A few weeks ago I participated in my very first Yarn-bombing and it felt awesome to be part of something so full of whimsy and with the intention to bring joy to people in a public area. Yarn-bombing is also one of the many ways to peacefully and quietly protest through Craftivism.
A friend of mine works at Scrap B-more in the Pigtown area of Baltimore City and they invited me to help with an art installation project that will remain up through September of this year. At first I was worried I wouldn’t be much help since it was 95ºF that day and I do not do well in heat. Thankfully, my job was indoors: assembling various donated yarn pieces into panels that could wrap around the large light poles at the intersections. As I dug through the piles of assorted granny squares, hexagons, unfinished shawls, half-scarves, and some larger pieces, I naturally began to sort them by size and shape and found so many hexagons that I knew what I’d be doing first. I found some bright colors of acrylic yarn to join the pieces together and arranged the hexagons on the worktable in such a way to prevent adjacent hexes from being too similar in color as well as aligning them to reach the required panel size. I found a larger piece that looked to be an unfinished baby blanket and a few other round pieces that I added to the mix. When nearing the target size, I shifted focus a bit to make the panel easier to attach to the pole by lining up the sides and creating a more even joining edge. A picture of the finished panel is below, along with one of it after being installed.
After spending entirely too long on my first panel, I chose several square pieces to become the next one, which was a much faster assembly process. So many of the small pieces I joined that day were so beautiful and wonderful on their own, but when surrounded by pieces by other makers and crafters, it really reinforced the junction of unity and diversity and how they don’t need to be mutually exclusive. Our differences set us apart as unique individuals but those differences are also what makes us all the same in a way. While all of these crocheted and knitted pieces are made of yarn, each one is also an individual work of art created with a unique mix of time, dedication, and love from each crafter before donation. And this project would not have been possible without each person’s contributions to becoming the whole.
Some other pieces we installed that day:
