It’s rebellious, expressive, decorative, and unusual in Malibu. The graffiti street art known as yarn bombing has finally come to Malibu, courtesy of the creative women known as the Malibu Stitchers.
The group of 20 some-odd fiber artists who meet on Mondays and Fridays at the Malibu Senior Center put their creative minds and hands together to yarn bomb Malibu to commemorate the first anniversary of the Palisades Fire. Nine women in the group lost their homes and have supported one another with gifts of yarn, household supplies, furniture, and in other helpful, meaningful ways in order for the displaced members to get back on their feet. Now they want to share their message as member Stephanie Horn explained: “We wanted to share our love and support for our friends and for the greater Malibu community. Malibu is waiting for everyone to come home again.”
The idea started a few weeks ago as a few of the knitters and crocheters were brainstorming about upcoming projects. Four-decade Malibu resident and knitter Birute Vileisis, who lost her home, remembered seeing yarn bombing while traveling in Lithuania. “In the middle of an old town, I saw some beautiful trees wrapped in knitting — beautiful designs, and I thought, oh, why not try it in Malibu?” she said. “It was so colorful and beautiful that I thought it might perk us up after the fire and after what we’ve been through. It would be something to delight the eye and make people smile and it would bring some joy to the community.”
Vileisis contributed a lengthy piece, about 35 inches long, that is to be wrapped around trees, fences, and posts near City Hall and Legacy Park. Other knitted and crocheted pieces were fashioned together by other fiber artists in the group, including City Councilmember Haylynn Conrad.
While other examples of yarn bombing around the world are considered “guerilla knitting” that may contain political messages and are staged under the cover of darkness to surprise the public in daylight hours, a lot of yarn bombing is irreverent messaging — such as putting a tea cozy on top of a fire hydrant.
One of the core members of the group, Suzanne Jensen, made sure the Malibu yarn bombing was coordinated with City Hall. She won approval with city officials with the help of Senior Center leader Joie Cosentino. Jensen also did a lot of the legwork in acquiring the bulk of the scrap yarn used to knit and crotchet the display. Because so many in the Stitchers Group lost their homes or were evacuated for an extended period, participation in the yarn bombing was come and go, but a few core members still living in Malibu were able add consistent contributions to the decorations.
Members divvied up the work, taking on crafting granny squares and lettering for the messages to be displayed. Other members sewed pieces together to make a banner, flowers, and pompoms. The display, similar to a banner, was put up Monday. “It says ‘Malibu Love’ in crotchet lettering,” Jensen revealed. Additional yarn medallions and decorations accompany the largest piece all handcrafted by members of the group led by Sheila Rosenthal.
Jensen commented, “I’m astounded with the creativity, the flexibility, finding alternative ways to use the projects and the yarns and also the camaraderie and kindness with each other. It’s been a blessing to me to be in this group. And you know somebody said today, ‘I’m surprised how much fun this is’ and I thought I didn’t really think of it as fun because it’s a project. We’ve got work to do, but this is fun, getting together and chatting and helping each other solve problems. So yeah, it’s been nice in that sense.”
For Denise Peak, the Malibu Stitchers group has been very fulfilling. “I have met women of all capacities and abilities,” she said. “So many friends lost homes in the fire this past year that our group wanted to display our work in their honor.”
Stephanie Horn added, “I think you can always feel the love put into a hand-knitted item. In this case, with so many people contributing, that love was exponential.”
One knitter commented, “It’s been a devastating year. And as we’re coming up on the anniversary on the 7th of January. So, of course, we’re reminded of what we went through. We still continued to be haunted by our loss.”
Weather permitting, the work will be up in the Civic Center through January.