"Yarn Bombing" in Colorado

Happy First Day of Summer!

When we were in Colorado last week, we went to the town of Lyons near Boulder.  Our first stop was a great restaurant called  Lyons Fork.

The food was delicious and I really liked the sign for the restaurant. I thought the pointed oval shape within a more regular oval could be adapted for a card front quite easily.

After dinner, we came out of the restaurant, turned the corner and saw this fabulous tree!  There was a lot of street art along the block but the tree covered with colorful yarn patches was the most eye catching of all.

I had my camera with me (of course) and had some fun looking at all of the colors and textures.

The decorative patches covered quite a bit of the tree and went high up into the branches.

The green section near the base of the trunk looks like a grass skirt.

All sorts of yarns were used and some of them even had glittery fibers that caught the light.

This cute little white bear is hanging in a pocket.  If you follow the green string in his hand...

...it leads to an orange kite!

It was fun to imagine all of the people who created the colorful and interestingly patterned sections.

I think most were knitted but this crocheted granny square really caught my eye.  My grandmother did a lot of crocheting so this section brought back some nice memories.

I posted a photo to my Facebook page and found out from Helen's comment that this is called "yarn bombing."  It is considered a sort of graffiti or street art that uses yarn instead of paint or chalk.

I did a little research to find out more about this colorful tree and I found this blog post by one of the knitters who participated in the project.  Sandra DeVries is the artist who organized the project and knit the large piece covering the trunk along with other bits and pieces.  The post gives more detail about how the project was completed and shows photos of the tree as it was being "dressed."

A quick search on Amazon revealed several books on yarn bombing.  This one, Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti looks very good and is described as " the definitive guidebook to covert textile street art."

If you'd like some more background information, here is a LINK to the Wikipedia article on Yarn bombing.

Have you seen any yarn bombing in the area where you live?  Have you ever participated in one of these projects?  I am intrigued by this idea.  A friend called me a year or so ago to find out if I knew some knitters that could help with a project involving knitting covers for trees...now I think I know what she was talking about!

I know that many of you do other crafts in addition to papercrafting (and I will get back to posting more papercrafting on the blog soon!). Craftsy is a great resource for all sorts of crafts.

I recently enrolled at Craftsy.  Once you register, you have access to lots of free patterns and recipes.  You can use the links below to go directly to the page for the craft you are most interested in, join the site and try out some of the free patterns. 

•  Free Embroidery Patterns at Craftsy!
• Free Knitting Patterns at Craftsy!
• Free Sewing Pattern at Craftsy
• Free Quilting Patterns at Craftsy
• Free Cake Decorating Recipes at Craftsy!

Craftsy offers high quality online classes that you take at your own pace from home.  You have lifetime access to the classes you buy so you can watch them over and over again to practice your skills.  The classes can be watched on any device with high speed internet access - even your phone!  I have been getting emails from them and there seem to be specials and discounts on classes offered regularly.

There is also a store on the Craftsy site and today only they are having a 40% off sale!  I saw some Anna Griffin fabric in the store....

I hope you are having a beautiful day and can enjoy the start of summer.  Today is the last day of school in our town and the pace of life will change a little now as people move into their summer schedules.  Have a great weekend!

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