Art Emergency

I know that sometimes yarn is useful for things other than knitting.

With a ball of yarn, you can truss a turkey.
Decorate your sun hat with pom poms.
Stuff your bra.
Entertain the cat.
Lay down a straight line of carrot seeds.
Measure the distance from the front door to the back door.
Christo a lampshade.
Trip a bad guy running after your friend, E.T.
Rapel down the White Cliffs of Dover.
Lash a broken mast together and finish the Halifax/Marblehead race.
Bring the entire printing operation of the New York Times to a screaching tangled halt.

Sew the earth back together:

My friend Megan lives next door to a beautiful old piece of land that was bought up and subdivided by a heartless contractor. Despite a city wide protest, he's sticking five houses right in her back yard, and through it all, she has to endure the rumblings of construction from 7 am to 3 in the afternoon five days a week from this May to next. The crew is amiable enough, but they keep opening up great trenches around her house for sewer, cable, telephone, and well, you get the picture. She called me one day last week for an art emergency: she had decided that she needed to remind the guys that for all the coffee they brought her and the cookies she made them, that she still had a comment to make about the disruption to her life, and her mail delivery. I gave her a skein of yarn from the stash to "sew" the gash back together.

Everyone thought it was pretty funny the next day, until they had to get back to work, of course. But art had been made.

Comments

[Jen in CT]

Sucks about the developer, but your art is awesome. Also, I like your list.

[Heather]

That is WONDERFUL. (If you have any more photos, or if you could tell me more about how the specific idea came about, I'd love it...I'm a rhetorician, specializing in rhetorical craft/needlework, and this is fascinating to me.)

What an awesome personal protest!

[Lynn in Tucson]

Most excellent.

[Aubrey]

That is really cool! What a way to make art, achieve catharsis (hopefully), and make a geopolitical statement all at once. Plus, the pics demonstrate how a beautiful image can be created out of a crummy situation.

[Holly]

Great idea and profound statement

[Teresa]

Very. Cool. and Powerful.

[Vicki]

I love that.

[Laurie]

Excellent statement.

[denny Mcmillan]

I had a prof. in Art School who use to "draw" with rope on the side of mountains. That what this reminds me of.

[Ruth]

Well done. Damn developers.

[Sarahfish]

Fantastic idea! I love that the yarn is pink. It makes it that much more graphic, and that much more... I dunno. I just love that its pink. Well done!

[chris]

That's great!!

Also, can I just tell you how much I love that you used "Christo" as a verb??!!

[Jamisyn]

First of all-that is awesome! And very creative.

However, I am a knitter and I work in the construction industry as an engineer; I must say that what your friend did was pretty dangerous...and while I am happy nothing bad happened, I hope that she has made her point and that she won't be climbing into another trench anytime soon, or ever again. Not to get all technical, but according to OSHA it is only acceptable to enter a trench less than 3-4' tall, and even then, if the trench walls should fail, whoever is standing in the trench will either die (crushed or suffocated) or get very seriously hurt. Also, it is a confined space...if there was too little oxygen in the trench and your friend bent over, she could pass out; and with little to no oxygen, could die. Even if someone else was there, they couldn't jump in to save her, because the same thing would happen to that person.

I hate to get all lecturey about this, because I think it is really cool; but concern for a fellow human being as well as a knitter overrides the cool factor any day.

[Beth S.]

Subdivision, grr! I am heartily sorry for your poor friend.

[Elise Campbell]

you go, ladies. go, go, go.

(k)not that we want to stop progress, but just let them know that it impacts us... yank that yarn.

[Amanda]

I love it. Good luck to Megan with the new neighbors, I hope her positive energy and good humor makes for peace in the new neighborhood; unfortunate though it may be.

[catsmum]

bloody brilliant

[lanea]

Beautiful. Just beautiful.

[Judy]

perfect comment

[Lucia]

Sniffle. That is great.

[twinsetellen]

Only a symbolic statement, but what is more powerful than a symbol?

[Marcy]

FABulous! Yarn as personal and social commentary. And pink yarn at that. :D