Rebel Yarns, a group of knitters, crocheters and other fiber artists, took their colorful threads to the streets last night for their first night of what they call "yarnbombing," or "mischief knitting."  Yarnbombing is a sort of fiber graffiti, where the artists leave their mark in wool or cotton and hope that it doesn't get taken down before others get to see it.

In the cover of darkness, armed only with their knitting needles and crochet hooks, a band of about 10 knitting Ninjas stealthily and quickly wrapped their colorful swatches around the clocks and knitted them on, adding some Halloween touches like ghosts and spiders just in time for each Village's Halloween parade.

Then they left and headed to the Creep Show at the GAS gallery, where co-owner Rick Hauser also hosts the Rebel Yarns meetings. Be on the look out for future yarnbombing projects – a scarf tree, or a crocheted spider web, branch covers, or water hydrant caps.

South Orange knitter Sue Rexford, aka "Wooly Momma," who has spent the last few weeks "knitting up a storm" for the clock project and writes a blog for Rebel Yarns, says she'd like to involve older people who are housebound or in nursing homes, who may not be able to get out for the acts of knitted graffiti, but who have time to knit or crochet.

Be sure to keep your eyes open for more yarnbombing to come. "We're going to do a scarf tree near Dehart Park. Leave a scarf, take a scarf if you need it," she said. "I'm hoping to get lots of people inovled."

Interested? Visit http://rebelyarns.wordpress.com/

Fourth Graders learn about aquatic life at Sandy Hook

Last week South Mountain Fourth Graders took a trip to Gateway National Park at Sandy Hook to learn about aquatic life. They got to fish with nets and look for seashells, visit with park rangers and enjoy having their classrooms moved to the beach for a day.

Way to go, Villagers!

The 12U Villagers girls softball team soundly beat Elmora last night in the semi-finals match, securing a spot in the Championship game in Cranford tomorrow. The undefeated Villagers have had strong season in all areas -- pitching, hitting and fielding. Good luck tomorrow girls!

A thrilling "Lunchapalooza" at SOMS

This afternoon, South Orange Middle School students were treated to a Halloween version of what's known at SOMS as "Lunchapalooza."  In addition to a spooky poetry contest and lots of lively Halloween-related music, teachers and staff, who were secretly taught the Thriller dance by 8th Grade HSA Parent Coordinators Bethany Pettigrew and Nikki Reininga, surpised students by breaking into dance in the middle of  8th grade lunch.  Lunchapalooza is sponsored by the SOMS Home School Association and brings live or recorded music and other performances into the cafeteria several times a year.