Auckland's yarnbombers have been knitting up a storm for Pride Month, as a way to celebrate without cancellations.
Many of the community's usual celebrations have fallen victim to the red traffic light setting, including the Big Gay Out, Rainbow Pride Parade and Auckland Pride Festival.
Large gatherings are not necessary for yarnbombing, which involves attaching knitting to public sites without damaging them, so knitted rainbow art has been springing up on public statutes, trees, and other sites across the city.
Jo McDonald-Hooker is a keen knitter, but with her friends now well-stocked with her free scarves, she's had to get creative about what to do with her woollen goods.
She's taken up yarnbombing her Balmoral neighbourhood during her early morning walks
"I need to do it quickly. So, what it is a scarf with a big Velcro insert in it and then I Velcro it up and then I cable tie up."
Boy Walking with rainbow socks attached. Photo: Supplied/Jo McDonald-Hooker
McDonald-Hooker usually knits for trees, but for Pride month she's also targeted Ronnie Van Hout's Boy Walking sculpture in Potters Park.
The boy is a 5.6-metre-tall landmark, and McDonald-Hooker says he was well-placed to get some rainbow socks.
"My ethos has always been to install trees, or the yarn bombing near, primary schools, or day-cares or something where like, the kids will see them and get you to joy. And so obviously, it's right by Potter's Park with the big water features."
McDonald-Hooker got in touch with Morning Report after she was interviewed to let us know one of the socks she knitted for the Boy Walking sculpture was stolen around 12 February. She asked whoever happens to have it to please bring it back.
Closer to the centre of Auckland, the Yarn for Pride group has been knitting and crocheting biodegradable cotton attachments for Karangahape Road's bike parks.
Bike Auckland's Macaila Pescud says it was a case of right time, right place.
"Karangahape Road has a history of being a place for the rainbow community, for our LGBT community. So, it's part of celebrating that history as well as the current community.
"Also, because we have this new cycleway, which is fantastic, and it's also bike month. Part of what we're doing is celebrating bike month at the same time."
Pescud says they've been approached by locals and business owners while installing the art, and most of them are happy.
"It's been so positive, heaps of people are coming up to us and thanking us, which has felt really, really amazing. A lot of gratitude from the community, a lot of gratitude from people who bike as well, because it stops the bike parks from scratching their bikes, and a lot of gratitude from shop owners."
The Karangahape Road Business Association counts itself among the fans.
The Association's manager, Jamey Holloway, came across Pescud in the process of testing out the yarnbombing in December 2021 and quickly came on board.
"It's like gentle graffiti. It's beautiful. It warms up cold infrastructure. There's just nothing that's not gorgeous about it. Gentle and subversive. "
Pescud says it iss great to hear people calling it gentle graffiti, but unlike most graffiti found around town, it's legal and Karangahape Road's yarnbombers have a permit for their activities.
