Yarn-bombing project hopes to bridge divide in a changing Brookland Three years ago, Black became fascinated with the increasingly popular concept of "yarn bombing" - when crafty artists crotchet and knit large pieces for public display, sort of like street graffiti with a domestic twist. A particularly high-profile yarn bombing occurred a few years ago in New York when an artist covered the famous bull sculpture on Wall Street in a purple and pink pattern, reminiscent of a handmade sweater. In this region, yarn-bombing projects have appeared near the Artisphere space in Rosslyn and in a storefronts along H Street Northeast and the U Street corridor. But what's happening in the more traditional Northeast neighborhood of Brookland, near Catholic University, has a character all its own. The project is being planned in the bowels of a new $200 million-plus mixed-use residential and commercial complex that resembles the town centers found in Reston, Silver Spring and Rockville - except that the promenade features 27 artist studios. The coming outlandish display of yarn will serve as a declaration that the creative class has arrived - and that this neighborhood could be its canvas. Call it the Brooklynization of Brookland. Yarn-bombing is just the latest attempt to refashion the neighborhood as an affordable place for those who dance, sing, sculpt, paint - or knit. In 1986, there was only a dance theater. In 2011 came the artist's lofts. Now there's the massive new Monroe Street Market, which is rooted in the principles of the new urbanism - creating community-minded places where people can live, work and play in close proximity to one another. "There is increased revenue and more exposure for the neighborhood as the artists come in, and that's a good thing," said Debbie Smith-Steiner, a neighborhood commissioner and lifelong Brookland resident. Of course, not everyone likes that vision. "The other side is the people here who like green trees and the green grass and who chose this area because they are more surburbanites and don't want to deal with the urban city," Smith-Steiner said. Black and her partners at Studio Eco Bricolage see their yarn-bombing project as a fuzzy way to soften the tensions between old and new. "We want to give a valentine to the community," said Marcelle Fozard, perhaps giving a hint of when the project will be completed. The group is projecting a sense of intrigue to get the community involved. You can become privy to the specifics - What will it look like? Where it will be? - only if you attend the weekly meetings.