North Side
Kim Chase-Kozak | St. Paul, MN
The materials for this cozy were taken out entirely of the stash I maintain for teaching tween and teens fiber arts. I first learned to knit at age 11 from my grandmother and learned to crochet after inheriting all her crochet hooks many years later as an adult. I carry a project everywhere I go and have way too much yarn at my house. I love the idea of yarn bombing our fair city and public art makes me happy! It has me thinking about applying this art in a more out of the box ways.
Cozy Dedication: “My crochet buddy and daughter, Ella and my fiber arts students at Planet Homeschool.”
Lacey Woida | Downtown St. Paul, MN
I moved to Downtown St. Paul a little over a year ago. One of the main reasons I made the move was so I could be a part of an Artist Community and this project was perfect for me. I started to crochet 15 years ago. A friend showed me the very basics and I learned the rest off the internet. Crochet helped me for a period of time where my anxiety was so bad I couldnt leave my house. It helped me to pass time and it made it feel worthwhile because I would have theses beautiful blankets afterwards. At first I had a love/hate relationship with crochet because of the connection of using it to help me live through that year of extreme anxiety. Now I work on smaller projects and left the big blankets behind. I really like to make beaded bracelets and baby blankets, and am trying to get into making hats. I am also a mixed media painter and most of my paintings are very bright and colorful, they usually make people smile when they see them. So I wanted my lampost cozy to be bright and make people smile as well. One of my other loves in my life are my two kitties who I adopted from Feline Rescue in St. Paul. My cats bring me a lot of joy and love and so I dedicated this kitty cozy to Feline Rescue a wonderful no kill shelter that finds furrever homes for so many kitties.
Cozy Dedication: “To St. Paul Feline Rescue.”
Anne Nichols | Blaine, MN
I am the daughter of a woman who was multi-talented and encouraged me to try many avenues. I was doing needle point and crewel in grade school, making my own clothes in jr high school, as well as counted cross-stitch, crocheting and knitting. I’ve even tried weaving. Being able to create any piece is rewarding. It feeds my inner self with pride when successful and knowledge when I fail.
To support this event is important to me. I’ve met many wonderful people. I’ve learned new stitches and been inspired by all the various mediums, talents and ideas. St Paul will be more beautiful because of our efforts.
Cozy Dedication: “To my mother who encouraged by example and gave me the knowledge and love of many fiber arts, both decorative and functional.”
Lin Dear | St. Paul, MN
I wanted to be a part of this project in hopes of inspiring others to learn a new craft.
Crocheting is relaxing and the day I started this project it started to snow. So why not snowflakes?
Cozy Dedication: “To my Big Little Sister who taught me how to crochet.”
South Side
Kate Swenson | St. Paul, MN
Kate Swenson has participated in multiple yarn bomb projects, and is excited to find the first project close to home. She became familiar with yarn bombing in 2013 when she helped to cover the Andy Warhol Bridge in Pittsburgh with hand knit twin bed size blankets in the Knit the Bridge project. She helped cover Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia with more than 300,000 knit and crochet poppies for a 2015 memorial tribute called 5,000 Poppies. The initial goal for that project was a modest 5,000 palm sized flowers, so she had no doubt the Twin Cities community of fiber artists could cover all the lamp posts in this project. The fact that yarn bomb projects often include time for people to create and work together has always been of interest to her. The Saint Paul Cozy project found a lovely café to use as a base of operation and stitching space, and brought many new people together to make art.
The inspiration for her lamp post cozy came from a 2018 Winter Carnival button. The button image included a blue winter hat with snowflakes in the colors of the festival. The lamp post cover features a hand knit variegated blue base with embroidered snowflakes to match the snowflake carnival logo. Kate is thankful to her friend Erin’s inspiration during this project. Erin provided a fascinating education on the Winter Carnival, and the important 2018 button, during her run for Queen of Snows.
Hillary Frazey | St. Paul, MN
I have always been interested in art quilts and have wanted to start making them for a long time. Well, this is the year! The cozy project was the motivation I needed to start creating art with fabric. With my cozy, I wanted to capture the feeling of biking in the winter in Minnesota. I am not a winter cyclist myself, but a lot of my friends are, and I dedicate my cozy to them.
The pattern I used for the cyclists is Fat Tire Fun by Carrie Payne of believemagic (https://www.etsy.com/shop/believemagic ).
Cozy Dedication: “This cozy is dedicated to winter cyclists. Enjoy the ride!”
Pam Ehlers Stec | Lauderdale, MN
Molly Harrington | Hastings, MN
Lisa Chesko | St Paul
I used the crochet hook my gramma taught me with to create this masterpiece, and the colors are Minneapolis Purple and Pittsburgh Yellow, representative of my home now, and my home state. I always enjoy crocheting, but have trouble making myself find time for it. This is by far the most elaborate project I have completed (first chevron stitch!), and am very excited after this to try more new stitches going forward.
Cozy Dedication: “To Gramma Wickham.”
Heidi Hansen | St. Paul, MN
I learned how to paper piece quilt a couple years ago and thought this would be a fun project for the city.
St. Paul Cozy 