Curation + Inspiration

I’ve always loved to knit and crochet. These crafts are quite meditative, filled with repetitive motions that help calm the mind. And the tactile sensation of the yarn slipping through my fingers always serves as a reminder that time slips by just as quickly.

Yet the only completed project I can boast of is a somewhat pathetic-looking baby blanket I created almost three decades ago while I was pregnant with my daughter.

“Blankie,” as my daughter affectionately called this piece later, is now tattered and shredded and torn, its fibers literally worn away by her love and attachment. Somehow she never seemed to mind that Blankie wasn’t perfect, shaped more like a parallelogram than a square and sporting gaps where gaps were never meant to be.

Obviously, while I can string together basic stitches, my skills are minimal at best. So for me, knitting and crocheting has always been about the journey and not the destination. About the process and not the outcome.

While I’d start a project with the best of intentions, partway through I’d always end up ripping the piece apart when it stopped resembling the picture in the instructions. Still this didn’t stop me from starting each new project with enthusiasm!

And perhaps that’s why I love the idea of Knitffiti or urban knitting that is popping up all around the world. These Knitffiti artists turn their efforts to adorning light posts, parking meters, stop signs and trees with their colorful creations.

Untitled by Emerald City to Oz on Flickr

Knitted Trees by DieselDemon on Flickr

This often unexpected rejuvenation of urban landscapes is simply delightful and reminds us that it’s perfectly okay to to knit just for the sheer pleasure of it.

After all, the piece you need to fashion to brighten up the post on your porch doesn’t have to be perfect. Even an inexperienced beginner can enjoy the process of creating a simple panel to wrap around a tree in the front yard. And what a great project for kids!  Instead of creating another high score on their favorite video game, they can craft leftover lengths of yarn into an outfit for the swing set in the backyard.

Knit Covered Bike Rack by firecatstef on Flickr

Knitted Microcosm in Pink by sunshinecity on Flickr

So perhaps it’s time to grab a crochet hook and have some fun. Your inner child loved building culinary masterpieces with Play-Doh when you were little and molding plain ol’ bricks into medieval castles. But when was the last time you let this gal out to play?

Often when she whines for playtime, we shut her down before we can even begin to exercise our creative muscle because we’re afraid that whatever we make—a cake, a poem, a dress, a song—just won’t be good enough. Or else we admonish our inner child with a stern reminder that we just don’t have time for such nonsense.

But I have a sneaking suspicion that as you wrap your finished piece of Knitffiti around your mailbox or drape it through the trellis in your garden, both you and your inner child will both be grinning from ear to ear.

Of course, if you’re one of those super-mega-talented-artistic-types, you should probably leave the Knitffiti to us less talented beginners and channel your energies into creating something beautiful like today’s VPOD.

This vintage 1960s knit dress and coat set shows just how lovely stitches and purls can be when wielded by a master.

And it’s a beautiful knitwear find for a Vintage Crusader!

Available at Lady*Day*s*Vintage.

(To receive the VPOD free via email with detailed size and price information, sign up for the growing email mailing list here. Your information will never be sold or shared and you can easily unsubscribe at any time. | Disclosure: Zuburbia is an affiliate of the eBay Partner Network.)