New York has graffiti on the streets, but Stockholm has “craftism.”
It’s a street movement stemming from a local craft crew called Masquerade, who transform the urban environment with needlepoint!
Masquerade’s members - mostly female - use yarn and thread to create patterned bands, which they sew around railings, fences, street lamps, and other objects all over the city. They also embroider messages like “kramâ€? ( which translates to “hugsâ€? – aw!) into the cloth seats on commuter trains all over the country.
We don’t know whether to attribute this to the huge resurgence of homemade and handcrafted clothes in Sweden, the continuing strength of local DIY activism, or the country’s long history of radical gender equality and strong feminist movement –
But we love it!
—ALISON COOL
posted by katie
Jun 27, 2007 11:59AM
An American group did this out here in LA last month, and they've been doing it since 2005...so I think that, probably, it's not really attributable to anything essentially Swedish.
Regardless, it's an adorable idea. I love the way modern feminists have begun to embrace the arts practiced by the generations of women before them.
http://www.knittaplease.com/