Yarn Bombing!

 A month and a half ago the LowellArts! group decided to host a yarn bombing of the trees on Main Street. You got to pick one of the 23 trees along Main and knit or crochet something to go on it. All projects had to be ready to go up on Tuesday night between 7 and 9pm.  The yarn bombing would be up and ready to go for the River Walk Festival that Lowell has every second week in July.

 I saw the announcement on Facebook and decided to participate. At first, I had a rather elaborate plan for my tree. Then I thought about what I would be able to carry off in that amount of time while dealing with 3 kids on summer break. Scaling back was needed. I went with the idea of butterflies. I could make them multiple colors and each one was small enough to be portable. Once I had enough butterflies I started on the background. Basically a large afghan knitted in super bulky weight yarn on size 17 needles. It went quite quickly! I spent two days sewing the butterflies onto it. I also managed to cut my finger rather deeply with my super sharp scissors.

 Once my mother-in-law found out what I was doing she wanted to lend a hand. I regret not asking her to join me in the original plan. She was excited about it. She asked her sister, Mary, to help. Tuesday night we gathered at the tree and Mary used her excellent sewing skills to attach the project to the tree. I am beyond grateful for their help. I admit that I wasn't feeling very pleased with my project and I wasn't sure how I was going to get it up. They both loved it and went right to work. It was such a relief and we had a lot of laughs. I enjoyed their company so much!

The LowellArts! people came around with laminated name tags for the trees. My tree now says that it has been Yarn Bombed by Nicole W. This morning as I drove down Main Street it was so cool to see all the different knitting and crochet on the trees. I am hoping to get some pictures of the other trees.

I know that my project is kinda crazy colors and a little bit out there. It does look really neat from the road. I've gotta admit that I am a little bit proud of myself. I stuck with it even though I thought I would lose my mind knitting butterfly after butterfly. I actually took a few days off and knitted a baby sweater just to save my sanity. My younger brother texted messaged me this morning to tell me that my tree is crazy, but cool. I think I may have cemented my reputation as the Crazy Knitting Lady.