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Gender-jamming knitting graffiti

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(Flickr/Kelly Sue)
(Flickr/Kelly Sue)
Now here’s something you don’t see everyday – knitters adapting their craft to the typically macho art of urban graffiti. A gang of Australian knitters are going after everything from buses and restrooms, to door handles and street signs in Syndey, saying they’re trying to “make a distinctly feminine statement in urban art in a way that is far less harmful to the surroundings,” according to knitter Denise Litchfield. “As in, it does not need solvents or cleansers to remove. It’s stitched on, and if you don’t like it, you unpick it.”

Texas artist Magda Sayeg says the beauty of knitting is it’s friendly, welcoming and doesn’t destroy property. Sayeg, considered the mother of urban knitting and founder of the Knitta Please group, says ruining others’ things is “probably the wimpiest thing a graffiti artist can do.”

Are any Minnesotans turning their survival instincts, honed on crafting hats and mittens, to graffiti art? No idea, but I have a feeling we won’t see this anytime soon (have you ever tried to knit anti-corporate statements to the door of a multinational headquarters in this weather?). For now, I’ll have to stick with watching Regretsy, and waiting…

(CNN.com)