Fiber Artist Amanda K. Gross and a few hundred people have knitted a bridge cozy (think tea cozy on a grand scale). Amanda, outreach coordinator for Fiberart International, and her team of volunteers will yarn bomb the Andy Warhol Bridge aka the Seventh Street Bridge. Yarn bomb is a delightfully scandalous way of saying that they are going to cover the bridge in yarn, with Allegheny County’s permission of course. On August 10-11, 2,500 linear feet of brightly colored panels will go up, over, and around the bridge; covering the entire structure, for the Knit the Bridge project.
According to Amanda, “I wanted to bridge the gap between artists and the community.” She came up with Knit the Bridge concept by using an actual bridge, one that stretches across the river, connecting the North Shore with Pittsburgh; bridging the community metaphorically and literally.
Amanda added, “The Andy Warhol Bridge is also the biggest bridge I know named after an artist.”
“YARN BOMBING IS A FUN, BRIGHT, BEAUTIFUL WAY TO CELEBRATE PUBLIC SPACE. UNLIKE GRAFFITI, YARN BOMBING CAN BE DOWN WITHOUT ANY DAMAGE TO HISTORIC STRUCTURES AND IS TEMPORARY AND EASILY REMOVABLE.”
The Knit the Bridge installation will be a combined effort of hundreds of volunteers and the Pittsburgh Rigging Company, who will outfit the bridge’s hard to reach areas. A series of 600 34” by 72” panels have been hand sewn by international volunteers.
Amanda said, “There are a lot of participants from Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania, but we have people from Spain and Argentina participating. People from all around the world.”
The project will not only bridge the gap between arts and the community, it will also bridge a generation gap. Amanda said, “We had a two year-old boy (whose hands were guided by his parents) knitting in the project, and we have had people in their nineties.”
Diversity is at the heart of the project, Amanda added, “A lot of people knit and crochet. It’s kind of like a very accessible medium and it cuts across all different ethnicities, ages, gender. And so we’ve been basically doing grassroots organizing to get the word out to [knitter and crotchetier communities] to engage people in different ways to help make the work.”
Our Own Tight-Knit Community
People from around Pittsburgh and around the world are participating in the Knit the Bridge project. Our own LGBT community lent a helping cross-stitch or two.
Alyia Paulding, who works for the Mid-Atlantic Network of Youth and Family Services (MANY), a non-profit organization who serve runaway and homeless youth, contributed a panel.
Alyia said, “As soon as I heard about Knit the Bridge, I knew that I had to get involved.”
She has been working with yarn for eight years and calls it “a wonderful, creative outlet and source of relaxation.”
Alyia knits her way into a meditative space. “When you’re keeping your hands busy, it allows your thoughts to flow.”
She picked up the needles, when she inherited two beautiful blankets from her great-grandmother. Alyia said, “Even though I never met her, I feel connected to her. I feel connected to her when I crochet, and to all of the other people who have learned this craft over the centuries.”
Alyia described her panel as one that reflects her favorite things about living in Pittsburgh. Her black and gold panel reflects some of Pittsburgh’s best; the fireworks, the stained glass windows in older homes across the city, the ever-blooming magnolia tree sculpture down in Theater Square, and sunset at PPG Place.
She said, “It was a lot of work, but I put all of the pride I feel as a lifelong Pittsburgher into it. I also helped with some of the grant writing, which was a great way to explore a professional interest while doing something positive for the community.”
Dr. Marvin McGowan, D.O. also crocheted a panel for the project. He said, “My friend Lynn Hawker told me about the project.” He cites Lynn as a longtime friend who has helped him keep his lines straight.
His panel is bright multicolored squares on a black background, accentuate the prismatic squares. Marvin has been knitting for 12 years, but he’s been crocheting since he was seven years old.
The Osteopathic doctor said, “When I was a boy, my cousin got a Knitting Jenny [child’s loom] one Christmas. Everyone was reading the directions; no one could figure out how to use it but me. I crocheted my first potholder on it. And the rest was history.”
He added, “Of course my brothers jeered, but my dad said, ‘There is no such thing as male or female art – – there is only art.’”
Marvin completed the panel in two weekends. “I’ve been at this for forty-some years, I got pretty fast.”
Marvin and his partner, Kurt Colborn, just celebrated their first anniversary as a married couple. He said, “We’ve been together for seventeen years, but last year, Kurt and I went to California and made it official. We were legally married on Bastille Day [7/14/2011].”
The bridge will be closed August 10-11 while the Pittsburgh Riggers ‘bomb’ the bridge with the yarn.
Why a bomb? According to the Fiberart Guild of Pittsburgh, “Yarn bombing is a fun, bright, beautiful way to celebrate public space. Unlike graffiti, yarn bombing can be down without any damage to historic structures and is temporary and easily removable.”
Amanda said, “It will be the largest scale yarn bomb ever attempted.”
When the panels come down in September, they will be washed and distributed to organizations with people in need.
