Yukon DC-3 landmark scheduled for the yarn bomb treatment

Ever heard of a yarn bomb? It's a type of street art whereby outdoor objects get adorned with beautiful knitwear.

A tree inexplicably wearing a colourful crochet trunkwarmer? That's a yarn bomb. And it's a lovely, albeit technically illegal way to brighten up a dull space.

If you haven't witnessed this "guerrilla crochet" phenomenon, you're not alone. The fibre arts — or the use of textiles to create fine art pieces — tend to get less attention than painting or sculpture amidst Canada's crowded cultural landscape.

But a group of Yukon fibre artists wants to raise the profile of their under-appreciated craft and they've selected an ambitious way to do it.

As the Whitehouse Star reports, a historic WWII-era landmark will get the giant tea cozy treatment when a group of fibre artists "yarn bomb" the 70-year-old DC-3 plane with a massive knitted covering.

"It's probably going to be the largest yarn bomb in Canada; we're trying to see if in the world," Casey McLaughlin, curator of the Yukon Transporation Museum and project initiator told the paper.

A team of volunteers with exceptional hand-eye coordination will craft the covering from donated knitted pieces that will then be sewed together.

The plane they have targeted for their particular "bomb" is an American model built in 1942 and purchased by the Canadian Pacific company right after the war.

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During its decades in the air, the plane made trips as far as India and China before hitting the retirement tract in 1970.

It now sits stationery at the Yukon Transportation Museum in Whitehorse.

The idea to yarn bomb such a visible landmark required the cooperation of the museum.

Luckily, the idea came straight from the source. McLaughlin said the concept crossed her mind after she spotted an old signpost in Vancouver that someone had prettied up with a bit of volunteer knit work.

She contacted the Yarn Bomb Yukon Collective and an idea that would benefit both the museum and the movement came to life.

While the stunt will draw attention to the fibre arts, it will also give McLaughlin's collection an added boost of publicity — a boost she hopes will encourage visitors to check out what is arguably one of the least "stuffy" museums in Canada.