Knitted street art, Berkeley style

Sooooooo … I was reading a blog the other day (big surprise there) called Berkeleyside, which is a quite good journal all about local Berkeley news and events. Everything from sunsets to shootings to, apparently, yarn.

I was just reading along when I came across the headline, “Memorial to 5-year-old revived” with a picture of a stop sign decorated in fine style by a colorful striped knitted piece. The story read as follows:

“After the one-year anniversary of the death of five-year old Zachary Michael Cruz, who was hit by a car while crossing  Warring Street at Derby in February 2009, the impromptu memorial to him went moribund … However, thanks to a new guerilla art installation, the stop sign memorial has become vibrant once again. The yarn bomber who calls herself Streetcolor has decorated the stop sign with a multi-hued wrap. Her addition prompted others to add some decorations, including a number of sugar skulls used in Halloween and Day of the Dead celebration.”

Hm, I thought. I‘ve seen this knitting before! Lo and behold, there was the picture from my September 29 post.  I’ve seen Streetcolor’s work around other places as well, such as outside the Berkeley Natural Grocer on Gilman. I love this stuff, of course, given that I love both street art and yarn awesome.

And that, my friends, is how I have a new blog to follow about Streetcolor and The Russian.

Gosh I love Controversy

As a highly opinionated person, I do love a bit of controversy, and I can be quite argumentative. And my most fiercely held opinion is that everyone has the right to their own opinion.

I’ve argued with a lot of people in my life and what I’ve found is that many people believe I argue because I want them to agree with me. I don’t. I want people to think. I want folks to explore what they believe, and to challenge themselves and me. I want people to have opinions and support them. I want people to convince me of things, and to be convinced of things by me. Or maybe just to have a good discussion that results in nobody changing their minds at all.

I don’t believe that because I think something, the person who things differently about it is necessarily wrong. Probably no one is wrong. I can’t decide for someone else what’s right or wrong for them, and it’s never a good idea for others to try to decide that for me. I simply won’t have it. And feel free to disagree with everything I’ve just said.

With that said, I recently read a post that stirred up discussion, so in celebration of crafting controversy everywhere, I present to you some of my favorite posts. I recommend reading the comments as well as the post.

1.  Political agendas: the Etsy Craftivism team on Crafting a Green World.  There was a flap on political leanings within the ranks.  Do you have to be leftist to want to effect change? It seems sometimes the assumption is “yes.”

2.  Also from Crafting a Green World, Julie gets called “retarded” (definitely poor word choice) in the comments in reply to her post about using acrylic felt.  As an acrylic felt (and yarn) user myself, I thought the response was in remarkably poor taste, but everyone’s got an opinion.  Just maybe insulting others isn’t the best way to voice your response.

3.  The post that gave me the idea, the Stitch Bitch’s post on the DIY craft youth movement and its portrayal.  And of course, Anna wrote a well-crafted response post as well giving due consideration to the comments she received originally.

4.  OMG, the Craftzine dared to post … Squirrel Feet earrings!  Creative taxidermy turned out to be very controversial. It incited something of an online riot.

5.  Although I’ve drawn out the squirrel discussion in particular since it got people so riled up, Craft in fact noted a whole list of 2008 controversial posts.  Never say people don’t have opinions.

6.  Margaux Lange, creator of Barbie-inspired jewelry, who posted on her negative experience at a craft show in DC. It’s a long and detailed accounting.  I responded, and I realize now it’s overly long, I forgot I had so much to say about it.  I was very disappointed in the craft show attendees, and apparently other things as well.

7.  Remember the CPSIA flap over new childrens’ products testing and the impact on small business owners?  Etsy got really involved, and got the attention of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. I still have a button on my site which I mean to take down ANY day now.

8. Speaking of blog maintenance – I’m kinda sad she edited it from the first, glorious rant, but the point is still there on Urban Craft’s blog post No One Reads Blogs Anymore. You can get a better idea of her original post from the 60 comments. The point is: what’s the etiquette of craft blog posting? Is it really interesting to post about our dinner-making, children and other non-craft pursuits? Do we really read each others’ posts or just skim?  Do we take care of our blog links, etc.?  Very interesting, and worth a read if you write a craft blog.

Those are the ones I’ve noted and remembered, but I would be really thrilled and pleased if any of you know of any more rants, discussions, arguments, or controversies and can post them in the comments.  I do love reading them.

There are currently 50-some people subscribed to this blog, which is amazing to me, but I rarely hear from any of you!  So I am hoping at least ONE of you manages to actually stop by! And if you’re the owner of one of the flaps mentioned, I’d like to hear what your response was when you realized you’d incited comment

Who, me?

I turn beet red and develop an embarrassing stammer when people compliment me. I’m just not so good at it! Nevertheless, I must say that I appreciate that Shelly of This Eclectic Life and Jenna of Corgipants and the SwapDex both gave me the Arte y Pico Award some time back, and the time has come to pass it on to some of the folks that inspire me (I’m supposed to pass it onto 5 people).  It’s just too bad those two are out of the running, or they might have gotten it from me!

So here are my awards, and if these fine folks feel as though they would like to pass it on, they are welcome to, but no pressure to do so!!  My desire is simply to compliment some folks that I love to read, and who inspire me in different ways.  Although I try to comment on the blogs I read fairly regularly, I sometimes fail in that, and often I think that the people who blog don’t always know their impact on others and that their effort is appreciated!  So here we go, in no particular order.

I think I stumbled across A Chicken in Every Granny Cart accidentally, but wow! was that ever a happy accident. I love Ann’s blog – her pictures, her food, her ramblings.  Each week her blog is a visual treat of food talk and collections of pictures from her long, long walks around New York City’s boroughs and upstate New York.  And at the end, a delicious recipe from what she’s been cooking.  Ann loves food like I do, and she’s much more adventurous with her ingredients than I.  You should hear her wax rhapsodic about beans, it’s truly inspiring.  I can’t decide about whether I like the pictures or food more, but the combination just makes me happy every time I get a new post.

misshawklet has been my favorite yarn spinner-and-dyer for a while. I am sad that I can rarely buy anything from her since I’m so allergic to wool, but sometimes (like now!) she has cotton as well, in natural and yummy colors.  I can’t quite explain what I mean by this, but I like reading her blog because of her voice, the approach to life she projects.  To me, she always seems so positive and hopeful (even if she doesn’t feel it), and makes her homebody/yarn projects seem fun and easy, and she always seems so interested in everything around her.  I’ve been hoping along with her lately that she can buy the house she’s interested in!

Hanna of iHanna.nu is a favorite because of her approach to creativity, which is a huge part of her life.  Last year Hanna created a book, and this year she’s making daily art cards, but her creativity is expressed in a lot more ways than just that.  Like Hanna I love research and collecting/documenting, so that may be a lot of why her approach appeals to me.  Overall, though, I think that reading Hanna’s blog, looking at what she creates (this is a favorite) and seeing what inspires her reminds me to open up my idea of what “creativity” actually is and where it’s found.

Leah runs a blog and challenge at Creative Every Day is another person who inspires me in the creative arena. I wasn’t ready to join the challenge back in January, but I’ve certainly benefited by reading this blog and watching her create her art.  I’ve thought for a long time that being an “artist” was a sort of mystical, vague, intimidating concept (translation: I had no idea what it really meant to be an artist) .  I’m less vague on the concept and more impressed now, because of what Leah does and how she does it.  It’s hard to pick a favorite of her pieces, but if I weren’t broke I would own this original piece.

My last award goes to Diane Slade of Thoughts from a Seamstress, and if you want to know why I chose Diane, just go read this post which shows her making a shirt.  I would in no way be able to make that shirt, no matter how clear the instructions – not only because of her impressive equipment (serger, double needle sewing?!) but because of the techniques (the gathering gives me the heebie-jeebies)!  Diane is a talented professional seamstress, and it really shows.  I featured Diane’s denim bias skirt many moons ago, and I have enjoyed living vicariously through her talented fingers ever since then.  If she weren’t in Michigan, I’d try to convince her to give me lessons!

So there you go. The talents and creativity of five lovely people I wouldn’t know a thing about if it weren’t for this here lovely interwebs.  Thanks again to Shelly and Jenna, not only for the award, but for giving me a chance to tell these folks how much I appreciate them!