SOFTER SIDE OF GRAFFITI
Granny's knitting takes on a new look around campus

Story by Gabz Ciofani // Photography by Melissa Hosom

Sarah James does it discreetly in the middle of the night and makes sure no one is around before getting to work on her piece. Once she’s decided on a location, she prepares her materials.

“I’ve been tagging around Cleveland since last summer,” says the freshman journalism major.

She loves watching the reactions of people examining her pieces when they walk by.
James is one of the many upcoming graffiti artists putting a spin on the traditional form of street art. She tags with yarn.

Graffiti knitting gives people opportunity to look at the craft as a non-destructive way of creating street artwork.

By knitting around and over objects such as trees and parking meters, groups like Knitta started tagging bigger cities like New York and San Francisco since August 2005. James is responsible for its appearance on campus in Fall 2007.

Her inspiration to tag came in the form of ugly yarn.

“My friend and I would walk around the craft store and marvel at all of the ugly things we saw — all of the furry, sparkly stuff,” James says. “We wanted to use it, but in a mocking sort of way. We wanted the pieces to be as gaudy as possible.”

James has tagged objects ranging from stop signs to railings across campus, and has done her fair share of interesting pieces around Cleveland, her hometown.

“I once made a covering to fit one of the spikes of the dinosaur statue outside of the natural history museum,” James says. “It was removed pretty soon after. I’ve discovered if there’s a way for people to take the piece off, they will.”

Kent State, however, doesn’t seem to mind the tree cozies and sign coverings. Only one of James’s pieces on campus has been removed — a red and blue furry piece from the railing in front of the M.A.C. Center.

Of the  more than 10 softly stitched works around campus, one is particularly special to James.

“My favorite piece is the tree outside Olson hall because it was the first piece I did at Kent,” she says. “It was great. I went outside one morning after and saw that someone else had hung another scarf around one of those trees.”

Within this past semester, knitting clubs and tutorials have become common on campus, including groups such as “Knit Night at the OL” on Thursday nights in Olsen Hall and Knitting Night at the MLC, which has scheduled meetings throughout the semester in the Music Listening Center on the Student Center’s second floor. These crafting groups get together and work on current projects in a light atmosphere while chatting among themselves.

“It’s extremely therapeutic,” says freshman photojournalism major Dana Beveridge, programmer of Knitting Night at the MLC.

A search for a deeper meaning in the brightly colored scraps may be seen in the puzzled glances of passersby.  “I don’t know if I’m trying to convey anything specific with these pieces, but I like being a part of something that makes people aware of their surroundings,” James says. “I feel like the pieces make you stop and actually look at things.”
           
Whether it’s viewed as a way to bring colorful attention to everyday objects or just a means of getting rid of excess yarn, there’s no denying that graffiti knitting has brought the idea of crafting out of grandma’s living room and onto Kent State’s campus.
           
In regard to future projects, James refuses to reveal what she and her fellow knitters have in store for Kent.

“You’ll just have to look out for it when the weather gets nicer,” she says.

Gabz Ciofani is a junior magazine journalism major. This is her first story for The Burr.