104-year-old great-grandmother Grace Brett may be the oldest street artist in the world. She recently helped to yarn-bomb her town (which means covering random objects like park benches with colourfully knitted patterns). This was accomplished with the help of the Souter Stormers, a secretive group of ‘yarnstormers’ that recently yarn-bombed 46 landmarks in the Scottish county of Borders.
“I thought it was a really good idea to decorate the town and enjoyed having my crochet included,” Brett told the Scottish Press And Journal. “I liked seeing my work showing with everyone else and thought the town looked lovely.” Brett’s daughter Daphne, 74, explained that “my mother has always knitted and crocheted all through her life. She has always done all the knitting for the babies and made shawls for them.”
The Souter Stormers yarn-bombed Selkirk in September as part of the YES (Yarrow – Ettrick – Selkirk) arts festival. Among the pieces they created were a bench covering, a cover for a classic British red phone booth and various other hanging ornaments — all of which spruced up the city with colorful yarn. “The yarnstormers, a group of mixed age range, have been inspired by Grace to use their creative and artistic skills to transform the Selkirk landscape,” said Kay Ross, a spokeswoman for the Souter Stormers group. “Grace has confirmed that age is no barrier to participating in a contemporary project.”
Although many of the yarn-bombers are around retirement age or older, Brett is by far the oldest member of the group.
