Sisters Knit a Stilt-Walking Carrot Yarnbomb Named Rooty and Display It on a Young Tree in San Mateo, California

California-based sisters Jill Watt of the Dapper Toad blog and Lorna of Knits For Life, who previously worked together to make an amazing “Yarnbomb Squid Tree,” are back with their newest creation, “Rooty the Stilt-Walking Carrot Yarnbomb.” The creative siblings utilized a “bulky gauge Brother KH-270 knitting machine” and some crafty hand-crocheting to cover a young leafy tree, which had two supports poles (stilts) at its side, with yards upon yards of gold and orange yarn.

The stilt-walking carrot in their photos is on display at the Bay Meadows park in San Mateo, California. Jill and Lorna’s entire build process is available to view on the Knits for Life blog.

It seems every yarn bomb presents a new problem that we solve by ~~MacGyvering~~ MacGrubering a material that’s new to us. For arms and legs, we wanted a soft, cartoonish look that would hold up over time. Stuffing would hold up for the body, but the arms and legs would surely stretch and droop like a saggy mess. For the Albino Python yarn bomb at Gensler SF, we discovered foam pipe insulation. This time, instead of stuffing it to get a thick snake we sliced it lengthwise to get skinny limbs, taping them up nice and round. Slits and more tape held knees at a good angle (and even survived the toddler test, we spied the next day in the park). The material that was new to us on this yarn bomb was wood and power tools for the stilt steps. We foraged for wood scraps at a local lumber yard, had a friend saw them into shape, and brought a cordless drill to install them. Super easy and they really complete the illusion. (read more)

Meet our new #yarnbomb, Rooty, the stilt-walking carrot. He just yanked himself out of the ground on two sticks and will be stilt-walking around #BayMeadows Park in #SanMateo as long as he lasts, so go check him out! We'll post a behind-the-scenes on the blog next week showing how we made him. Subscribe at tinyletter.com/knitsforlife to get the post right in your inbox.

A photo posted by Lorna Watt (@knitsforlife) on Aug 2, 2015 at 2:04pm PDT