Crochet in the Landscape??""Yarn Bombers" Strike

This "bench warmer" is in France. In 2007, knitted socks were placed over hundreds of street posts in the 3rd and 4th arrondissements of Paris, the Marais ("swamp") district.

It's something of an international phenomenon. It's amusing and a bit silly. This is not a riddle, it's "yarn bombing."

Say Lisa has been knitting a sweater for her new boyfriend, Brad. The romance thaws, however, and Lisa tells Brad to buzz off. The sweater isn't done, but what to do with it?

This New York City railing, at least temporarily, is more colorful and warmer to the touch.

If Lisa were a yard bomber, she would take the sweater and, for instance, place her unfinished creation atop a bollard in the city plaza: kind of a decorative touch.

Cities around the world??"London, Paris, New York, Stockhom??"are experiencing yarn bombs. Just about any site amenity in the urban landscape is potential for a bit of crochet.

One reason behind the phenomenon, AKA knit graffiti, is to dress up the urban environment "one stitch at a time." Looking further into this practice, we discovered there's already a book out on the subject: Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti by Mandy Moore and Leanne Prain of Vancouver, which includes 20-plus patterns and, appropriately, a foreword by Amy Singer, editor of Knitty.com. The authors seek "world yarn domination."

Yarn bombing isn't just for stagnate site amenities in the urban environment, as artist Magda Sayeg proved with her "bus cozy" in Mexico City.

No bench, pole, tree, bike rack, railing, you name it, is safe from the micro-fiber militia. The exploits of these guerilla knitters, you may have guessed, are now noted and discussed on blogs and websites.

Author Mandy Moore reports there are even men getting involved. A group of men in the Netherlands call themselves the Knitted Landscape. Their specialty is putting knitted mushrooms and tulips in city parks.