‘Yarn bombing is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colourful displays of knitted or crocheted yarn or fibre rather than paint or chalk. It is also called yarn storming, guerrilla knitting, kniffiti, urban knitting, or graffiti knitting.’ Wikipedia
Thirsk has adopted yarn bombing in a big way. It’s the town where I first came across it, at Remembrance tide two years ago. St. Mary’s church was festooned – drowned almost – in a sea of poppies knitted by keen volunteers from miles around. It was a arresting, beautiful, and had the effect they were seeking. As we paused to look and admire, we did indeed remember the fallen of the two World Wars.

This year, Thirsk asks us to remember the NHS (National Health Service), now 70 years old. Various knitted offerings are clustered in the Market Square. It’s witty, charming, and reminds us all how much almost every one of us is grateful for the NHS and all who work in it.
Today’s Ragtag Challenge is ‘Yarn’
Never heard of yarn-bombing until today. Someone in an earlier post mentioned it, too. Fun 🙂
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Aren’t people inventive. Thanks for the photographs.
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I’ve seen some yarn bombs before from a friend in New York City, and these photos from Thirsk are great. Its a lovely thing to do!
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I love them. What a great form of public art.
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Yes – something for everyone. Yesterday, when we passed, the NHS had gone, and it was Summer Holidays instead.
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What fun and inventive folk you have up there in Thirsk, and, celebrating the NHS – bravo.
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Indeed. But we saw some yarn bombing in Berlin last year, so it puts itself about. Great fun, but often with a serious purpose.
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Oh, rats–I missed this prompt entirely and it’s one about which I might’ve had something to say! Your photos are great–the poppy installation is riveting and I love the cleverness of the NHS knits.
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I wish I’d had a better photo of the poppies. The whole thing was astonishing. And if you’re so minded, it’s not too late – I mentally dedicated this post to you. Who else?
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I love that you mentally dedicated the post to me! Our internet has been down for days and there has been human and pet drama, keeping me off WordPress entirely. Things seem to be calming down, she says, with her fingers crossed . . .
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I hope the dramas weren’t bad dramas, but welcome back!
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It’s such a wonderful community activity. Colourful, creative and joyous.
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Yes.it’s great. |I gets people talking.
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The display of poppies is fabulous. We had a river of knitted poppies in Hobart for ANZAC Day a couple of years ago.
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Brilliant. We’re going to have something similar here in Ripon in November to commemorate 100 years since the end of WWI.
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This looks like a fun activity.
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A nice community-minded project for the dedicated knitter!
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A labour of love and inventive and attention grabbing. Am catching up – my online activities have been disrupted partly by power failures and the phone network going down, but now happily restored!
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It’s tough when the twenty first century lets you down. I hope you were able to find things to enjoy about the enforced down-time.
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Oh yes plenty to do, but so frustrating to be shut out of the Internet. I guess I must learn to be more flexible! Had to make a plan though so as to get my blog posts out there.
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Wonderful!
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All good fun.
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