What Is Yarnbombing? A Guide to Yarn Street Art in Singapore

Yarnbombing is street art made from yarn. Instead of paint or paste, the medium is crochet and knitting, handmade and bright. It is made to be found in public, not in a gallery.

Crochet and knitting are old crafts. For most of their history they stayed indoors, the kind of thing a grandmother did by the window. The current revival has changed that, and we have taken the craft outside, onto bridges and into parks where nobody expects to find it.

It is also temporary. A piece goes up for a season and then comes down again. That impermanence is part of the charm. It is something we give to a place, not a mark we leave on it.

Where yarnbombing came from

Yarnbombing grew out of the mid-2000s, when makers started covering door handles and pole barriers in small crocheted sleeves. Early on it was often called guerrilla knitting, since those first pieces went up unannounced. It spread quickly because the barrier to entry is low and the effect is immediate. Anyone who can crochet can add to a piece, and a grey street corner turns warm overnight.

What began as small, quiet interventions has grown into large, organised installations, from public parks to festivals around the world.

How it differs from other street art

Graffiti and murals mark a surface. Yarnbombing wraps it, and it comes off again without a trace. That softness is the point. It reads as friendly rather than defiant, which is why public spaces and event organisers are happy to host it.

It is also collaborative in a way most street art is not. A mural is usually one artist’s hand. A large yarnbombing piece is hundreds of hands, each making a part that joins into a whole.

Yarnbombing in Singapore

In Singapore, yarnbombing is still rare enough to stop people in their tracks, and that is exactly why it works here. A crocheted garden on a heritage street or a wrapped row of trees in a public park is unexpected, and unexpected gets remembered.

We have been doing this since 2014. We are a community of crocheters who turn yarn into public art at scale, and as far as we know the only group in Singapore working this way. You can read more about who we are and see what we have made, from CNY Toppers at one-north to Yarn-menian on Armenian Street.

How a community installation comes together

Every project starts with a theme and a public space. We always work with permission from the owner or manager of the site before we begin. From there the work is made by many hands, from regulars at our monthly meetups to people who join for a single project, with a small core that installs on site. We set the theme; everyone is free to express it in their own piece.

That is the short version of what yarnbombing is, and how we do it. If you can crochet and you would like to make something that lives outdoors, come to a meetup. If you have a space that could use some yarn, tell us about it.