Oh lord, is saying “bomb” on the internet anything like it is at the airport? I hope not! So inspired by, of all things, the Design Public newsletter’s mention of Debra Folz Designs’s pieces, I set off on a journey to find some cool knit bombs.

What is knit bombing? It’s also called yarn bombing and crochet bombing, and it involves urban guerillas armed with knitting needles, who wrap objects like trees, stop signs, fences, parking meters, park benches and other street and park furniture in (usually) very bright-colored yarn. This phenomenon has been gaining in popularity and spreading from city to city all around the world for several years now.

Fun mixes of patterns and colors enliven these mundane objects, making us take a second and third glance at ordinary things we usually pass by without noticing every day. It’s a more textured and temporary form of graffiti.

I swiped all of these images from Pinterest, which can make it difficult to track down original sources, so if you know any of them, please let me know in the comments section and I’ll fill them in! I do know that if there is a good knit bomb image out there, it’s likely been celebrated on and perhaps originally designed by Knitta. Knitta, founded by Magda Sayeg, is in great part responsible for this international craze.

While we haven’t heard of any of these brave guerillas with the mad granny skills have not yet been arrested, their work is not always legal. In the case of this stop sign flower, they could not survive traffic laws. This project by knitting guy welcomed spring but according to his last post the city was going to have to remove them:

Finally, here is a knit bomb worthy of Comic-con, a charming litle R2D2 bollard:

This is such a fun trend to follow. Let us know if you’ve knit bombed anything.