Knitters Dress Up Trees for Public Art

Here’s a cool public art project.  Some Ohio artists started the “Knitknot Tree Project,” wrapping a Bradford Pear with colorful panels of yarn knitted individually by residents and visitors alike. Good-luck charms cling to the yarn. Family photos, poems and jokes peek out of knitted pockets.

Apparently this form of textile art has become popular around America. Knitters are dressing trees, street signs, benches, door handles and other objects. Residents of Columbus, IN, knitted cozies for 33 ornamental pear trees that line the city’s main street. One tree, called the People Hugger, has knitted arms.  Knitted coverings are showing up on trees and doorknobs in Charleston, WV.  And in Houston, knitters have dressed up park benches, car antennas, telephone poles and beer bottles.

Disclosure:  One of the artists associated with the Knitknot Tree Project is a friend and frequent commenter of MadSilence.  You can visit JafaBrit at her blog.

For other examples of tree art, check out this modest arboreal specimen:

Carol Hummel image via JafaBrit 

There’s also Early Frost© by Janet Morton consisting of 13 locust trees covered in found/collected lace in autumn:

Beautiful! 

Related links:
Knitters Dress Up Trees for Public Art  from AP (Associated Press)
Knitters Dress Up Trees for Public Art (with slide show)  from wahingtonpost.com

~TAB