Urban Fabric Softener: Inaugural International Yarn Bombing Day
Source: Shrewdcat via wikicommons
As we wind up the working week and wind down at friday night drinks, groups of anarchist gangs are ramping up their preparations for an assault on public spaces around the world. As you stumble home late friday night/saturday morning, you may pause at the sound of an unexpected ‘click,click’. But fear not, it is not the sound of a wayward youth loading a hand gun but rather the frantic knit one purl one of purposeful bomber of the yarn variety preparing for International Yarn Bombing Day.
June 11 2011 sees the unfurling of the inaugural event, dreamed up by Canadian knitting fanatic Joann Matvichuk based on the increasingly popular form of temporary urban ‘vandalism’ via knitting.
Yarn Bombing, which is also known as yarnstorming, guerilla knitting, graffiti knitting or knitffiti, usually aims to reclaim sterile and underutilised public spaces through transforming sterile environments through a combination of humour, joy and comfort creating a sense of urban domestic familiarity.
The original ‘bombers’ were though to be a group of Texas knitters being creative with their left over compositions and since gone global.
Below are three of the more well know ‘gangs’ operating in different locations around the world, who are no doubt currently knitting up a storm in preparation for the big day.
KNIT THE CITY
Source: DeadlyKnitshade via wikicommons
This London group was established in 2009 and is distinguishable by their knitffiti tag ‘KTC’. The foursome of The Fastener, Shorn-a the Dead, Lady Loop and founder DeadlyKnitshade aim to ‘guerilla knit the city of London, and beyond that the world, and bring the art of the sneaky stitch to a world without wool’ [source].
KNITTAPLEASE
Source: knittaplease via http://knittaporfavor.wordpress.com/about/
Founded by a member of the original Houston gang, KNITTAPLEASE is a trio of textile artists in the US. In addition to public urban installations, the group has also taken to the interior sterile spaces such as the revamp of Etsy’s AC ductwork in their Brooklyn Office.
SAVTA CONNECTION
Source: Savta Connection via http://www.savtaconnection.com/pages/what.html
There are a collective of urban knitters in Tel Aviv who aim to counter the harsh consumerists urban environment through the feminine tradition. The group is to be featured in a documentary about the world wide movement by a girl with a crappy camera.
If you want to track the creative interventions in their first year check out the map of global bomb sites, the official flickr site or watch the event unfold on twitter via the hashtag #yarnbombing.
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