Yarn Bombing

Yarn Bombing, also known as guerrilla knitting or urban knitting, is a form of street art where fabric is used to knit street furniture, trees, vehicles, statues, and other items. Yarn bombing involves creating colour in an otherwise forgotten or bleak setting. The pastime is popular and has a lot of followers; there's even an International Yarn Bombing Day. International Yarn Bombing Day happens in the middle of June, and this year's is on June 7.

A yarn-bombed tree on Brick Lane

Knit the City is a group of yarn bombers based in London. (To see examples of their work, view their Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/knitthecity/). Their official website is here: http://knitthecity.com

Yarn-bombed chain fence

Yarn bombing has even taken place in Basingstoke with a yarn-bombed tree at last summer's Basingstoke festival (covered here: Basingstoke 2013 Festival Yarn Bombing) and the following photograph of a yarn-bombed state outside of the train station. The knitting has been there for a long while now, and I got my photograph when it was worn.

Statue yarn bomb

I also captured more yarn-bombed statues in Gothenburg, Sweden, several years ago. Yarn bombing seems to enjoy adding to statues. These two statues of women did look particularly cold.

Yarn-bombed statues

Yarn-bombed tree in Shoreditch

One popular artist who produced knit street art is Agata Olek (covered here: Street Art: Olek's Crochet Art). The following knitted mural appeared at the bottom of Brick Lane in March, and I captured it being knitted. The mural contains a political message to celebrate International Women's Day. This must have taken awhile to complete.

Agata Olek's International Women's Day mural