St Albans Postboxes - Postbox yarnbombers return for 5th year running
Added: (Tue Dec 13 2022)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
The magical woolly wizards at St Albans Postboxes haven't been idle all year - having completed an audit, set up a database and cleaned their crochet hooks and knitting needles, they've been busy fixing, cleaning, mending and of course making some new toppers! And now it's the fun bit, when all 60 of the toppers have been released into the wild and are on display on their postboxes.
This year, the team are supporting St Albans Action For Homeless (SAAH) and St Albans Community Pantry.
SAAH support worker Sharon Linney told us : "We really need this fundraising.Government figures released on the 28th July 2022 show 74,230 households in England became homeless or were at imminent risk of becoming homeless between January and March 2022.This represents a 11% rise in three months and a 5% rise on the same period last year. Evictions slumped during the pandemic, as court proceedings were paused.The cost of living crisis and rising rents, coupled with energy price hikes mean it will only get worse. As a last resort people are begging to put food on the table."
Sharon and colleague Lynn Dutton have been firm supporters of St Albans Postboxes since its advent and added: "We love the sense of well being and smiles it puts on peoples faces, whilst helping local charities. Myself and Lynn last year retrieved a postboxer topper from a lamp-post and put it back in situ, and thoroughly enjoy every single creation made."
Creative magicians Candy Stuart and Lucy Dronfield (photo: Candy on left, Lucy on the right) are again co-ordinating the fabulous team of makers who donate time and wool to create these fabulous postbox toppers which are surely now a part of the St Albans December landscape! Co-founder Candy says:
"We are once again delighted to have been creating toppers, organising makers, databases and logistics for the annual St Albans Postboxes' Christmas extravaganza. We have many of our long serving talented makers involved but also a large number of new creators on board, giving up their precious free time to crochet and knit their amazing works of art. There are still some old favourites out and about - the ever-popular mince pies are spruced up and on a postbox near you. Although a third of this year’s crop will be brand new whilst some will be familiar but reimagined.
Each topper is the product of the maker’s own imagination, some patterns are used, but many are completely original and freehand. Many, many hours go into the thought process behind each topper months in advance, including the characters and structures required, as well as sourcing materials before a hook or knitting needle is even lifted. Yes, we think of Christmas all year round!
Each base contains at least four balls of wool, before we even start on characters which require many specialised yarns as well as stuffing, wires, foam, cans, polystyrene packaging and anything we can get our hands on. You may see the waste from oven packaging - I see a giant Christmas parcel in the making! We are constantly on the lookout for our top colours of red, white and green yarn to add to our countless collection of Christmas trees, Father Christmases and snow people.
This project takes up a huge amount of our time but we think every challenge is worth it. The pleasure we get from the community enjoying the products of our labour is immense and the feeling of everyone coming together at Christmas to help our amazing local charities is priceless!
We are particularly pleased this year to be supporting two outstanding and hard-working local charities which are already feeling the pressure this winter. They provide much needed support for some of the most vulnerable in our society and are entirely reliant on donations at this very difficult time."
As usual, each postbox topper is sponsored by a local business and co-founder Clare Suttie adds: "We know this is a difficult time for businesses, and we are so grateful that once again the generous and supportive local business people have dug deep and shown our charities their incredible support." Sponsors, who donate directly to our fundraising link, support two local charities - St Albans Action For Homeless (SAAH) and St Albans Community Trust - include restaurants, pubs, accountants, churches, a group of neighbours, families, and running clubs!
The makers deliver their toppers to Postboxes HQ where Candy Stuart and Lucy Dronfield make sure each work of art is ready to meet their postbox in December.
Candy commented: “We love seeing the toppers arrive, made by so many people - individuals and groups working together. Postbox toppers are often portrayed as being knitted by older ladies, but we see all ages working with wool - crochet, knitting, and sewing."
One such topper has been made by the Woodcraft Folk Youth Group St Albans.
Group Leader Imke Hoffmann told us: “The children love St Albans Postboxes, and we are now in our 3rd year participating. It is one of their favourite sessions in the Autumn term. We still love being outdoors as much as possible. Our theme this year is flowers in rainbow colours to brighten up the winter days.” (two photos provided by the Woodcraft Folk Youth Group, with permission to share).
Maker Diane MacDonald told us: "This is my third year of knitting the toppers. The first year I randomly knitted Christmas figures which you assembled. I was very pleased with the way my knitting was arranged. You lay the polar bear down and I heard comments that it looked like he was sleeping off a big Christmas dinner. This led me to decide last year that I would like my knitting to tell a story. I knitted Santa, surrounded by African animals, wearing shorts and looking hot and perplexed whilst holding a map trying to fathom out his route back to the North Pole. This year I've been busy doing the 12 days of Christmas and a second topper of the reindeer becoming redundant due to Santa buying a 4x4 for deliveries."
We love the creativity and stories behind each and every topper.
A more clandestine project has been by the Sopwell Knitters, who completed their mega secret project - a to scale creation of St Albans Abbey. This drew lots of attention when they met up at the White Lion each Monday evening to enjoy a few drinks and share knitting & crochet projects. Phyllis Sweeny told us: "This was our first ever group post box topper project and it’s a whopper! It was coordinated and constructed by Nadine with us all (Nadine, Phyllis, Marga, Alison, Francine, Jenny, and Sue) contributing sections in knitting or crochet. The project started out as a bit of a joke but it has turned into a labour of love which we are super proud of. We really hope you enjoy it."
The first sign of action was on the evening of 30 November when the Sopwell Knitters held a Topping Out Ceremony for their showstopper topper! This work of art was even blessed by Cannon Will from the Abbey.
Diane told us: "I am just an average knitter. I loathe sewing up and can never perfect my knitting to my absolute liking. I will persevere, and I hope this project will continue for years to come!!"
We have to disagree, as all our toppers are way more than average. But we do hope to carry on for years to come.
The morning of 01 December saw quite a crowd for the official launch, gathering at the Clock Tower postbox, where the Herts Belles had put up this year's amazing creation of the local Waffle House restaurant, complete with a hungry green dinosaur!
The Campaign was officially declared open by the Mayor Geoff Harrison, who was delighted to attend and show his support. Daisy Cooper, MP, also showed her support for the campaign, confirming that no matter how busy her diary, 1 December would always mean postboxes!
We were joined by business sponsors including The Boot, Panda Cards, Loudbird PR, Positive Gains, and VOIspeed. The charities we are supporting were also well represented - St Albans Community Pantry and St Albans Action for the Homeless.
Over £13k has now been raised this year.
Since starting in 2018, we've yarnbombed postboxes more than 230 times, with over 250 toppers (thanks to theft and damage), and over £82 000 has been raised for local charities in this amazing fundraising project, bringing together volunteers, local businesses and everyone in the community. We can't wait to see how much can be raised in 2022.
Dec 2018 £10191.60 (Earthworks, Counselling Foundation, Ollie Foundation)
Dec 2019 £12344.44 (Age Concern St Albans, Small Acts of Kindness)
Summer 2020 covid special - £3520.56 (St Albans and District Foodbank and Open Door St Albans)
Dec 2020 £26494.52 (St Albans and District Foodbank and Open Door St Albans)
Dec 2021 £30097.50 (The ADD-vance ADHD and Autism Trust and YOUTH TALK)
Dec 2022 £13000 so far!
Donation link: https://donate.giveasyoulive.com/fundraising/st-albans-postboxes-christmas-2022
Website: https://stalbanspostboxes.org.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stalbanspostboxes
Instagram: StAlbansPostboxes
Contact: Clare Suttie, 07940 358 688 clare@atlas-translations.co.uk