How To Knit A Miniature Sweater

Striking at the Heart of Yarn Bombing

Tomorrow, the exterior of Jimmy Valentine’s Lonely Hearts Club on Bladensburg Road NE will be covered—that is to say,  yarn-bombed —with knitted hearts in shades of pink and red. The cozy facade is part of ARTventures on H , during which galleries and art spaces along the H Street NE corridor open their doors for a neighborhood art walk. Beth Baldwin —artist, crafter, and self-proclaimed “Queen of Knitting Awesomeness”—came up with the idea to swathe Jimmy V's in knit graffiti, and has been organizing “knit-ins” to procure as many hearts as possible for the 5:30 p.m. unveiling. “I’d love to have 150 hearts on the building,” she says. “I am really hoping to make this the biggest yarn bomb D.C. has had.”

Though Jimmy Valentine’s will undoubtedly look pretty cool, we have to ask: Is sanctioned knit graffiti…graffiti? Street art, of which knit graffiti is a part, is generally created in secret and its content is often anti-establishment in nature. Even D.C.’s own renegade yarn bombers, Mount Pleasant’s Warm and Fuzzies (whom  I wrote about on Arts Desk last August ), go by the street names Pasta and Ruffles . What does it mean when street art becomes part of an organized, marketable event? Is this tantamount to  Banksy revealing his identity and putting together installations for Coke? Is yarn bombing all downhill from here?

Baldwin notes that the hallmark of a successful piece of public art is when it makes a person take in the environment in a new way and adds lightness and humor to his or her day. The Jimmy Valentine’s project should definitely accomplish that whether or not the hearts go up with the owner’s blessing. Pasta and Ruffle’s take? “It’s a little different than what we do,” the Warm and Fuzzies write in an email. “It’s more about marketing and less about personal expression, though approved yarn bombing is an innovative marketing technique and it also supports local artists.”

But knit graffiti has another strike against its covert, rebellious rep—it’s been all over the mainstream news recently, from an NPR “All Things Considered” piece in April to a New York Times

aef, a good point. There’s always a debate when art or music that’s been more “underground” becomes more mainstream. For some, something is lost – the object or song loses its “aura” – while for others, it's a good thing because more people get to enjoy it and it still fulfills many of the same functions it originally did (like what Beth Baldwin said about the success of public art being its ability to make someone take in the environment in a new way). Thanks for your comment.