Abstract

In 2015, Quebec celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Cercles de Fermières. For this celebration, the current members chose to yarnbomb their communities, a type of street art in which knitted and crocheted elements are created to cover up the urban landscape. As their general reputation is for being ‘traditional,’ setting their craft practices as distant from the contemporary practice of knitted graffiti used in this anniversary celebration, this thesis will explore the historical and present perception of the organisation, in order to better understand and argue against this dichotomy. Interviews done with local practitioners of yarnbombing, and current members of the Cercles de Fermières help prove the importance of oral history in deconstructing the narrative constructed around the Cercle de Fermières and yarnbombing. At the moment of this celebration, their engagement with this contemporary street art was understood as an attempt to mobilize and enliven their ‘traditional’ skills for newer craft practices and aims, and thus actively participate in present-day craft discourse in Quebec. By comparing their practice to that of local and international yarnbombers, and discussing it in light of current discourse around the street art, I argue that while the impact of this activity on the image of the organisation was small, exploring the impact of this activity on the Cercles de Fermières in the years following it has shown that they regained some of the popularity and relevance they had lost over time.