Warm and Woolly 'yarn bombed'
WARM AND WOOLLY A SUCCESS ON THE LONG WEEKEND.
The annual Warm and Woolly Exhibition, organised by the Barraba Potters and Craft Guild, over the King’s Birthday long weekend was a successful event. Locals and travellers, alike, supported the exhibition, morning tea, soup lunches and afternoon tea. Travellers from Sydney, Goondiwindi, Moree, Tamworth and Manilla (to name a few) were pleased to be able to break their journey and enjoy homemade soup, sweet treats and a cuppa by the fire. Many left with a locally made item from the Gallery, as a memento of their stop in Barraba.
Monday saw a group of 33 Railway Enthusiasts, who were travelling around the North West, call in for afternoon tea at the Gallery. Caroline Faint ensured the Historical Society was open so they could include that in their Barraba stop over before returning to Tamworth.
A special thanks to members and volunteers who helped make the weekend a success. From the Yarn Bombing knitters and tree dressers to those who cooked, cleaned, served meals and helped with sales.
The “Yarn Bombed” trees and seat outside the Gallery encouraged visitors to stop for a look and wander. So, what is “Yarn Bombing”, you may ask?
Wikipedia defines Yarn Bombing as “....a type of graffiti or street art that employs colourful displays of knitted or crocheted yarn or fibre rather than paint or chalk. It is also called wool bombing, yarn storming, guerrilla knitting, kniffiti, urban knitting or graffiti knitting.”
Intrigued? Want to know more?......
“They’re showing up everywhere, like some kind of psychedelically colourful mushroom that grows sock-like over surfaces like trees and scaffolding and even bike racks. Somewhere, somehow, these normal everyday objects have suddenly become ensconced in an odd woolly growth in amazing patterns.
The skill varies widely from incredibly new to fantastically intricate, the thickness of the yarn from pencil-lead thin to thick as the pencil itself. International Yarn Bombing Day is when fibre-freaks from around the world go on a knitting rampage to embrace the world in warm fuzzy comfort. Grab your needles and go forth noble kneedler, and stitch!
To understand International Yarn Bombing Day, we first need to take a look at what yarn bombing is. It is sometimes referred to as guerrilla knitting or yarnstorming. No matter what you call it, it is simply the practice of knitted works of art being added to public places. For example, a yarn bomber may design some sort of colourful knitted pattern and wrap it around a bus stop. The aim of this practice was to try and take knitting from something that was viewed as merely for creating clothes and hats to something that could add meaning and colour to urban locations.
It’s not like standard graffiti where the point is to mark your territory. It’s also definitely not an act of vandalizing. It is about creating a sense of belonging and conveying meaning, as well as drawing attention to something that is ignored by most people. International Yarn Bombing Day, therefore, is simply a celebration of this tradition, raising awareness of the art of crochet and knitting while having a lot of fun in the process.
Ironically International Yarn Bombing Day started as a simple gimmick at a sewing boutique, as part of their style and personality they knitted a sleeve for their door handle, and from there it spread like the mycorrhizal life form we mentioned above (That’s mushroom folks, most fungi… listen this isn’t a botany class, trust us, it’s shroom-like).
From there it started spreading to cover telephone poles, put colorful socks on statues, and bike racks, even trees have received a warm and lovely sleeve to see them through the cold winter months. The first-ever International Yarn Bombing Day actually took place on the 11th of June 2011, and it has been going strong ever since
It’s all done in the spirit of beautification and fun, bringing a fantastically colorful display to urban areas around the world. It’s not even seen as graffiti by most people in the area, but rather an entirely acceptable and attractive form of urban art. And it’s little surprise, with all the amazing patterns that can come out of a knitter’s craft, and the warm and comfortable nature of the fabric. Of course, they don’t use wool because some people are allergic, but it’s still a fantastic time!”
Ref: www.daysoftheyear.com/days/yarn-bombing-day, Sat 10th June 2023.
The 10th June 2023 was International Yarn Bombing Day and this is when some of our wonderful Guild volunteers “dressed the trees”.