During the Make-O-Rama, Stephanie and I set up a table to present our project to students and teachers. We spread our knitted material over our space and also included a small scale model of the trailer for enhanced display. Additionally, we had Steph’s computer set up with our slide show. I noticed that people were drawn to our table because we had tangible objects. Students and teachers alike were impressed by the knitted material (of course we gave credit to my grandma). When people came by our table we gave them some background information like what our original plan was and the roots of the yarn bombing movement. Then we would explain to them what we worked on this semester such as learning how to knit, repaneling the inside of the trailer, re-wiring the electrical system, and community outreach to avid knitters. If we could do one thing differently, it would have been to knit smaller pieces to cover the miniature model of the trailer. This would give people a better idea of what yarn-bombing is and help us better explain what we planned to do. Overall, people were intrigued by our idea and think it would be cool if we yarn-bombed our school.
From here, we plan on passing down our idea and recruiting girls to continue Knit Ventura. Since we have such a large knitting community at our school, it would seem like a waste if we just threw our project away. By passing down Knit Ventura and even just the idea of Yarn Bombing, the knitting club, people in our community, and avid teacher knitters can most definitely finish Knitting the trailer and possibly take the project a step further. Our knitting community can implement their knitting and crocheting skills into beautifying the school as well. They can go beyond the trailer and knit the pillars in our hallways, furniture in the library, doorways (etc.). The possibilities are endless and this can be a great project for future students to continue in our footsteps.
Stephanie and I both agree that we would give ourselves a 95/100. Given the limitations we had such as time and small size of our group, we were able to accomplish a lot. Although we weren’t able to cover the trailer in yarn, we learned various new skills such as knitting, using power tools (miter saw, band saw, staple gun, drill, etc.), and wiring electrical systems. We were also able to get several members of our community involved such as Sarah Brawn and the knitting club and my grandmother. We reached out to Magda Sayeg, the mother of yarn-bombing, however she never got back to us 😦 Together, Stephanie and I worked really well as a team. Our work was split pretty evenly…no one had too much or too little responsibility.
My advice to future students who are presented with a similar project is to realize that you have less time than you think. It’s okay to have really awesome large-scale ideas!! But realize that with trying to juggle other classes, extracurriculars, tackling an enormous project is not practical. Instead of taking on this big problem you want to solve, find one specific thing you want to fix and stick with that. By doing this, you will have one focus and have a higher likelihood of successfully completing your project.
Best of luck to all you makers/knitters/thinkers/problem-solvers/world-changers!!!! Keep up the good work and continue to find ways to improve the world around you!Problem-solvers/world-changers!!!! Keep up the good work and continue to find ways to improve the world around you!
StarPathDesign 
I loved your project! This was such a good idea and the best part was that even after you decided to not continue what you first started at the beginning of the semester you still managed to continue working on the RV and work efficiently even if you didn’t have enough time. This would be a great project for future seniors to finish so that when you get to come back and visit the school you would be able to see the final result of a project you started.
MFlores
Wow! I’m impressed that you were able to take something like VENTURA, which seemed to be slipping away into the abyss of our high school horrors…DAP Project, and bring it back refreshed and new. I think it’s very creative that you took two separate projects/movements, VENTURA and Yarn Bombing, to make something new, Knit VENTURA. I like that Knit VENTURA can get the entire knitting community involved, but also non-knitters could join, learn, and support the movement. It’s a project in which everybody can help. I definitely agree that Yarn Bombing the school would be amazing and something we should work on since we already have such a strong knitting population. Your work is both creative and successful.
-Libertad
This project by far was my favorite. I really enjoyed this whole concept. I thought it was very unique and creative. I wish I would of had the opportunity to do something similar to this or even this project itself. It would of been a fun experience to learn how to knit. I hope you guys continue this movement somehow bringing color to the world.
-Idalis Maldonado
I think it’s pretty cool that you guys went for a yarn bombing idea. Personally, I think yarn bombing is cool, but I’m to much of a stingy knitter to do it myself-it’s my yarn, MINE-ok back in the cage now. You mentioned the time constraint,s, and that seems to be something a lot of people noticed.
My question is: what would you do when the yarn inevitably started to degrade from being exposed to the elements?
I think the project ideas was great. When I came by your table I was impressed by the colorful knitting, I was expecting that you knitted all of this. I wonder do you have the instructions of how to knit or make something like that at home?Did your grandma make everything or/and did you contribute to the knitting? When you showed me the slides of how you wanted the project to look like, I remembered that in developing countries they do they same thing to keep the house warm in winter. I remember we used that in my bedroom back in Jordan to keep my bedroom warm during winter especially since my bedroom was in front of a mountain so it didn’t receive sunlight during winter. But overall, I loved the colorful tangible objects.
-Yaqoob
Your project was so cool! Good job. I’m super excited and would love to be a part of yarn-bombing the school in the future, as a knitter myself. Like you said, the pillars in the hallways would be awesome, and all the pretty colors would make us happy and maybe even release stress! (?) Who knows. It’s sad that the mother of yarn bombing never got back to you, but I’m glad your project still worked out. It’s great that you had a small model of the trailer so people could really visualize what this was all about.
–Karrie Newton
I think this project is really innovative and the most creative one out of most of our senior projects. I really like how you guys Incorporated something fun into engineering. I was just wondering that since we are all going off to college next year would you want to pass this project down to our sisters in the 11th grade so that they can continue to knit ventura. I think it would be really nice if we all come back 5-10 years down the line and see that our school has been knitted out.
-Kaiyla Washington
This project has amazing potential. I’m excited to see the future of yarn-bombing ARS. It would be nice to come back and see the school in different colors, and to know that it started with yarn-bombing the trailer. It sounds like y’all did have to overcome a lot of obstacles, and for having only two people on your team y’all did an amazing amount of work. When and how do you plan on passing on the idea? Did people volunteer to help out at the Make-O-Rama? Hope this idea goes far. Good work!
-Ilana Gutierrez