"Many things grow in the garden that were never sown there." -- Thomas Fuller
Our proposal has been accepted! Mary Lawrie and I will be leading a community yarn bombing along sections of Howard Street and Clark Street in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago. There was another successful yarn bombing along Howard Street last year that has brought positive attention to this business district, an area with a number of empty store fronts and vacant lots. Our proposal follows up on last year's success, expanding upon it with the metaphor of the tenacious wildflower. Here is our introduction:
Rogers Park is blooming! Flowers fill fences surrounding parks and empty lots along Howard Street between Sheridan and Ridge. Like a wildflower taking root in disrupted soil, breaking through a crack in the sidewalk, this project is to emphasize that what may be considered an eyesore is actually the blank slate of potential. The project may be contained to Howard Street or with the assistance of volunteers it can “grow” to multiple sites, thus creating a flower hunt throughout Rogers Park.
To be certain that such an undertaking could be accomplished within a specific time frame, Mary and I swatched a variety of flowers, timing ourselves as we went.
As you can see, some are knit while others are crocheted, afterall, not every flower is exactly the same! We've been experimenting further and I will post those experiments with instructions over the course of the next few months. If you have patterns you wish to share or know of free patterns available online, please comment and share with others.
With the addition of Clark Street, we've been asked to continue the flower theme, but give it a Day of the Dead twist as many in the area are Mexican and the installation goes up in October. So yes, there will be a focus on crocheted marigolds and dancing skeletons, but we hope to add more.
I am just so excited! While the workshops will be taking place in Rogers Park, anyone may be involved. We will get things started, make a large percentage of the flowers, teach workshops and oversee the final installation, but we plan to have weekly gatherings of crocheters and knitters. Our workshops will also involve local children and seniors. Stay tuned for updates. You can also like my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter and receive updates that way.
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