The Knitterati

I am now convinced that Atlanta is simply a city that keeps on giving. When you look up from the tunnel vision of mundane life, there is no shortage of wonderful and colorful sights for your eyes to feast on! One such delight: creations by local Atlanta group, The Knitterati.

First of all, that name is AWESOME. Second, yes. This is a bicycle that has crocheted and knitted yarn around it, from handlebars to wheels to pedals to kickstand.

As soon as I saw this bike in the East Atlanta Village neighborhood, I knew I had to blog about it.

When most people think about street art, yarn rarely comes to mind as a medium. But that's what I love about street art; it's limited only by the artists' imagination.

I mean, just look at it! First of all, it's done in patterns. Switching out balls of yarn, incorporating textures, knitting around an object like a bike lock... #Talent

I had to find out more about The Knitterati. I spoke with Brigette from the group, who was kind enough to tell me how the group began and share pictures of their work.

This bridge was Knitterati'd for Art on the BeltLine

Could this be... a Snuggie for a tree?

The Knitteratti began as a group of friends who casually got together for knitting. Brigette attended SXSW one year in Austin, TX, where she saw and was inspired by the work of a *phenomenal* artist named Magda Sayeg, who knitted trees leading up to the capitol and is considered to be the mother of yarn bombing.

Check out this bus that she knitted around:

So yes, Magda is quite an inspiration. (And also a very nice person. I contacted her to use one of her pictures, and she was a doll.)

Back to Atlanta's Knitterati. Seeing Magda's creations planted the idea in Brigette's mind that Atlanta could use something cool like that, too.

Upon returning to Atlanta, she saw a grant application for Art On the BeltLine so she enlisted a couple of friends to help and applied. They were awarded the grant and have been doing public installations ever since.

The rest, as they say, is Knitterati history...