Passage V

Cozy Graffiti

In 2005, Houston shop owner Magda Sayeg knit a blue-and-pink cozy, or fitted cover, for the street-side door handle of her store. It was a slow day; Sayeg was bored. To her surprise, the seemingly out-of-place little cozy drew a lot of attention and often made people smile.Inspired by the effects, Sayeg knit a leg warmer for the stop sign on the corner. This time, drivers actually pulled over for a closer look. Some people even took pictures of the sign. As Sayeg expanded her territory around Houston, her then-anonymous projects gained notoriety online and in newspapers, sparking similar endeavors by knitters and crocheters around the globe.

Adopting the utterances of graffiti, these yarn artists commonly refer to the act of covering something with knitted or crocheted yarn such as “tagging.” They take measurements of an object they wish to cover, stitch at home, and then quietly wrap the object during the night. Rather, in the morning, a park full of trees wrapped in striped leg warmers welcomes joggers. Giant metal chain links on a wharf appear covered in violet, green, white, blue. Sidewalk cracks being filled with skinny, knitted ropes of magenta.

Some yarn graffiti artists mainly want to surprise people, offering a bit of homey comfort where we’re least expected. Others, however, aim for a more political message, they drape cannons and tanks in colorful crocheted afghans. In 2011, knitter Jessie Hemmons decided she’d had enough of people snapping pictures of the bronze statue of Rocky (a fictional boxer) in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art without ever going inside the museum. She crafted a bright pink hoodie for the muscular figure, who was played by Sylvester Stallone in the Rocky movies.

Although yarn tagging is a form of graffiti, it’s tolerated more often than other forms because the yarn can be simply snipped off. This may be the aspect that allows people to smile as they drop coins into a cozy, purple parking meter and to consider the artist’s sweet—or edgy point.