Two years ago, island resident Sue Black had an idea – enlist local people who knit or crochet to collaborate on a fiber arts project. People were asked to make small orange squares that would be sewn together to form a large monarch butterfly.At what would now be considered the onset of the Covid pandemic, islanders were happy to find something to do, and dozens of squares were donated.Black had enlisted the help of fiber artist Naomi Lawrence, who has a home on Block Island, but mainly works and lives in Harlem and is originally from Liverpool. Lawrence, an experienced “yarn bomber” and crochet artist was happy to help. She not only crocheted many of the squares, she sewed them all together into wings and a body, adding veins and details to make the massive butterfly as authentic as possible.Then one day in June, 2020, Lawrence and islander Charon Littlefield, another yarn master, met with Black at Ball O’Brien Park to assemble the butterfly and attach it to thefence of the tennis courts. The installation delighted visitors and locals for the entire summer, and into the fall.Almost as soon as the butterfly came down, Black was busy conjuring
