apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Love it! Hysterically funny and cute. Hurrah!

I saw a group of people doing this on the hgtv show knitty gritty...much better than defacing someone's property!

Ha! This is blocks from my house. Now I've got to see it after work.

This totally reminds me of a post on www.cuteoverload.com. I can see why people think it's creepy, but really life is drab enough, shouldn't there be some lightheartedness in our lives?

http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2006/04/ridiculous_tree.html

Alright, alright, I get it. Austin is OMGquirky. Next?

I love it! And, more than that, I'm IMPRESSED that they managed this.

How could it not make everyone smile?

I prefer guerilla gardening. But this isnt bad either.

I can't guarantee that this is the work of the group I am crediting but they have been known to do things like this:

http://www.knittaplease.com/KNITTA_PLEASE.html

fanTASTIC!

This is a stupid waste.

Thanks for the tip valleyval, those photos from their site do look very familiar. I'll contact them and see if they have any information!

Creepy.

I'm sure it becomes a sopping mess after a good rain. Even worse when birds use it for nesting materials.

As a knitter, I know how long this would take... I think some people just have too much time on their hands. That said, I think it looks rad!

risky! here we deviate from introducing readers to austin's unique goods and services, to simply reiterating the fact that austin is unique. is this as much as apartment therapy as it is city therapy? oh what the hell!! i love it. it's therapy enough for me. knitting a freakin' lamp post! beautiful! and i was right, they do give her a bike and send her out into the city! gimme more of this!

question: does this stuff get all yucky and mildewy after a few good rains?

Knitta Please is really from Houston! http://www.mysanantonio.com/salife/stories/MYSA081006.01P.Knitta.4f24589.html

p.s. "this is a stupid waste"

could you utter a more ignorant comment? i mean, it might be impractical, the time creating it could have been spent knitting sweaters for hairless dogs or little old women, it might be ruined in a week or two or it might not be the best color combination, but calling it a "stupid waste" only serves to reveal stupidity in other areas... and if you have any intelligence you'll know what i mean.

Old news. As a knitter, I think the quality if pretty atrocious. Also, since most of these are done with acrylic yarns, they'll never decompose, and will just get nasty and wind up in a landfill somewhere.

Great investigative work whitneyhtown! We're closer than ever to solving this DIY case.

Great if this is left up for a short period of time. However, the "perpetrator(s)" do have a civic and ecological obligation to remove it when it starts to get gross and more importantly, poses a threat to the environment (birds, creating litter, etc).

Ok, I'm not going to get into this debate. What I want to know is, how did they get the cosy onto the lamppost? Did they knit it in the round and ... (lol) climb up to the top of the post and slip it on, or did they knit it as a strip and sew a loooong seam down the side?

Awesome! I'd love to see more of this kind of thing all over town. Great find.

There seems to be a lot of "urban knitting" going on..http://www.flickr.com/groups/754816@N22/pool/

i'll never understand this type of thing. it's been my experience that people who know how to knit want to make a sweater for everything. i saw someone who made little knitted cozies for her apples just because she could. i know it's a relaxing activity and all but it just seems wasteful to me.

That lamppost is going to be way too warm. It's Austin! They should have done it in Chicago or Portland, Maine, where lonely lampposts are known to get cold at night.

@Shawn - hilarious!

This is happening in a lot of places, I've seen it in Seattle, Chicago and more. And it started up several years ago. Though I agree with the comment re:acrylic yarns, I think the quality is about right for this type of project. They get dirty and wet (though they're still colorful and look...okay after rain) so I can't really see the point of doing it much differently.

SWEET! this is absolutely hilarious.

i'm with cojack7. to all you haters out there, please be "constructive" on another blog.

If you can't like/appreciate this on SOME level, come back when your ice age is over.

Agreed - silly, but fun.

I can only roll my eyes at the "oh, the environmental impact!" people. Like they've never bought a synthetic fabric in their life, or disposed of one without making sure it was cut in little-bitty pieces to protect all the little-bitty creatures. Gah. Hypocrisy.

I love this! Guerrilla knitting is very nearly as good as guerrilla gardening.

I think a little of this goes a long way. I think of stuff like this is trying to cheer people up, and this is literally a warm fuzzy. It's like Improv Everywhere, some kind of surprise for the people who were there, who walked down that street. Stickers have the same effect, only they're so common. It wouldn't be a great thing for knitting the urban landscape to grow out of proportion. It would lose the effect of being charming.

I think its great. If it doesn't produce some sort of reaction in you, you are just cold and numb.

hahah, that's great! I always run out of things to knit for.

Cool, I have been busy lately and have not had time to read AT. So I was surprised to see this while I am catching up. This is just down the street from my home. WooHoo. I think it is very cool and fits in with a lot of the other cool street art in this part of town. Also, the new bookstore right behind this post is great. I noticed a mention of a Houston group that does the knitting. This may be related since the new bookstore, Domy, is from Houston (this is their second store).

I have been looking here for a few months on decorating tips for my new small place, and I am glad to see some Austin input.

This IS kind of old news, and it's in a lot of cities. I'm surprised what a negative reaction a few people here have to it, though! Live and let live, you know?
And as for knitting being wasteful, it's (in general) a slow, pleasurable activity that uses natural products (yay for wool) and produces items that will be treasured for a hell of a lot longer than that polyester Gap dress. I knit a small number of things for myself each year, and an even smaller number of things for people I really care about and know will appreciate the time and effort that goes into what I knit. I can think of so many things that really are wasteful, and it makes me a little sick to hear people denigrate something like knitting for such thoughtless reasons.

whytephoenix, it appears that they knit strips and them sew it up. You can see it on this video from Handmade Nation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH2HWPfwpOw (starting at about 1:34).

Ah ha ha ha ha!!! I got a huge belly laugh from this debate. After reading many of the posts I somehow came to appreciate the "haters" though vastly outnumbered by the positive happy posters. I welcome them and their opinions! I think these haters bring out a small defensiveness that cause these beautiful people to stand up for what's beautiful and right in the world no matter how lg. or sm. of a thing it may be. It lifts my spirits to see them outnumbered. No Matter which side of the debate you stand surely you can agree Adrienne deserves kudos for getting a passionate debate going over a an urban knitting project called knitta please which consist of yarn on a lamppost?!!! Which if in fact is some sort of ad campaigne (like those faceless people that have been spotted) Good job! It's got our attention and us talking. No? LOL!!!!!!! P.S. if you disagree or if the yarn annoys you... I'm sorry and am certain your beautiful as well just imagine you forget to smile or enjoy the sunrise, sunset and blue sky as often as the other posters here.

I love it!

I can't stand when the green people start coming on here and bashing. I'm so curious how they did this.

@ itsabecky: wasteful of what, exactly? You probably don't know all that many knitters...if "in your experience" they all want to knit sweaters for everything...you know...what? One knitter? Two?

Sorry for wasting all of your precious wool for on my knit caps and *people* sweaters. I'll alert the other knitters. Sounds like we've got a crisis on our hands.

Knitta please! Straight out of Houston, Texas!

Creepy and crafty at the same time. Quick, somebody knit the Frost Tower!

Acrylic is okay I think, just think it'd look a little nice in more natural material. Then again, I don't know how well that'd hold up. And I suppose no one that wears them is itching from it. Still somehow when I see these I always think the posts would be more comfy in cotton or something. I should've said in my org. post that I do love to see these projects. The post just threw me off a little cause knittas have been around for a while now. But Knitta? Yes, Please!