Another exciting interview is in the can! You may think I exaggerate when I call the interviews “exciting”, but it really has been cool and fascinating to talk to all of these different graffiti artists. Although the groups have some similarities, we have been struck by just how diverse the people are who are drawn to yarn graffiti.
This weekend Leanne and I talked to Kristin from the Chicago-based Micro-Fiber Militia. MFM is the first group we’ve talked to that works primarily in crochet; the rest of the taggers we’ve interviewed have been knitters. This choice may help to account for the impressive size of some of the MFM tags; the speed of crochet makes pieces like the fantastic bike rack cover above more feasible than they would be if they were knitted.
The members of this group work fairly independently, producing their tags separately and then contributing their photos to the group’s blog and Flickr stream.
We talked with Kristin about how her crocheted graffiti fits into her art practice. We queried her about her most over-the-top fantasy yarn graffiti projects, and about her sources of both inspiration and yarn. I particularly enjoyed hearing her talk about this spectacular piece by MFM member Timeline, which can be seen outside her favourite yarn shop, Loopy Yarns.
As any knitter or crocheter knows, something like this takes quite a lot of time to produce, and this piece discusses the time that passed and the things that happened while it was in progress. I am intrigued by its beautiful colour work, and by the glimpses of embroidery that are visible in the photo. I wish I could see it in person!
You can see blog entries about these tags (including larger versions of the photos) at the Micro-Fiber Militia site, here and here.
very cool bike rack!!
waw, this looks amazing!! it’s total inspiration for us over at Artyarn here in manchester uk.
awesome!! the whole global movement thing is awesome!!
Wow–this is amazing. Love the blog.