Dear friends, it's time to prep for our very first yarnbombing event! With the blessing of the Billings Downtown Business Association, we are encouraging everyone to cover trees and benches near our new space with knitted or crochet loveliness. We chatted about it in the video this week and here are some tidbits about yarnbombing to get you inspired. First of all, we love that it is Public Art - and what a great way to draw attention to our amazing craft. It's also Temporary Art, so we what we put up will need to come down when the yarn starts looking ratty (faded, frayed, flapping around, etc).
Yarnbombing is generally attributed to Magda Sayeg who decorated her Houston boutique's doorknob with crochet in 2005. There are now groups all over the world who meet regularly to plan and create amazing yarn bombed installations. The Yarn Bombing Los Angeles website has a lot to peruse . . .
So here's what our vision is for June 4th: we'll begin with the tree that's right in front of the shop and work over to the bench closer to 29th. From there, we can start decorating the trees on the other side of our street (2nd Ave) and continue to work our way around our block. It'll be a great way to celebrate our shop's move to downtown.
Check out some photos for inspiration - the poppies are from Sue's camera roll when she and Mike visited Harrogate in Yorkshire. All others are pulled from the internet....
And with all that in mind, it's time to start creating! Got a pile of swatches? Stitch them together for yarn bombing. Got some leftover acrylic yarns? Double or triple strand them with large needles or hooks into strips to wrap around objects. Make a pompom garland! Get some crafty kids involved! Grab some friends and make it a fun outing on Friday June 4th. Don't forget to bring some extra yarn and scissors to make fastening easy, and take lots of pictures! If everyone loves this, we'll make it a Regular Thing. Thank you in advance for getting creative with us for June 4th, our First First Friday in Downtown Billings!
