Yarn Took Over (8 Photos)

By Vidar
A rainbow-striped knitted tree fills the image,with a separate framed photograph of Olek’s crocheted Charging Bull.

When yarn bombing takes over the street

A car gets a crocheted cover, a tree wears stripes, fountain figures get new outfits, and a concrete bollard becomes R2-D2. These eight examples of knitting and crochet take yarn far beyond the sweater drawer.


A Volkswagen Beetle on a New York street covered from roof to wheels in pink, purple and orange crochet.

🚗 Crocheted Beetle — By Olek in New York City, USA 🇺🇸

Olek covered this Volkswagen Beetle in crochet, right down to its wheels. The car stood on Elizabeth Street in Manhattan in 2010.

🔗 Follow Olek on Instagram


Looking up the trunk and branches of a tree wrapped in broad knitted stripes of pink, blue, yellow, green and white.

🌳 Die Trauerweide — By Ute Lennartz-Lembeck in Velbert, Germany 🇩🇪

The knitting follows the trunk and spreads into the branches of this willow. Ute Lennartz-Lembeck documented Die Trauerweide from May 2011 to September 2013.

🔗 Visit Ute Lennartz-Lembeck’s website


A concrete street bollard in Bellingham covered in a white, blue and gray knitted R2-D2 costume.

🤖 R2-D2 Bollard — By Sarah Rudder in Bellingham, Washington, USA 🇺🇸

Sarah Rudder knitted a fitted R2-D2 cover for a concrete bollard in 2012. Her project account says it took about 1,200 yards of yarn; she removed it when she left that day.

More: More views of Sarah Rudder’s knitted R2-D2

🔗 Visit Sarah Rudder’s blog


A bicycle in Brooklyn wrapped in crochet, with green and orange covered wheels and a red saddle.

🚲 Crocheted Bicycle — By Olek in Brooklyn, New York City, USA 🇺🇸

The wheels, frame and saddle all get a crocheted covering on this Olek bicycle. It was photographed near the Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian entrance in DUMBO in 2011.

🔗 Follow Olek on Instagram


The Charging Bull sculpture in New York covered in pink, purple, black and green crochet, including its horns and legs.

🐂 Project B — By Olek in New York City, USA 🇺🇸

Olek wrapped Arturo Di Modica’s Charging Bull at Bowling Green in crochet on Christmas night 2010. CNN reported that the cover was torn off early the next morning. In a contemporary interview, the artist said installing the cover took four hours.

💡 History Fact: The bull itself began as an unauthorized installation. Di Modica paid about $360,000 to make it and unloaded it at night in front of the New York Stock Exchange in December 1989; after it was removed, it was moved to Bowling Green.

🔗 Follow Olek on Instagram


A four-loop bicycle rack outside Orinda Public Library wrapped in narrow knitted stripes of many colors.

🧶 Striped Bicycle Rack — By Streetcolor in Orinda, California, USA 🇺🇸

Streetcolor wrapped the four-loop bicycle rack outside Orinda Public Library in striped knitting in May 2011. In the artist’s account, Betsy helped sew the pieces into place.

🔗 Visit Streetcolor’s blog


The figures of a Wallace fountain in Paris dressed in yellow, pink and red yarn outfits.

⛲ Dressed-Up Fountain — By Soso of Collectif France Tricot in Paris, France 🇫🇷

Soso of Collectif France Tricot dressed the figures of a Wallace fountain in yarn outfits. The photograph was taken at Place Saint-Sulpice during La Nuit du StreetArt in May 2009.

💡 History Fact: Paris got its first Wallace fountains in 1872, after the British philanthropist Richard Wallace gave the city 50 drinking fountains following the water shortages of the 1871 siege and Commune. According to the City of Paris, sculptor Charles-Auguste Lebourg’s four caryatids stand for Simplicity, Kindness, Sobriety and Charity.

📷 Photo by Denis / tofz4u


Bronze feline sculptures outside UFFO in Trutnov wearing colorful crocheted striped sweaters.

🐾 Sweaters for the Sculptures — Trutnov, Czechia 🇨🇿

Irena Janigová, Karolína Dvořáčková, Zdeňka Prouzová and Lucie Pangrácová crocheted outfits for Michal Gabriel’s bronze felines outside UFFO in Trutnov. The sweaters went on in December 2011.

💡 Place Fact: Michal Gabriel’s set of seven predators, titled Smečka (Pack), was bought by the Trutnov gallery and unveiled outside UFFO in September 2010, when the new cultural center opened. The building is named after Uffo Horn, a 19th-century Trutnov native active in culture and politics.

More: The crocheted sculptures in Trutnov

📷 Photo: Trutnovinky

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