OPUNAKE YARN BOMBED
A bomb has gone off in a coastal Taranaki town, but everyone is smiling.
Organisers of the Great Opunake Yarn Bomb spent last week up ladders adorning several blocks of the main street with colourful knitted and crocheted creations.
Residents took to their needles with gusto in May after the call went out from the Opunake and Lakeside Lions Club for help in turning the town into an urban art space.
A pair of huge knitted handcuffs hangs in the tree outside the police station, along with a bunch of slightly cheeky curly decorations.
‘‘A lady at the rest home has knitted all these curly little pigs’ tails so we’ve put those in the police station tree as well,’’ organiser Louise Knapman said.
A seven metre long vine has entwined the railing outside the chemist shop, with monkeys, birds, snakes and caterpillars amongst its coils.
Huge felted flowers have sprung up along a mesh fence and many metres of gaudy knitted bunting wave merrily along verandahs and across the main road.
Delicately embroidered crocheted rugs have softened a stone and timber bench outside the library, and the bare bronze statue of running legend Peter Snell is snug in a set of knitted clothing, including a hat.
There’s a knitted dog in a cosy bed, a knitting-covered supermarket trolley, a bike and a mannequin sporting a knitted ensemble straight of out of a 1950s Women’s Weekly, in 1980s fluoro colours.
The colourful collection arrived in bags and boxes over recent weeks from around the town, Taranaki and even abroad.
‘‘A couple of people who used to live here rang to say they were sending something, then we started getting mail from Australia,’’ Knapman said.
Knapman even took her knitting on a cruise with her husband around northern Australia and New Guinea over winter.
‘‘It wasn’t exactly climateindusive to knitting, but when you’ve got to knit, you’ve just got to knit,’’ she laughed.
Some of the items were being moved indoors at night to keep them safe, but the committee was hopeful the display would be respected, Monique Sinclair, maker of more than 1000 pom poms, said.
‘‘We’re hoping the community takes ownership of it and watches over it,’’ she said. ‘‘To be honest, I think because so many people have got involved, everyone in the community will know somebody who has contributed something.’’
The main street and the area around the Sandford Events Centre have been decorated, with the display coinciding with the opening of the garden festivals and the Taranaki National Art Awards Exhibition, which run until November 4.