I did my first yarn bomb this week!

For those of you who don’t know, yarn bombing is a type of public art where you knit or crochet a cover for an object. I think it’s so whimsical and charming.

My crochet skills are limited, so I only feel comfortable yarn bombing objects that can be broken down into a rectangle or a combination of rectangles. I decided to yarn bomb a street pole for my first project. I picked this because the pole is a uniform cylinder which is essentially a rectangle with the sides sewn together. I also picked this over a stop sign because stop signs in my neighborhood have reflective tape on the post and I didn’t want to be accused of interfering with a traffic sign or causing a safety hazard by covering it up.

I measured the pole one day while it was still dark out. I didn’t want arouse suspicion by measuring the diameter when others would see me. I selected a colorful variegated yarn. I wanted the final product to stand out and look cheerful. Then I crocheted a large rectangle to fit the dimensions of the pole.

My project was done months ago. I didn’t want to put it up to have it be immediately rained on during the Arizona monsoon season. I had a few failed attempts at putting it up. This was a simple project to hang. I just had to wrap the rectangle around the pole and sew up the seam. The first time I tried to do it, I didn’t think to consider the length of the yarn I was using to sew the seam and it got tangled with itself. The second time around, I made the length shorter, and it was still too long. It was also 3am when I tried to hang it, so that probably contributed to a lack of hand-eye coordination.

I finally got my project hung this week. I put it up at 7pm – after sunset but not quite dark. I live in a quiet neighborhood so few people saw me, and those who did, didn’t seem to care. I was really pleased with how it came out. The biggest lessons I’m taking away from it is selecting a length of yarn to sew the seam that’s twice as long as the project itself was a good length to work with, I could cover a few inches with every stitch sewed, and it’s important to pick a bright color of yarn so the completed project stands out from the surroundings. I thought I picked an obnoxious color of yarn, but next time I’m going for something even brighter.