THE community has come together to ‘yarn bomb’ the tree by the Market Place – turning it into a colourful array of patterns.
The project to yarn bomb the tree was started by Melksham Oak Community School who wanted to raise awareness of the range of community projects and groups based in and around Melksham and to build links between the various groups and their local community.
Yarn bombing is a form of contemporary graffiti and political art movement. It enhances urban landscape through knitting and crochet techniques which then cover items such as the tree in Melksham.
Melksham’s yarn bombing effort has been supported by many groups across the town and organiser Martina Liggins from Melksham Oak Community School said, “We are privileged to have the support of such a fantastic community, with the most incredible festive spirit.
“The big knit was inspired through this idea of community spirit and aimed to rekindle the art of knitting: literally ‘knitting the community together’. We have been overwhelmed by support and contributions from people from all walks of life, from those who are new to the area, some who are new to knitting, some old, some young, some cross generation knitting, some extreme knitting and some celebrity knitting from our very own Lewis Moody, who will soon be working with our school coaching our young people.
“We’ve had support from the town council, Asda, the Crazy About Knitting club and literally hundreds of people who have knitted, donated yarn, needles, time, skills and goodwill and cakes.
“Students have knitted at school and at home, grandparents have delved into their cupboards and even men have been knitting their socks off. We have successfully knitted the community together which was the very intention of the project.
“From picknits to house competitions, from the head teacher’s car being ‘vandalised’ to trees being ‘bombed’ at school, it’s been a woolly good year!
“Finally, thanks to the amazing support of Melksham Christmas Lights who have been able to help make our knitting dream a reality; with extra special thanks to Reece for all his hard voluntary work.
“We wish you a Merry Christmas and hope you enjoy the efforts on display of everybody’s hard work.”
The tree was yarn bombed in time for Saturday’s Melksham Christmas lights switch-on.
