Urban Knitting

Today is the 6th of November so we're starting to enter the winter season. And winter generally means that the average temperature drops (assuming you're not living next to the equator) which ultimately results in people wearing warm coats and ultra fancy knitwear.

But have you ever thought about how cold a good winter day can be for a tree? The poor ones stand fully unprotected and unable to move outside in the cold. On behalf of the trees the past few years a new trend in street art developed: urban knitting. The aim of this is to cover up public objects in, eh, knitwear. Custom made knitwear to be specific. Every object can apply for urban knitting, the only necessity is that it is placed in public area. So any tree, lantern, traffic sign, you name it, will do.

Here's what Carol Hummel did to a tree to keep it warm and cozy on winter days. The 'statue' was 'on display' for three years in Cleveland Heights (OH) and took 500 hours to make.


Graffiti critics often complain about street art. But honestly, I can't see why such a critic would get mad about such a funny, beautiful, original way to use something nature created as an art object. Anyway, as I said earlier other objects can be used too for this fascinating new form of graffiti. For example this bridge railing:


Urban knitting is starting to become a fascinating new trend. All around the internet knitted objects can be found. For example through flickr, but there are also small artists that grouped together and got devoted to urban knitting. One of those groups is knittaplease, they have got an awesome video collection of their work too.

-jdh