Kalispell knitter drapes Spirit in style

Montana State University's bobcat sculpture at the center of the school's Alumni Plaza was looking a bit cooler Friday - well, warmer actually.

The 6-foot-tall bronze statue named Spirit, named after the university's first live Bobcat mascot, was sporting a blue and gold, hand-knitted, wool letterman sweater as students, faculty and staff strolled by.

"It's really cool," liberal studies student Brittany Gjersing said after taking a photo of a sweatered Spirit with her cell phone. "It's really cool to see it done. My sorority sisters are going to be really psyched."

Gjersing said she saw the sweater a few weeks ago when its creator, Melanie Cross, was fitting it on the sculpture.

Cross, who owns Camas Creek Yarn in Kalispell, launched a line of knit kits for Bobcat clothing last year.

Though Cross is not an alumna, her son graduated from MSU in the spring.

So when MSU Director of Marketing Julie Kipfer pitched the idea of "yarn bombing" the statue, she lit a fuse under Cross that had her knitting night and day for five weeks to get the sweater finished before football season ends.

It took Cross more than 100 hours to produce the sweater using more than 3,000 yards of bulky yarn on No. 9 knitting needles. The V-neck cardigan has 2-inch-diameter buttons and needle-felted details - an "M" and "Spirit" name tag and three arm stripes representing three years of lettering, Cross said.

"Hey, I put some fun into it," she said, noting the sculpture was donated three academic years ago.

Spirit was sculpted by the Bob Stayton of Bigfork, a member of the MSU class of 1951. He died in May 2010.

The accomplished Bigfork western artist was 80 when he completed Spirit in 2009 and said at the time it was one of his proudest artistic and volunteer endeavors.

Cross had offers of help from alumni in Kalispell for the knitting project, but she said it would have been too hard to piece it together.

"It would have been like having someone else put their fingers on your sculpture," she said. "It was more freestyle knitting. And it just sounded like so much fun, I had to knit it myself."

But creating the oversized sweater wasn't always stress free, Cross admitted.

As she spent endless hours, needles and yarn in hand, she was thinking, "I hope it fits, I hope it fits, I hope it fits," she said.

"And these are hashed," she said, holding up her fingers. "But I'm sort of sad it's over."

It seems the result was worth the hard work.

"I think it looks amazing," Kipfer said. "The attention to detail is incredible."

Sally Thomas of Bainbridge Island, Wash., was in Bozeman with her husband to finalize plans to send their daughter to MSU next year. Upon meeting Cross beside the sculpture, the enthusiastic fellow knitter hugged the sweater's creator.

"I love it," she said. "It's adorable."