Yarn on Trees in Cincinnati
September 30, 2011
If you’ve driven down Central Parkway in downtown Cincinnati recently, you may have noticed colorful (and elaborate) yarn decorations on the trees along the way. You may have wondered, What’s going on?
What’s going on, apparently, is a “yarn bombing”. Last week, in an Art Works project named “Operation Bomb Central”, a group calling themselves the Bombshells went downtown and painstakingly wrapped yarn around trees, other fixtures, and even a Metro bus!
See pictures at the Bombshells’ Web site and Mikki Shaffner Photography; see also Cincinnati Enquirer pictures of when the Bombshells decorated Cincinnati’s statue of Romulus and Remus.
Why did they do it? Watch this one-minute video about the Bombshells, or take it from their Web site:
We anonymously promote fiber craft as adventure. We aim to soften the edges of an otherwise cruel, harsh environment. We juxtapose vandalism with the non-threatening nature of fibers. We aim to readdress the nature of graffiti with a nonpermanent, nondestructive, cozy medium.
See more photos and videos of the Bombshells at 5chw4r7z (also includes an interview), Kate’s Random Musings, and WCPO.
Enjoyment and Contemplation 
September 30, 2011 at 5:15 PM
When I was a kid, my friends and I would do something like this every Halloween. Except we used toilet paper instead of yarn.
October 1, 2011 at 5:57 PM
Ha ha
October 1, 2011 at 11:32 AM
Ummm, when people covered trees with yarn in YS wasn’t there a sudden alarm for the health and safety of the trees? Wraping trees up restricts there growth, but maybe only in the spring time. So much for non-destructive. Anyway, that is funny.
October 1, 2011 at 8:48 PM
It’s a sad, sad day when knitting and the environment find themselves opposed.
October 1, 2011 at 11:13 PM
Wow, yeah, I had forgotten all about that controversy. Now that you’ve brought it up, I’ve tried to verify whether being wrapped in yarn is bad for trees, but I can’t find anything from any source that looks authoritative, just people giving their (conflicting) opinions: Some say it’s bad for the trees, some say it’s not. And some say that artists should remove their work after a reasonable period of time, in which case I suppose it wouldn’t matter.
To the Board of Aldermen of the town of Carrboro:
A commenter on the “Win” section of Failblog:
From two Yellow Springs bloggers (with pictures of “yarn bombings” they’ve done in Yellow Springs!):
The same bloggers commenting elsewhere:
On the other hand: