With the Junction Arts Festival just around the corner, a group of local knitters who’ve dubbed themselves the “Junction Yarnstormers” hit the neighbourhood last night, armed with woolly wonders designed for Dundas West’s many bike racks, telephone polls, benches, fences, and bus shelters. The group follows a growing trend in public art, often refered to as ‘knit-bombing’. In Bansky-inspired incognito, the knitters donned festive floppy hats, hoods, and the odd ninja mask, concealing their faces as they transformed the street, following the mandate of “perpetuating random acts of beauty”.
The knitters are generating buzz for the arts festival, where more community knit projects will be taking place, including the creation of a participatory, evolving “community car cosy” curated by Wise Daughters Craft Market. The public will be invited to contribute their own 6- or 12-inch yarn conconctions to a quilt which will cover a car donated by AutoShare. Volunteer knitters will be on hand for instruction and assembly help, and at the end of the festival the cosy will be transformed into blankets and donated to homeless outreach organization, StreetKnit.
