Text is the root of the word “textile” because words are woven, and local art impresario and postal lady Jenny Eklund spun a pretty web at the last meeting of the Perry City Council with her novel notion of a Perry Fiber Art Fair to be staged downtown May 6.
“We would like permission if possible to cover the light poles,” Eklund said, “the park benches, the rails, the bike stands with fabric, with yarn. We measured a light pole, and it measures 8 feet. If you take that pole, it takes about 20 stitches 8 feet, and we’re going to wrap this around all the poles. We’ll call them light pole warmers.”
“It sounds like another neat thing to bring to town,” said Perry Mayor Jay Pattee.
The distaff is a traditional symbol of female labor, but textiles are both art and craft, as Eklund told the council. She brought several specimens of light pole warmers with her.
“It’s just another part of art,” she said, “the textile world, that people don’t realize there’s a whole lot of people out there. You hear about these yarn bombs. We’re even looking at a sheep-to-shawl event, where we actually have sheep here, and you have them sheared, and then you have it carded, and then you spin it. We’ll have spinners, knitters, crocheters, needle point, maybe some quilters. We’re not sure on that.”
Eklund said the event is still taking shape, but the word has already spread.
“Word’s gotten out,” she said. “We just started to gossip, and it kind of went wild. Matter of fact, we also have people in Illinois, Cedar Rapids and Arizona doing these light pole warmers. We are connected with 648 knitters that are in the state of Iowa, introducing them to this. I don’t know how many of those people will come to our community. I don’t know if it’ll be 20. I don’t know if it’ll be 500, but it is another opportunity to draw people into our community.”
The annual Art on the Prairie festival brings thousands of people to the Perry Business and Cultural District.
“It’s just something for y’all to digest,” Eklund said. “We don’t really have the name yet. We were thinking Perry’s Fiber Art Fair, and we were thinking about the Thread that Connects because of all the communities that we’re connecting with that have come to us and reached out to us.”
Eklund said the idea is to put up the pole warmers and other fleecy festoons on Thursday or Friday and take them down on Sunday or Monday. Practical-minded Perry City Administrator Sven Peterson asked how the light pole warmers would be attached to the poles and whether they could be reused for other city events, such as the Lighted Christmas Parade.
Eklund had ready answers to all questions.
“We can certainly wrap ourselves around this idea,” said punning council member John Andorf, whose remark was met with laughter.
Having gotten the council’s attention, Eklund also teased the city leaders with the promise of an even bigger and better art event yet to be revealed.
“There’s another big art event that hopefully at the next meeting or the next one — much bigger than this — that I have got to talk to y’all about,” she said. “People love Perry. I cannot begin to tell ya’ll the compliments and the things that people are saying about Perry. It is just overwhelming.”
The mayor suggested that a formal request for permission for the light pole warmers should be put on the agenda of a future council meeting.
