LIVERMORE — More than two dozen trees in downtown Livermore are being kept toasty warm in decorative sweaters as part of a yearly art project.
Once called “yarn bombing,” the knitted or crocheted tree “sweaters” are more like blankets knitted around the trees, made by a team of locals, some of them kids, who decorate the trees in colorful yarn, even with 3-D images.
The sizes vary: Some cover most of the tree trunks, and others just a branch or smaller portion of the tree. One tree has images representing major holidays on it (Easter, Fourth of July), another features Grover from the Muppets, another displays a collaboration of mandalas dangling from a larger tree sweater created by children from kindergarten through the fifth grade. Two trees had “Black Lives Matter” sweaters, but both were immediately stolen.
Click here if you are having trouble viewing the slideshow on a mobile device.
“We put our heart and soul into this. People don’t have to agree with it; they can disagree with it but leave it alone,” said crocheter Joelle Arugello about the thefts.
The sweaters can take 14 hours or more to make — from measuring the trees, making the artwork itself and then fitting them on to the tree. So when one of them gets stolen, or destroyed, it’s especially heartbreaking, said Arguello, who works as a teacher at an after-school program and had her students help make one of the sweater projects.
Yarn bombing, or “graffiti knitting,” was first done to make political or social statements, or even add a bit of color and whimsy to otherwise mundane objects — fences, fire hydrants, bike racks — and, of course, trees. They were decorated in secret, usually at night, by guerrilla crochet or knit artists, suddenly showing up on well-known landmarks such as the Rocky statue outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art or the New York Stock Exchange bull statue.
There are hints of that movement still in Livermore — from the Black Lives Matter sweater to a “kindness” tree that Arguello made, which features a rainbow to honor the LGBTQ community and two transgender people in her life. Her students helped with the project.
In 2014, the city of Livermore’s art commission sponsored the city’s first Tree Sweater Forest, decorating more than 30 trees on First Street between Railroad Avenue and Maple and L streets. Since then, the tradition has continued, even during the pandemic.
It was first used as a kick-off to an art walk that began in October. To Arguello, it signified the beginning of the holiday season, the start of the fall and winter, and the festivities to come.
Because of the pandemic this year, the knitters and crocheters weren’t sure the tradition would continue. But it did — spreading by word of mouth, email lists and their Facebook group page. The group was relieved something “normal” was continuing, Arguello said.
In response to the Black Lives Matter sweaters being stolen, her students helped make a replica poster for the women who knitted those sweaters to keep as a reminder of their hard work.
“That’s what our trees are about — kindness,” she said.
The downtown art installation on First Street continues through Nov. 15. After that, the sweaters will be taken down and donated to the Valley Humane Society to keep shelter animals warm.
