Guerilla knitting
I was going to write about the Good Touch Bad Touch Puppets flipchart project today, having been preparing for a training day that's happening tomorrow. But now it's come to it, I'm all flipcharted out and just need to rest my brain in preparation for the morrow. So will tell more about that next time.
Instead, something completely new has come to my attention today in two completely unrelated ways. The first was in a meeting about community arts and the second was on my Yahoo! homepage about an hour later.
At one point in the meeting an artist started talking about guerilla knitting. Immediately thoughts of her in a huge gorilla suit clacking needles came to mind.
"Gorilla knitting? What's that?"
So she told me about bands of knitters who make stuff and then go out at night to decorate the neighbourhood in woolly graffiti. So beanie hats will suddenly appear on top of bus-stops and multi-coloured pom poms dangle from trees.
Never heard of it before. But it made me smile.
And then an hour later, I was reading about it on Yahoo!. About random acts of guerilla knitting in Leicester. Which, as I've discovered, has more to it than meets the eye:
"Professor Hedderman added that there is psychological method in the madness behind putting knitted baubles on trees.
She said: "'Broken window theory' states that if you make an environment appear more pleasant and keep it nice, people will take more pride in it.
It approaches crime prevention in the complete opposite way to the deterrent approach by taking back public spaces and seeing them as welcoming areas.
Crime prevention like CCTV and buzzers in shopping centres is focused on trying to deter potential offenders, but the difference with something like 'guerrilla knitting' is that it's intended to make the community feel safer."
Leicester 'guerrilla knitting': The science behind police attempts to 'reclaim communities', Yahoo!, March 6th 2013
Good on you, Leicester knitters. May the fruit of your yarn bring joy to many.
Instead, something completely new has come to my attention today in two completely unrelated ways. The first was in a meeting about community arts and the second was on my Yahoo! homepage about an hour later.
At one point in the meeting an artist started talking about guerilla knitting. Immediately thoughts of her in a huge gorilla suit clacking needles came to mind.
"Gorilla knitting? What's that?"
So she told me about bands of knitters who make stuff and then go out at night to decorate the neighbourhood in woolly graffiti. So beanie hats will suddenly appear on top of bus-stops and multi-coloured pom poms dangle from trees.
Never heard of it before. But it made me smile.
And then an hour later, I was reading about it on Yahoo!. About random acts of guerilla knitting in Leicester. Which, as I've discovered, has more to it than meets the eye:
"Professor Hedderman added that there is psychological method in the madness behind putting knitted baubles on trees.
She said: "'Broken window theory' states that if you make an environment appear more pleasant and keep it nice, people will take more pride in it.
It approaches crime prevention in the complete opposite way to the deterrent approach by taking back public spaces and seeing them as welcoming areas.
Crime prevention like CCTV and buzzers in shopping centres is focused on trying to deter potential offenders, but the difference with something like 'guerrilla knitting' is that it's intended to make the community feel safer."
Leicester 'guerrilla knitting': The science behind police attempts to 'reclaim communities', Yahoo!, March 6th 2013
Good on you, Leicester knitters. May the fruit of your yarn bring joy to many.
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