Yarr!n

I recently befriended a tag-team of graffiti knitters known as "Knitta!" or "Knitta, please," profiled in the Houston Press.

Today, this message:

"Many, many of you have professed the desire to start bombing your respective hoods with your own knitted tags, inspired by Knitta! We love it. We love and appreciate all of the enthusiasm and support pouring in from all over the globe. This is really exciting and keeps us smilin'!

Well, my fellow knitta's and I have sat and discussed the possibility of Knitta factions in other cities, while still being able to maintain a distinct point of origin here in H-Town and specific Knitta-isms that we hold dear. Here's what we've decided:

There's no monopoly on knitting or graffiti. Anyone, anywhere, can do these things. We've only elevated a new trend of combining those two activities and given ourselves street names. This is definitely open to the public. We'd love to see other people tagging with knitted items! We think that'd be great!

Here's the sticky part though... We'd like for you to tag under your own unique crew name and individual tags. We'd rather reserve the name "Knitta" and the phrase "Knitta, Please" for ourselves. That's our crew and our motto. Just like graffiti crews everywhere, they all paint, but they all have different names. I think it would be amazing to see different "crews" popping up all over the world, installing little knitted hugs across their cities. Now, when you get "discovered" and start getting press, it'd be great if you threw a wink and a nod in our direction for the inspiration. I think that's fair. We'll nod right back, in the form of posting tag photos and letters you send to us on our website (as soon as we actually go live!). We can even have a list of crew names and locations, complete with photos, on a page - just like graffiti sites.

I hope you understand about the name issue. We think that's the best way possible for this to take off globally (as it should!) and maintain our roots. Cool? Cool.

Now get to knittin'!

L, AKrylik (Knitta Crew)"

I don't really have any desire for knit-tagging (since it currently takes me eight months to complete a scarf) but I approve of this trend. I also approve of the recent upsurge of smart, sassy "Yar!" graffiti:



...photographed here by Michael.

Yep. My city is cooler than yours.