Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe TACOMA, Wash., Sept. 20 (UPI) -- "Yarn bombers" in Tacoma, Wash., are attaching crocheted items to public property in what they call guerrilla knitting or graffiti knitting. The artists are brightening the city's streets with small, colorful designs tied to bicycle racks and other spots in the city, The (Tacoma) News Tribune said Friday. Advertisement Kassie Mitchell, also known as the Sixth Avenue Yarn Bomber, created a gay-pride themed "sweater" for a bicycle rack, and installed it with plastic zip-ties. Mitchell said the project took about 3 hours and a $3 ball of yarn. Yarn-bombing has taken off as an informal art form in the Tacoma area and beyond, the newspaper said. A group of crochet enthusiasts covered a chain-link fence with recycled sweaters and knitted flowers in a springtime installation, and McDonald's recently featured a gleeful yarn-bomber in a television advertisement. "I don't think yarn bombing or non-destructive guerrilla art is a new concept, [but] the trend of it recently in our community surely resonates," said Lisa Fuichante, whose work was included in the wrapping of tree trunks in yarn during a July event in Tacoma. Yarn-bombing goes further than merely brightening a street or park with colorful thread, the newspaper noted. Advertisement Graffiti is hidden, and crochet-covered bicycle racks tend not to scratch bicycles. "You can't spray-paint on yarn," Mitchell said.
