Crocheted decor adds to Bethany’s scenic drive

By: 
Jill Meier, Journal editor
Jill Meier/BV Journal 
The yarn bombing crazy showed up earlier this year along the picturesque driveway to the Bethany campus in Brandon. The crocheted light pole covers were created by an anonmyous source. 
An anonymous source has added snippets of color to a picturesque driveway in Brandon.
 
The added color popped up in July on the bases of eight light poles that line the driveway to the Bethany Meadows-Bethany Home senior living community located on Brandon’s eastside. 
 
Bethany activities director Kaitlyn Wheelock said a resident’s daughter, who asked to remain anonymous, initially proposed to bring some color to the facility’s courtyard. 
 
That was prior to COVID.
 
With a desire to bring that color to the Bethany campus, she opted to decorate the light poles.
 
Wheelock said the colorful light pole covers have put smiles on the faces of their residents and staff.
 
“The garden home residents see it the most, since they come and go,” she said. “When I first pulled up after having taken a few days off and I saw them, it made me smile, too.”
 
Wheelock said the anonymous “yarn bomber” will remove them from the light poles before they become tattered and worn.
 
So, what is “yarn bombing?”
 
According to a June 2019 AP News report, modern yarn bombing, also known as yarn storming, guerrilla knitting, yarn graffiti or graffiti knitting, was started in 2005 by Texas artist Magda Sayeg. Sayeg took advantage of extra yarn she had to knit a doorknob cover for her women’s boutique, then made a cozy for a nearby stop-sign pole – and then another.
 
Through this endeavor, Sayeg has unofficially gained the title of the “mother of yarn bombing” unknowingly igniting the craft craze, which has now come to Brandon.
 
Yarn crafts appear to be gaining in popularity along with the do-it-yourself movement in general. The Craft Yarn Council, a Texas-based trade association, estimates that 38 million Americans are active crocheters or knitters. The group’s executive director, Jenny Bessonette, says the number has grown in part because of the development of new yarns, including faux fur, “rumple” and multi-colored “cake” yarns.
 
“People used to think, ‘That’s my grandma’s craft,’ but our research and social media following tells us that more and more younger people are picking up knitting and crocheting,” she says.
 
The “purpose” behind yarn bombing is simply to break the routine of passers-by, making them stop for a moment to admire the work – or even criticize it. Also, by yarn bombing an ordinary and unusually neglected object, it draws attention to it, telling a certain story or even a joke.
 
“For us, they’re just a lot of fun,” Wheelock said.
 

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The Brandon Valley Journal

 

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