For the past two months, I’ve been collaborating with the Hudson River Museum as their Teaching Artist in Residence. In addition to creating the curriculum for their Family Studio Projects and hosting a monthly Fiber Friends knitting group, I’ve been leading a summer long yarn bombing project. It’s been an incredible experience working with both the museum’s staff, their high school junior docents, and the local knitters, and being able to do it all in my own backyard of Yonkers, NY. With a team of incredible volunteers, we knit and crocheted 7 bike rack covers, 12 bench cozies, 23 parking meter cozies, 1 crocheted American flag and wove a 15 foot American flag across a walking bridge and installed them all over four hours one hot sunny Saturday. This park was only created in the past few years. Since the 1920’s, it was known as Larkin Plaza, an odd-shaped parking lot, that covered a section of the Saw Mill River. In 2010, the City of Yonkers began their “daylighting” project to unearth the river and turn it into a park. Today, it’s a beautiful walking plaza and river, full of large fish and American eels. Read more about the park’s history and construction here.  I highly recommend playing with Google’s historical street view settings at the park. You can see the park transform from a parking lot into a lively river park, in  a reverse Joni Mitchell move. The talented Pat Slaven crocheted a beautiful American flag! One of the finished parking meter covers, along with our tags. The giant bike racks took the longest to cover, but I had some great help. That’s me in the straw hat and blue skirt, trying my hardest to avoid a sunburn. Those bike rings made a great back rest, in case you were wondering. Lots of residents stopped to ask what we were doing, if they could touch the knitting or to tell us what memories it reminded them of or just which was their favorite piece. I was humbled by the number of people who thanked us for beautifying their neighborhood. The very beginning of the woven American flag. I’ll post more photos of it later this week, since it took two days to finish. Come visit our yarn bomb at Van Der Donck Park in Yonkers, NY. The work is scheduled to stay up until mid-September.

Want to be a part of the yarn bombing action? I’m currently collecting 6″ squares in bright colors for Yonkers Yarn Bomb Round 2 – the City of Yonkers loved the first one so much, they asked us to come back!

Drop off your 6″ knit or crochet squares at the Hudson River Museum, and while you’re there see Mandy Greer’s The Ecstatic Moment fiber installation – it’s extraordinary. Or stop by on the first Sunday of each month, when I’ll be teaching fiber-inspired kid-friendly craft projects. Or come visit us on the second Saturday of each month from 3:00 – 4:00 PM for Fiber Friends, a knitting and crochet group that I host. I’ll bake you some cookies.

Stay tuned for the rest of the pictures AND the media coverage!

All photographs in the post were taken by the supremely talented Lester Millman.