in the tree that photo evidence was impossible.

Now to try the same technique in one of London’s busiest tourist areas with five times the weight and a pushy crosswind. Piece of cake, no?

Extending...

Ascending...

Extra hands to fight the wind...

Right a bit... left a bit...

Woo hoo!

Love is in the air

The unexpected cheering that broke out from passing Londoners and camera-snapping tourists who had stopped to watch was fantabulous.

So there you have it. The story of How the Hubbub of Hearts was made.

And they all lived happily ever after.