London Kaye learned to crochet at age nine. By thirteen, she was selling scarves. By twenty, she had sold enough of them to buy a car. Fast forward to today, London Kaye has designed and produced commissioned crochet artwork for companies from Miller Beer and Disney to The House of Valentino and The Gap. Her sojourn from scarves to creative crochet art took root on the streets of Manhattan with yarn bombing, wrapping knitted or crocheted art around objects in public spaces. She installed on walls and fences everything from crocheted hearts and snowflakes to fully fanned peacocks and mermaids. However, it was the dragon spewing fire for forty feet along a chain-link fence on 6th Avenue that grabbed the attention of the media.
Some 800 yarn bomb creations and numerous commissions later, Kaye now lives in Los Angeles. She has published a new book Crochet with London Kaye and continues to be offered innovative projects including immersive art installations. Exclaims Kaye, “It’s surprised me how many ways you can use yarn. I didn’t know you could wrap a school bus in yarn, but I did. I didn’t expect to crochet head to toe costumes for a Deliver.com commercial, but I did. You can use yarn to do all these amazing things.”
Another surprise has been the emergence of knitting and crocheting with younger enthusiasts. She notes, “typically this is something older people do, but I feel like I’m getting this new life with the DIY generation. It’s getting so much more popular with them.”
Perhaps her crochet art has had an impact on this youthful invigoration. “That,” she says “really makes me happy.”
