Brower's Belt [Brooklyn, New York]

I found the pattern of this "belt" in a book about crocheting and since I wanted to practice that skill, I decided to try it out. The result looked completely different from the picture in the book but I guess (or hope) that it was rather due to the very different yarn I used than my poor crochet skills ;-) But in the end, I still liked it!

I found a nice place for it in Brooklyn, New York, in a park close to where I stayed. I didn't have much time for looking around and finding a perfect spot, but the place turned out be actually pretty nice. Kids were playing basketball close by, people walked their dogs and others were just hanging out on the benches there. Sometimes that's just all you need.

Lost Flowers [Montreal, Canada]

This knitting I had lying at home for quite a while. It is the result of using up remnants of wool by trying out all kinds of different patterns and simply sewing them all together at the end. Adding a few crocheted flowers made it look a little nicer ;-)



I had it with me when I went to Leuven, Belgium, but I couldn't find an appropriate spot where it fit around, so instead I left my knitting "Jacobsester" there. Across the atlantic ocean then, I found a very nice place for it in Montreal, Quebec. It is hanging at a public place where also a public piano is standing. When I was there, a woman was playing the instrument and the place was filled with a wonderful atmosphere which I found to be perfect for my yarn bombing.

As Montreal is full of all kinds of yarn bombings, also at the place where I left the "Lost Flowers" other knittings were hanging. Some of them had names and years on them. I first assumed that they gave hints about who made and left them there. Only later I found out, that these names depict women from the area around Montreal who were killed or are missing (for more detailed information read my previous post). This led me to give my own knitting the name "Lost Flowers".

KNIT ART FOUND in Montreal

Montreal presented itself to me as a vivid artistic town full of beautiful surprises. Among these were of course many yarn bombings. As we were biking through the city, I didn't take pictures of all the knittings I saw. Nevertheless, there are some which I like to mention here for a few reasons: 1) they are very close to where I left my own knitting "Lost Flowers", 2) because of reason 1 I had my camera with me and time to take pictures of them, and 3) their meanings became clear to me only afterwards which then quite impressed me: All knittings (except of one) show the names of either dead or missing women. You can imagine how weird I started feeling about this, after I had found out.

The first knitting which caught my eye after I had put up my own one, had the words "R.I.P GLADYS TOLLEY" on it. Apparently, Gladys Tolley was an Algonquin woman hit by a police car in 2001, as you can read here. According to her daughter, Bridget Tolley, the circumstances of her mother's killing had not been investigated properly and at least until 2011 she was still fighting to seek justice in that matter. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any information if she has been successful by now.

On another pole, two knittings were hanging on top of each other showing "SHANNON ALEXANDER 2008" and "MAISY ODJICK 2008". As the two knittings are tied to the same location, so are the fates of the two girls mentioned on the knittings tied together: On the evening of September 6, 2008, the two friends headed out to a dance and were never seen again since. Interestingly, the girls were also from the Kitiban Zibi Reserve in Quebec, as was Gladys Tolley.

A third knitting tells an even more horrible story: "STACEY DIABO", a young woman from Kahnawake, also a reserve in Quebec, was killed by Alexis Delisle in 2003. However, Delisle has been acquitted of murder: After threatening Delisle several times because Delisle was seeing Diabo's ex-boyfriend, Diabo managed to gain access to Delisle's house at 4 p.m. in the morning, being drunk and accompanied by a friend, who faught with Delisle's mother

outside the house and vandalized her car in the meantime. In self-defense, Delisle stabbed Diabo with a knife.

This knitting seems definitely to be created by the same person as the first one, when comparing the way of knitting, the stitches of the letters and the decoration. But considering the background stories, I suppose all these yarn bombings were made by the same person or group. However, a fifth knitting at the same place might be from someone else: A plain sleeve around a tree, without any words or decoration. It had slid down, so I pulled it back up again. It was made out of thick yarn and must have hung there already for quite some time, considering that the seam has started to get loose and how stiff it was when I put it back in shape.

So if anyone of you out there knows who made these knittings or has any other information about them, tell me because I would be very interested to know! Write a comment or send me an email (see information on the right side). Thank you! :-)