When no one is looking, Knitta, Please! tags cities with cozies and scarves.
Photography by William Anthony
Walking through city streets at night, claiming its turf as any street tagger would with
you expect to see certain things. Old spray paint. These tags, however, do not inspire
newspapers blowing around, steaming frustrated cleanings by building superintendents
manhole covers, a cold world of cement and metal. and business owners; instead, they are greeted with
Imagine then, turning a corner and seeing a lamp- charmed amusement and curiosity about who the
post swathed in an adorable fuzzy sweater. Or a car perpetrators are.
antenna topped with a jaunty knit cozy. Or a metal The group, which originated in Houston, has
door handle sporting a multicolored scarf. It can rapidly gained fame since it began in 2005, much to
mean only one thing — that the hardcore crew of its surprise. Starting with a write-up in the Houston
knitting gangstas known as Knitta Please! has Press, interest in Knitta, Please! spread like wild-
just bombed your city with its exotic and fluffy fire, and within months the crew was written up in
brand of graffiti! numerous blogs and magazines, invited to national
Usually working anonymously and sporting “gang” art exhibitions, and even mentioned on Saturday
monikers such as PolyCotN, AKrylik, Purl Nekklas Night Live.
14k, SonOfaStitch, Loop Dogg, MascuKnitity, The Deciding from the start to work anonymously, the
Knotorious N. I. T., P-Knitty, GrannySQ, and Knidiot, Knitta crew generally operates under a veil of secrecy.
the group mixes the sweet charm of what it does “Several of us are moms, or have quiet lives, and we
(knitting cozies for door knobs, for instance) with a thought if we were running around tagging stuff,
smartass, tongue-in-cheek version of the bravado it might be best to keep it on the lowdown,” explains
and edge of tagging. Rather than spread paste-ups Knitta cofounder Magda Sayeg, aka PolyCotN.
or paint in the middle of the night, members of Sayeg, however, surprised by the exuberant
the crew slip out and stealthily sweater an entire reception from the public and media, realized
neighborhood, hitting businesses and private that the group was on to a good thing, and savvily
property alike. embraced the media and requests for installations
As appealing as these midnight raids to drop by the Knitta Crew. In the process, she dropped
some serious cute on a sleeping city are, the idea her anonymous persona to better deal with both
that Knitta is actually creating street art is not curators and reporters. The rest of the crew, for the
unfounded. Knitta shares several traits with urban most part, still keeps underground.
art and graffiti; both are often furtively done and The whole Knitta phenomenon started when
created without thought to monetary recom- Sayeg asked her friend Carol Cunningham (who
pense. Art writers could have a field day with the later became AKrylik) to knit a door-handle cozy for
concept of introducing the “feminine touch” or her office. Noticing people’s double-take reaction,
“homemaker’s work” to the urban jungle, where they started to create cozies and sweaters for
the group leaves small tags with its knitted works, trees, car antennas, scooter handle grips, and bike
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