'Yarn Bombing' Brightens Trees At Windsor Locks Shopping Plaza

WINDSOR LOCKS, CT — Drivers and pedestrians passing through the downtown area of Main Street over the last few days have discovered the after-effects of a recent yarn bombing, adding color to a half-dozen trees in front of Waterside Village.

By definition, yarn bombing is a type of street art that employs colorful displays of knitted or crocheted yarn or fiber rather than paint or chalk. It is also called wool bombing, yarn storming, guerrilla knitting, kniffiti, urban knitting or graffiti knitting.

Last Saturday, members of the Windsor Locks Women’s Club and the Windsor Locks Arts Council convened in front of the plaza to put up a yarn bombing installation. The newly-formed arts council wanted to choose something unique and fun to provide color on Main Street during the cold winter months, and reached out to the women’s club's crochet club, which has been meeting for four years.

Cathy Jacobson, founder of the crochet club called Chicks with Sticks, said the club had more members before the coronavirus pandemic, and has adjusted meeting locations since then.

Club members Pam Collins, Lynn Mazza-Benis, Colleen Roy, Kathy Williams, Cindy Stoecker, Cathy Simoneau and Jacobson showed up Saturday to lace up their masterpieces on the six trees in front of the plaza. Each tree has a unique design and colors.

Members of the club enjoy giving back to the community, and have donated many lap blankets over the years to Bickford Health Care Center.

"If you don’t do things for each other, it becomes a lonely existence," Williams said, adding she used yarn from different blankets she has made in the past, so she feels her piece tells a story.

The current permit for the installation is for two weeks, with hopes of extending it another couple of weeks. Depending on the state of the yarn creations at the end of the installation, they may be repurposed and donated.

The hope for the installation was to bring community members and passersby a moment of surprise and delight, as well as to engage the community and get neighbors and business owners talking with one another. Check out the Arts Council on the town website or on Facebook under Windsor Locks Arts.

Story by Kristen Zabor
Photos by Tim Jensen/Patch

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