Fun
The Joy of Yarn Bombing
Dear Kay,
I know we’re all busy knitting with Giftalong 2017 fever—or maybe just enjoying a Saturday. Here’s a little interview that’s just right.
A quick six minutes from the TED Radio Hour with Magda Sayeg, one of the original yarn bombers.
I have never myself done any yarn bombing, but somehow she makes me want to cover something with a bit of knitting. Like, the entire globe. Have you yarn bombed? How’d it go?
Love,
Ann
Our guild yarnbombed a chair for one of our members.
A group of us completely covered a Geek Squad VW Bug with a knitted and crocheted “Bug cozy” (including a few mini socks I knitted to hang from the rear view mirror) in conjunction with the city’s imagination festival (we also had a drop in learn to knit and crochet booth). Several months later we wrapped trees in a city park for a 2 week “art installation”. (The person who issued the permit wasn’t comfortable with the term yarn bombing!) When we were taking it down, a group of HS students from the school near the park came over and demanded that we leave “their” tree alone. They had been eating their lunch under the tree for the past couple weeks and had adopted it as their own. When we explained that the yarn bomb had to come down when the permit expired, they helped unwrap the branches and we gifted them the branch blankets which ended up tied or sewn to the students’ backpacks. A mobile yarn bombing, no city permit required!
Excellent story!
Thanks for the smile your story gave me.
What a great story!
In 2013, we yarn bombed a bridge! With permission, of course. Four giant banners. 150 knitters. After it was all over, the banners were taken down, taken apart, and given away as blankets. It was big, fun, and big fun!
https://pdxknitterati.com/2013/07/23/bridge-for-blankets-live/
https://pdxknitterati.com/2013/11/19/bridge-for-blankets-its-a-wrap-2/
A few of us wrapped parts of a yard swingset at a camp our family enjoys for reunions. 6 yrs later they are still there though a bit faded. The children like the softer texture when climbing!
I wrapped the bike rack in front of our village’s library in knitted fabric last summer. Maybe next summer I will wrap the stop sign’s post. (Yes, there is only ONE stop sign in town. It’s a VERY small town.)
I can barely get “real” knitting done, so bombing pieces are not on the list. The first time I saw an example was in Portland, OR about 5 years ago on a bike rack. The last time was a small piece on a tree in Barcelona’s Cathedral Plaza. Your post reminded me of that very fun and unexpected detail lurking among all of the historic elements in the plaza. Love the story about the students and their decorated tree.
I yarn bombed several colleagues’ computer mice (mouses?) last year. No one ever found out it was me but trying to guess tormented them for a good while. I was hoping it would catch on and folks would just start yarn bombing each other, but alas…