By Kim Shaw
From London to Latvia and Jersey to Jozi, yarn bombers are knitting and crocheting socks, beanies and cosies for trees, lampposts, fences, bridges and almost anything that stands still!
At the beginning of spring, the trees you might have spotted around Jozi adorned with story scarves and crochet blossoms were a yarn bombing project, as was the scarf tied onto the Hyatt Hotel sign in Rosebank – spotted by many people on their way to the Wired Women Conference.
Jan van Riebeeck got a pair of socks on Heritage Day in Cape Town and a woman in the UK has covered an entire bus with her knitting. There’s even a book of patterns for aspiring yarn bombers.
Yarn bombing has become the voice of choice for thousands of yarn and craft lovers worldwide since Magda Sayeg from Houston, USA, kicked off the trend in 2005 by knitting a cover for the door handle of her boutique. She then started a local graffiti knitting group called Knitta Please and her passion spread like wildfire; yarn bombers have been uploading pics and supporting each other ever since, and on 11 June they celebrated the first International Yarn Bombing Day, as declared by Canadian yarn bomber Joann Matvichuk.
In Hungary a yarn bomber called Babukatorium spent three months crocheting 247 spider webs, which she then used to cover a tree, after being inspired by a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In Ontario, Canada, KIP (Knit in Public) covered a bridge and used it as a fundraiser to provide winter clothing for people In need.
Streetcolor in Berkeley, California decided to yarn bomb a seat on the BART train, her mode of public transport, while Olek used her art (she hates being called a yarn bomber and prefers to be known as an artist) to cover the Charging Bull statue near Wall Street with pink and purple yarn, and 24-year-old Jessie Hemmons yarn bombed the Rocky statue in Philadelphia with a pink hoodie vest.
The Lyttelton community in New Zealand that we mentioned in a previous Women’s Leadership Journal use their felt hearts to yarn bomb fences while a duo calling themselves Strick & Liesel used their craft to protest against nuclear power in Berlin earlier this year.
Sarah Gonzalez, a photographer, educator, filmmaker and cinematographer, is currently compiling a documentary on yarn bombing that compares and contrasts about six different yarn bombers while making a retrospective history. She writes in her Yarn Graffiti Documentary blog, “The documentary will tackle the different sides of the craft and the ethics that go along with it. The fibre artists will also touch on the gender separation of this art and how most urban art graffiti is done by males while most fibre art is done by females… Similar to urban artists such as Banksy, whose works have become more mainstream rather than controversial, Yarn Bombing is growing into a business rather than an art.”
This business view is also evident among corporates and Magda Sayeg has even knitted car sweaters for Prius, Smartcar and Mini Cooper. She also sells iPhone covers online and did a project for the offices of Etsy.com in Brooklyn.
Yarn bombing is taking off here in SA too. Joburg yarn bomber TheHeartist has been involved since International Yarn Bombing Day, and says, “It’s primarily about spreading goodwill through vandalism for good; promoting upcycling and zero waste in the spirit of creativity; practising gifting, unexpectedly and anonymously; and creating beauty in hostile environs.”
Members of The Jozi Yarn Bomb Squad, TheHeartist and fellow bomber ChampaigneQueen, “gathered other keen crafters over a cuppa, and we planned, plotted and strategised prior to our first tag on Mandela Day, with story scarves and bombed beanies”.
The Jozi Yarn Bomb Squad is affiliated to Story Scarves, a global goodwill movement based in Soweto. TheHeartist adds, “There has been a love of handmade since the beginning of time. Hand knitting, crochet, embroidery and sewing used to be a homage to grannies and gogos. Now it’s a reviving trend with a twist that’s virally attracting hip ‘n happening younger generations.”
To gain an invite into the Jozi branch’s secret Facebook group tweet @storyscarves or email info@storyscarves.org and think of an undercover code name! Then just start knitting and yarn bombing J
