![]() ![]() ![]() As globalization expands, the ability to make something with your hands that can’t be replicated by any machine or commercial entity becomes even more meaningful. Little did we know that the local shopping district we were tagging would transform into a row of the same luxury stores that a shopper could find in any city in the world. At that time, our city was just beginning to transform in preparation to host the 2010 Olympic Games. ![]() In our first attempts at yarn bombing, we created little tags that we wrapped around poles and trees on Robson Street in downtown Vancouver, Canada. Even if it gets taken down or vandalized, at least people saw it when it was up, and that’s a good enough reason to have done it in the first place.” There’s a magic in this kind of gift-giving-the act of making a yarn bomb is a testament to experimentation and being free.Īs Magda Sayeg, the godmother of yarn bombing, has said, “Yarn bombing means putting yourself and your work out in the public environment. Being a yarn bomber means that you are intentionally creating work that might only last in public for minutes before it is taken down. Being a knitter or crocheter means that you are willing to invest time, materials, and skill in making something. More than just grandiose fuzzy statements, yarn bombing is about being seen. We were uplifted by the affirmation that people want to help, that people want to heed a call for action, and that craft provides an outlet for love-imbued productivity that is as much about providing comfort to self in unsettling times, as it is about providing comfort to a community that may be hundreds of miles away from the crafter.” We learned, and were even surprised by, the extent to which the act of making could be a healing mechanism, and a channel for expressive love, in the face of hate and fatal violence. As Hinda Mandell of the remarkable Jewish Hearts for Pittsburgh project attests, “We learned that something as simple and homey as yarn can be a catalyst for a social media community that is as supportive and loving as an IRL knitting circle. With roots in a thousand-year-old craft, yarn bombing is a hyper-local activity thanks to our virtually-connected world, it’s a global one as well. We’ve heard about various rules that we’ve supposedly broken and folks that we’ve offended, while witnessing yarn bombing flourish and change both communities and individuals. ![]() We’ve heard from social workers using craft as therapy, advertising agencies looking to co-opt the movement, and academics trying to make sense of it all. The two of us have made work with ninety-year-old yarn bombers, and seven-year-old ones. In each instance, these crafters have used their hand skills to engage diverse opinions, and their work has become a medium that invites discussion. We’ve met yarn bombers who have created work around ocean plastic, suicide, gentrification, sexual assault, and equal rights, among other critical issues of our time. Yarn bombing has become a catalyst for conversation around many topics, including the built environment, the purpose of art and craft, the juxtaposition of a “feminine” medium in a traditionally masculine context, and societal assumptions about the value of women’s work and time. We heard from landscape architects, art professors, youth groups, schoolteachers, graffiti removal services, politicians, and spray paint and wheat paste artists. Although we knew that crafters would be delighted by yarnarchy, it surprised us how quickly the book was embraced by other communities. When the book was released, we were overwhelmed by the enthusiasm that it received. Our book Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti was first published in 2009. No matter what shape a yarn bombing may take, every act involves innovation and creativity. It offers a window to the fantastical, inspires calls to action, and becomes a medium for storytelling. It can be a simple experience of whimsy or a strong-willed political statement. We’ve learned that yarn bombing can be an expression of love. For more than ten years, we’ve seen how yarn bombing resonates with people intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally. But with imagination, it becomes so much more. Mandy Moore and Leanne Prain celebrate ten years since the first publication of Yarn Bombing and reflect how it has defied the homely associations of knitting.Įach yarn bombing starts with a single stitch. ![]()
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