THENEWYORKER,FEBRUARY 17 &24, 2020 31
SKETCHPAD BYE M I LY FLAKE
VALENTINE’SDAYGIFTSFORFLUSEASON
She kept going, pursuing projects that
mixed a dash of twee with a heap of
ambition: a thousand yarn hearts tied
around Union Square on Valentine’s
Day; a giant crocheted Jonas Brother
tacked up in Williamsburg during Win-
ter Storm Jonas; an enormous woollen
green-pepper pizza slice outside an East
Village pizza joint. To every installa-
tion, she affixed a card with her Insta-
gram handle.
Soon, companies began approach-
ing her: Kaye has yarn-bombed a school
bus for a Gap ad; a Brooklyn Star-
bucks; fourteen REDValentino store
windows; and a Miller Lite billboard
in Times Square. The branded proj-
ects allowed her to leave her job at the
Apple Store and have given her the
freedom to pursue her street art. Even
though her creations often get taken
down quickly, either by passersby or
by property owners, she persists. A few
years ago, on the side of a Bushwick
building, Kaye installed three enor-
mous crocheted figures—the twins
from “The Shining” holding hands
with the boy protagonist from Wes
Anderson’s “Moonrise Kingdom”—
and earned the ire of local activists,
who saw the work as a sign of the
neighborhood’s creeping gentrification.
“It was the wrong piece on the wrong
building,” Kaye said. She stood on tip-
py-toe on a collapsible stool. “These
three huge white children. It’s a pain-
ful memory, but it was a lesson.” She
tugged the top of a koala’s ears over
the fence’s jagged edge. “You can stretch
and manipulate the yarn in such or-
ganic ways,” she said.
A bespectacled woman in a purple
felt hat approached the fence, her eyes
watery from the cold. “Oh, this is ador-
able,” she said, taking in the woodland
scene. “I tried to learn to crochet re-
cently, because I wanted to make stuff
for my baby granddaughter, but I was
so bad at it.” She laughed. “The friend
who taught me was very patient, but
somehow...my fingers...” The
woman looked down at her hands.
“Once you learn, it becomes so re-
laxing and meditative,” Kaye said en-
couragingly. She turned to the fence,
her own fingers flying nimbly, fasten-
ing a wool leaf atop a wool branch.
“Crochet is very forgiving.”
—Naomi Fry
Chocolate-covered
antihistamine sampler.Bottle of the champagne
of hand sanitizers.Hazmat suit with cutouts
to show off lingerie.A dozen roses
accompanied by a
written description
of their scent, because,
God knows, you
haven’t been able
to smell for days.