I was in the Philadelphia airport over winter break, when I came across an interesting knitting artwork in Terminal F. Colorful patterns of yarn covered several pillars, so brightly that despite just getting off a redeye, I was suddenly wide awake.
Image via robbrittonthetraveler.wordpress.com
The artist is Jessie Hemmons, a Philadelphia local who joined the art movement known as “yarn bombing” in 2008. She describes it as “graffiti with grandma sweaters”, and celebrates its femininity in the male-dominated word of street art. Yarn bombing is a form of knitting graffiti. Yarn bombers often work at night and without permission, like traditional graffiti artists, but the art is temporary and not harmful in the slightest. Examples include knit covers for trees, park benches, and bike racks.
Images via knitsforlife.com
Yarn bombers take ordinary objects and transform them into colorful masterpieces with their stitches. Dull public places are given new personality and reclaimed. Yarn bombing has become a global movement, and has given new meaning to knitting.
The mother of yarn bombing is Magda Sayeg. It all began in 2005, when she knitted a cover for the door handle of her shop in Texas. She gradually took on larger projects around Houston, and was soon acquiring commissions for her artwork. In this way, the graffiti or vandalism aspect of the art has changed. Though many of the public projects are illegal, there are rarely consequences, and many yarn bombers says police rarely charge them, and in fact often smile or laugh at the projects. Indeed, even Fortune 500 companies have begun to adopt the fad of yarn bombing as advertising. Toyota commissioned Sayeg to knit a Christmas sweater for a Prius for a promotional video. 7Up has used her work in an advertisement.
Though Sayeg is probably the most high profile example of yarn bombing, others participate all around the world just for fun. In 2009, Canadian knitters Mandy Moore and Leanne Prain published the book Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti. The book is a sort of guide to knit street art. It contains patterns, interviews with international yarn bombers, and even “provides tips on how to be as stealthy as a ninja”. According to the New York Times, Yarn Bombing, “borrows from the vernacular of street graffiti and half-jokingly positions yarn bombing as an illicit alternative for knitters bored making yet another Christmas sweater. It asks readers to get off their rocking chairs and ‘take back the knit.’”
Just as I was taken aback by the pillars in the airport, the public around the world has been captivated by these artworks. Coming across something so bright and interesting in a cold, public place simply has to make you smile. It’s something so seemingly simple and funny, but it’s incredibly memorable. Yarn bombing might not seem to have a unified message or goal, but it certainly has a unified spirit. These works transform public places, and interact with passersby in new and interesting ways, creating a sense of fun in a community that otherwise might not have been discovered.
BEAUTIFUL!
I’ve never heard of yarn bombing before, that’s such a neat concept! It takes an act of self-defiance such as graffiti and transforms it into a more acceptable form of self-expression. I especially like the picture of the yarn bombing of the bench that you added- it’s pretty cute. I think it’s very impressive that someone is talented enough to weave intricate patterns from yarn and fit them onto oddly-shaped objects like tree trunks and benches.
I was smiling the whole time I was reading this post. I love the concept of yarn bombing! I wish people did it around here!! It is so pretty and makes things look colorful and happy and bright, and undoubtedly makes people smile when they see it. I think graffiti brings life to public spaces. The railroad yard on route 65 near my home town to me seems more like an art museum. The brightly painted designs are much prettier to look at than gross, rust covered train cars, and as long as the words aren’t sending a bad message, I see no problem with it. Yarn bombing seems even less like an act of vandalism than traditional graffiti, and I hope it continues and becomes an even bigger movement. (Maybe you could start it here!!)