Jenny Gilbertson

Yarn Bombing

18 May 2014
Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery (BRAG)

Fingers have been moving in a blur as a woollen alchemy takes place. Fruits, vegetables, even take away food has been appearing around the Bundaberg region, and it all looks good enough to eat.

Seriously though, don’t eat it. You’ll end up with a mouthful of wool. The community initiative, Knitting up a Storm, have been crafting knitted creations to yarn bomb public spaces across the Bundaberg region. Trees are covered in woolly jumpers, power poles have been adorned with bunny ears and an entire trolley of knitted fruits and vegetables has been spotted in a shopping centre.

“It’s my fault, I’m actually the instigator, but the knitting itself is not mine; I can’t be held responsible for that because I can’t actually knit,” said Jenny Gilbertson, artist and organiser. “There are bicycles that have been covered which have been popping up all over the region, and some of the guerrilla knitters have taken to food items in a large way. There are knitted pizza slices, there are knitted hamburgers, one of my favourites are the knitted prawns which were at Woodgate for a while. They’re inside businesses, on the street, on trees; we’re getting lots of amazing comments and feedback from people.”

The yarn bombing is done in secret, with knitted objects appearing overnight in strange places across the region. Jenny says the knitting groups are very secretive, with no one taking credit for the stealthy stitching. “All the knitters are anonymous, part of the idea behind yarn bombing is that we don’t know who is actually doing it, but I can tell you there are three groups active in our region,” she said.

In a finale to yarn bombing, the knitters all came together on May 18 to auction off their handmade knitted wares to raise money for selected charities. Over $200 was raised, and even more people have been inspired to knit one, pearl one. “It’s not just older knitters that have been involved, there are quite a few schools that have been doing some knitting,” Jenny said. “Two schools have been bombed recently, Booyal Central State School and Cordalba School have both been yarn-bombed in the last few days.”

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