The Cozy, Colorful Woods

A yarn bombed tree on Spring Road in Fish Creek.

“Why you puttin’ blankets on trees?!”

“It’s art. People do this.”

It was a valid question for Terry and Katy Murphy’s neighbor to ask when he saw them stitching knit afghans around two trees in their front yard. The temperature was 10 degrees and it was January.

Then again, Katy’s response was just as valid. Yarn bombing (also known as yarn storming, guerrilla knitting and kniffiti) is a form of art, no matter how dangerous its many names may sound.

Yarn bombing, the art trend involving covering public or private spaces with knitted material to bring color and coziness to cold spaces, is a recent phenomenon and one that is quickly growing. Any internet search will reveal thousands of images of yarn bombed trees, bike racks, statues, public buses and even a military tank in Copenhagen, Denmark.

It was a colorful yarn bombed tree in Madison, Wisconsin that put the wheels in motion for the Murphys to bring the trend to their Fish Creek home, “The Spring House,” though Terry was admittedly skeptical.

“At that point I thought, ‘Well, that’s kind of cool,’” Terry recalled. “We were in Madison where I would expect to see that kind of thing … at no point along that did I think I would start yarn bombing a tree in Door County.”

But when Katy logged onto Pinterest, the highly addictive website for do-it-yourselfers, it was pretty much set in stone that they were going to add some color to the barren Spring Road woods in the most unconventional way.

Katy and Terry Murphy elected to add color to their yard in a cozy way this winter by yarn bombing a pair of trees at their Fish Creek home.

It was early January when Katy set out to find knit items for her project, landing on a treasure trove of items at Bargains Unlimited in Sister Bay, including a bag of embroidery squares and a skein of gold yarn. Soon enough, Terry was using his love of thrift stores to help his wife gather supplies for her tree.

“I’ve always been a thrifter so for me it was a marriage of opportunity and interest,” Terry said.

The temperatures were in the teens when Katy started yarn bombing her “primary colors” tree in the front of the couple’s home with what the couple called their “three main sources” of knits: scarves, potholders and large afghans. It wasn’t much longer before Terry branched out on his own, literally.

He picked a tree on the other side of the driveway and used Katy’s discarded and unwanted knits to cozy it up. While Katy actually knit her items together after wrapping them around the trunk and branches, Terry relied on pinning his.

As their projects began to take shape and the couple worked together, they also began to realize how very different their yarn bombing styles were.

“This is a great way to show how people’s minds are alike and different,” Terry said. “My mind is different than hers. She is the planner. She was the kindergarten teacher. I’m a winger; I’m very serendipitous. I live in the moment. We’re different in that area but we work well together.”

As Mother Nature slowly emerges from her winter slumber, the tree sweaters, as some call them, add that touch of early spring color so desperately needed after a gray and brown winter.

“It positively disrupts the monotony of the woods,” Terry said.

While the Murphys won’t hold their breath on the trend taking off in a great wave in Door County, they are still happy to do their part in keeping this artsy community colorful and creative.

“If you like being outside, it’s a fun way to be unique,” Katy said. “It’s fun and entertaining, and I think there is probably room for more of that in Door County.”