It started in downtown Lindsborg in 2019 with one storefront window display: a lime green fat-tire bicycle with wheels fitted just so with colorful crocheted yarn coverings. 
Four years later, the vivid crochet fantasies of Wichita’s Tamara Kingery-Gonzales now covers every inch of that green bicycle and has spilled into other Lindsborg front windows — and also out onto Lindsborg’s Main Street street.
“Tamara’s crazy cool installations are exactly what we support in Lindsborg — creativity with some out-of-the-box attitude,” said Molly Johnson of The Good Merchant. Johnson was Kingery-Gonzales’ first collaborator on the bicycle project and has welcomed back the crochet maven in April every year since.
Kingery-Gonzales grew up around crocheting and crafting family and friends. Her sense of adventure is ignited by yarn’s cheery colors and crochet’s playful textures.
“My friends say that if somebody stands in one place long enough, I’ll crochet around them,” said Kingery-Gonzales. “They call me The Crochet Lady.”
Starting in mid April, Kingery-Gonzales will likely begin wrapping her crocheted creations around Lindsborg tree trunks in the 100 block of North Main Street. By the time Lindsborg in Bloom rolls around (Saturday, April 27), the entire installation will be on display, covering objects as varied as tables, benches and chairs, several tricycles, a trash bin cover and even a vintage tuba.
This year, Kingery-Gonzales also will add five playful new additions to the Lindsborg lineup: sleek dresses with fanciful necks and hems. They will be displayed on dress forms up and down the street.
Kingery-Gonzales says she rises most days to design and crochet well before she leaves for her full-time job. The reason for her drive is simple.
“I do it to create awareness of the art of crochet,” she said. “It makes me happy.”
Written by Kathy Richardson. Photos provided by Tamara Kingery-Gonzales and Jim Richardson.