Trees wearing sweaters, bike racks turned into pieces of art, stop sign posts growing flowers – it’s all part of yarnbombers attempts to make the world a prettier, more fun place.  These rogue knitters are making headlines as they cover up harsh steel and add whimsy to utilitarian fixtures in cities across the US.  The best part about their material of choice, they argue is that it can be easily removed when it gets dirty ensuring their work remains a bright spot.

Philadelphia's anti-graffiti knit work

By Chelsea Conaboy
Inquirer Staff Writer

The magnolia tree on the north side of Rittenhouse Square looks as if it were plucked from a Dr. Seuss book. Its split trunk is wrapped in a whimsical sweater of pinks, blues, purples, and oranges.

The tree cozy is the work of Jessie Hemmons, 23, a graduate student in psychology at Chestnut Hill College and census worker - and a graffiti artist with a soft side.

Hemmons is part of a growing trend of rogue knitters who have taken their "yarnbombing" to the street to brighten the cityscape. She ties crocheted flowers to lampposts, wraps bike racks with rainbow-colored covers, and gave the Rocky statue a scarf.

Her motivation is simple.

"Times are tough," Hemmons said. "People want to see something bright and pretty."

Yesterday morning she put up her largest installation yet. Passersby stopped to watch and snap pictures as Hemmons began stitching about 15 feet of knitting - a 30-hour project - to a tree near 19th and Walnut Streets.

The yarnbombing trend made headlines this month when three women in West Cape May, known only by their tag name, Salty Knits, began putting up knitting under the cover of night in the borough's Wilbraham Park and outside private businesses.

Both they and Hemmons, a Montgomery County native, were traditional knitters - Hemmons sells her wearable creations at Bambi Gallery in the Piazza and on her Web site, ishknits.com - before stumbling upon a book published last fall called Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti.

Authors Leanne Prain and Mandy Moore of Vancouver popularized the term for the street art. They say yarnbombing can be political. Anti- and pro-Olympic yarnbombing popped up around the city during the Winter Games, for example. But the goal most often is to make people happy.

"I think it just tickles them," Moore said. "It captures people's fancy, and it's so easy to do."

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