“Yarn bomb” set to drop on Washington in May
Katie Anderson/Observer-Reporter
Cheryl Hopper believes crochet is a dying art.
Katie Anderson/Observer-Reporter
Katie Anderson/Observer-Reporter
In this file photo, Cheryl Hopper, of Washington, crochets a mandala as part of an art project she displayed in Washington in May.
A Washington resident recently reached out to the city wanting to “bomb it with yarn.”
Cheryl Hopper, a crochet artist, wants to make several pieces of crocheted street art to display in areas along Main Street throughout the month of May next year.
“It will be an opportunity for people to see crochet, that it can be beautiful and that it doesn’t have to be worn,” Hopper said.
Her plan is to have three canopies of mandala art, which she crochets inside a hula hoop. She wants to put one canopy near the farmer’s market pavilion on South Main Street and two others in alleyways off Main. They won’t have any particular theme, but they’ll all be bright with vibrant color patterns.
“I’m a very colorful person,” Hopper said.
She also wants to cover lampposts, trees and parking meters with crocheted designs.
“I have so much to do,” she said.
On Monday, she approached City Council about her idea and to get permission, explaining that her plan is similar to what the Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh did to the Andy Warhol Bridge in 2013. They were on board, with hesitation to the term “yarn bombing.”
“I think it’s really exciting and a fun way to draw attention to the downtown and some really nice spaces that people don’t really see,” said Sarah Collier, representative for the Washington Business District. “With something like this, you start to appreciate the nooks and crannies that you might walk past every day.”
The art project will be installed in May and last for a few months. She said the polyester yarn she uses is pretty durable in bad weather, though the colors may fade over time.
The three canopies she has planned will require about 250 mandala hoops, Hopper said. She typically can get one hoop done in one evening.
“But I’m really fast,” she said. “After almost 60 years of doing it, I’ve got a rhythm.”
She said she’s planning to have additional help from fellow members of the Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh. She’s also looking for yarn donations, which can be dropped off at the Kaleidoscope II art shop at 7 E. Walnut St.
Next month, Hopper plans to teach crochet classes to teens as part of a partnership with Washington Health System’s Teen Outreach program. She said she’ll recruit them as well to work on some of the art for the project.
“It’s not something you forget once you learn crochet, but it’s not easy,” Hopper said. “It’s a dying art. It’s going to be lost if young people don’t learn it.”
That’s why she’s trying to teach young people. She said many consider crochet to be “a grandma art.”
“I don’t understand that because I started when I was 9,” she said. “My grandmother taught me how to crochet, and I taught my mother. In our guild, we have men and women of all ages.”
Hopper, who has seven children and 11 grandchildren, is an artist in many ways, including watercolor and felting. She used to crochet blankets, hats, scarves and coats to give as gifts. She still does that type of crochet work, but her passion is the freeform, artistic style of crochet. She’s been doing that for the past four years and in 2017, she won second place in the nonprofessional design contest at the Crochet Guild of America’s National Convention in Chicago.
“There’s no pattern – you just crochet whatever and wherever you want,” she said. “Some people are not creative and they need to have a pattern or structure.”
She would love to start a local chapter of the Crochet Guild of America and use the street art concept as a way to “bring it back” as a popular craft for younger generations.
“Street art is fun,” she said. “That’s the kind of thing that I would love to see happen.”