This was shared at another group I’m on, and I thought it was inspirational!
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Some people have such fun ideas! This group of 11 from Houston, target public places with knitting. Sometimes they choose the target; other times the target comes to them. They are making their own good news! And it benefits the rest of us.
Sometimes we tag randomly (car antennas, door handles, stop sign poles, park benches) and sometimes we choose larger, more specific targets. The random tag nights are usually “come if you can”, while we knit with a purpose for the larger targets. For one large project we did (24′ scarves on two statues in Houston), we all knit piecemeal, then crocheted all the pieces together to form the giant scarves. Those were nice.
Occasionally, our targets come to us. We get requests every now and then. We’ll still bomb those requested targets under cover of night, in order to retain some sense of anonymity though. Every once in a while, we knit and knit and knit for a trip out of town to spread Knitta out a little. This coming weekend, for instance, four of us went to New York City for 4 days of crazy tagging. We had an extra suitcase full of pieces that will grace the streets of New York (for at least a week or two, we hope). MascuKnitity just got back from a 3-week trip to China, where he was able to leave a little Knitta presence on the Great Wall. We still haven’t figured out how we’re going to top that one.
What kinds of things have they done?
As for quantity of projects, I really can’t say how many tags we’ve thrown since we started this. Probably hundreds of antenna cozies. We covered lamp posts on three local highway bridges with 6 foot, hot pink wraps the night before New Year’s Eve. We laid 24 foot scarves at the end of January.
Bored by long projects? I sure am! Plus, who has the time?! (Except for the Waikiki ponchos.)
We were bored with the usual knitting projects and get-togethers. Personally, I get tired of a project that takes more than 2 or 3 days to complete. I call it crafting ADHD. I had plenty-o-unfinished projects laying around my house that I’d simply become bored working on.
Well, now you have some ideas for unfinished projects. I generally find that I’m not too crazy about a project until I hit the half-way point, then I hurry like crazy to get it finished. OTOH, I know someone who donates her half-finished (or less) projects that she no longer wants to do to Goodwill! I’ve bit the bullet and done it a few times myself. Why finish something you really don’t enjoy!
The woman who started this began with making door knob cosies. How funny is that!
What are you knitting or crocheting right now?
I think I have a scarf going somewhere, but I’ve been doing more beading lately. Yesterday I took apart a necklace and made two bracelets out of it, plus an extender. Didn’t have to change the patterning, just took it apart.
Don’t you think this idea is wonderful! Make some happiness in your life. Go for it!
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Once again knitted graffiti is on the march, because of the Houston group, this time in Stockholm, Sweden, where graffiti is prohibited.
Imagine measuring a statue that they will knit a sweater for! I don’t know whether this makes me laugh out loud (I’d love to see it) or whether I think they have too much time (or yarn) on their hands. This is taking street art to a new level.
Actually, you can find a picture of the sweatered statue here, and it does make me smile. You’ll also find pictures of some of their other knitted graffiti projects.
Maskan (“the stitch”), one of three code-named female founders of the Stockholm “guerrilla knitting” group, , is telling me about their upcoming knitting graffiti action. Inspired by the Houston group, Knitta Please, Stickkontakt decorate everything from lampposts and bins to park benches and tree trunks with colorful yarns. “We often have political messages,” Maskan tells me. “But sometimes we don’t. Once, we decided to celebrate Sweden’s few female statues by dressing up four of them as super heroines.”
There is a zero tolerance policy for graffiti in Stockholm; any unauthorized street art must be removed within 24 hours. But that hasn’t dissuaded guerrilla knitters.
Does this sound like vandalism to you?
Not to me!
“We’re hoping that our actions – which can hardly be called vandalism – will serve as a kind of gateway to making people more open to street art in general,” says Maria, cofounder of another knitting graffiti group called Masquerade.
Maria and her friend Lina, the other cofounder of Masquerade, see knitting graffiti as fun, harmless, quirky, and soft, with the potential for a global impact. In fact, they recently returned from a trip where they used knitting graffiti to “tag” along the Trans-Siberian railway in Russia, Mongolia, and China. By Nathalie Rothschild | 09.22.09
What is the difference between the two Swedish groups Guerilla Knitting and Masquerade?
Maybe not a lot. You can see pictures from Masquerade here.
Would you be a part of a knitted graffiti group?
Doing something out of the ordinary to bring color and joy to people’s lives appeals to me. I could be a part of it. How about you?
Karin
A fellow knitter, at least at times, but so far no graffiti — I tend to decorate me, my friends and family.
www.savvythinker.com
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