It’s crazy how these years keep coming and going, coming and going, ad infinitum. It’s now 2010, and I’m looking ahead, making plans of all sorts. I’ve been thinking about this blog, wondering where I’d like to take it this coming year. I’ve decided that I’d like to do some writing about new women’s movements and activist groups of one type or another. I’d also like to blog about women on the cutting edge and those who think/act outside the box.
With that in mind, I’d like to introduce you to something (I can safely assume) many of you haven’t heard of until this very moment. It’s called “yarn bombing” or “guerilla knitting” or “yarn tagging” (or any number of other things) and is believed, according to at least one of the sources I’ve looked at recently, to have begun in Texas, my home state, but has now become a worldwide urban art movement that is mostly practiced by women.
I’ve included a video of Aussie Denise Litchfield, one of the better-known guerilla knitters, speaking a little bit about what the movement is and why she got involved. We also see her engaged in a little hit-and-run knitting in what appears to be a public park.
For those of you who’ve found this clip interesting, I can assure you that there are many videos (and websites) out there that document all sorts of yarn bombing projects, including this one of a bus in Mexico City, the most impressive example of this type of “graffiti” I’ve seen so far.
In finishing up, I’d like to tell you about an “ah-ha” moment I had while doing this blog. One day, a couple of years ago now, while walking on the campus of Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, I happened to come upon two tiny, knitted figures, each one about the size of a Christmas tree ornament, that someone had tied to a tree limb. I remember that it was a breezy day, and the two were spinning and spinning as they dangled. At the time I remember stopping and feeling puzzled and wondering who in the heck did that and why. Now, it seems, I think I might have the answer to those questions.
