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Community Corner

Home Norcross Hosts First Yarn-Bombing Class

Saturday's workshop was filled with worker bees, knitting and crocheting for the March event.

Home Norcross was a buzz last Saturday with a room full of women knitting and crocheting in preparation for the yarn-bombing event that will hit Historic Norcross at the end of March.

Yarn bombing involves displaying knitted or crocheted art on the streets, whether it's on a bench, a lamp post or a tree. About a dozen women showed for Saturday's class, where many learned how to crochet and knit for the first time and get a better grasp on the concept of "bombing" the town.

Local resident Ada Poggio said she hadn't touched crochet since she was 17, but when yarn-bombing frontrunner and Norcross Arts Alliance member Arlene Beckles told her about the project, she gained an interest.

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"I'm home right now, kind of in between jobs, so I wanted to be involved," Poggio said. To get started, she went to Joann's, bought a crochet needle and some yarn, and watched some YouTube tutorials. "I would play it, and then pause it, and go back and replay it," she joked. So far, she's made a blue scarf-like strip with attachable purple flowers, and hopes to "bomb" a bench with it.

Lori Sturgess, director of the Nest, was the first one to come up with the idea of yarn bombing Norcross.

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"She just saw it [in a magazine] and fell in love with it," said Beckles. "She said it would be a neat project for us to do." Being the winter season, she added, there's not much going on around town, so they just wanted to "brighten" the town.

"We're excited about this," said Meryl Wilkerson, who's with the Public Works and Utilities Department. She admitted that they had some skeptics when she brought the idea to the department, but she assured the city is fully behind it.

Wilkerson and Beckles scouted the different areas that the artists can choose to "bomb," which include anywhere from the white bench in front of the Norcross Garden Club to the iron gates and pillars at the Lillian Webb fountain.

None of the lit trees will be touched, however. Additionally, if there's too much rain, Wilkerson noted, the crocheted and knitted works probably would have to be taken down. Don't expect the rain to put a damper on the project entirely, though: Knitters and crocheters are more than welcome to put up new work after a rain spell, too.

"The idea is for people to see it and be intrigued by it and have fun with it," said Wilkerson.

A second workshop will take place Saturday, March 17, with a location still to be determined. Beckles noted that those interested in bombing don't have to come to the class, but should tell Beckles if they're interested and already have a desired location for their work.

Yarn-bombing day, or "Spring Into Yarn," as what the city has named it, will take place March 31 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. all around Historic Norcross. For questions and those interested in bombing, contact Arlene Beckles at apbeckles@yahoo.com and 770-310-9942.

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