Saw this on KQED, thought some of the crafty types here would appreciate it. I hadn’t seen these, but now I want to:
The retired nurse has lived in San Francisco for 43 years. On a recent trek from BART, she spotted adorable knitted animals near City Hall: chameleons with leopard spots, brown fuzzy otters and giraffes licking branches with long pink tongues.
Which brings us to Robin’s question: What’s the story behind the knitted creatures on the trees in Civic Center?
As I said, I’d never noticed them, but I’ll definitely go a block out of my way next time I’m nearby. SF might not be any good at addressing dystopian income inequality, homelessness, housing shortages, or transit, but we’re rarely hurting for cool public art.
What Robin saw in the Civic Center were yarn bombs: street art made from knitted or crocheted fabric. They can be as simple as a green snake wrapped around a bike rack or as elaborate as covering an entire bridge. It’s been called a feminist answer to graffiti.
[…] “Yarn bombing is the perfect way to make something and then put it somewhere that is not our closet,” Jill says, laughing.
The short read/video is just really heartwarming. It made me feel like maybe things are kind of okay. Pretty weird!
Open thread.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
I noticed the giraffes a few days ago! But I didn’t spot the otters and chameleons, so I guess the chameleons at least are true to life.
Civic Center Plaza is definitely a little more usable and a little less dominated by the unkempt, unfortunate, unglued, and unwound these days.
Major Major Major Major
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: I legit hate those trees so that could have something to do with me not seeing them.
jl
thanks for interesting post. Next time I am by there I will check them out.
IF they really exist. San Francisco is the home of many world famous hallucinations, you know.
NotMax
Meh.
Must get pretty funky after it rains.
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: Why do you hate trees?
jl
@NotMax: ” funky ”
It’s San Francisco, Jake. City and County of San Francisco, thank you very much good day to you Sir.
NotMax
Here come some big blows. Venetian blinds on window of back door are at horizontal. And that’s with a wooden windbreak on the back porch.
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: it hasn’t rained in California in years.
@Yarrow: just those ones.
Yarrow
@NotMax: Be safe.
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: What’s wrong with those trees?
jl
@Yarrow: SF has a penchant for planting its plazas with plane trees or similar ‘sycamore’ type species. . They have weird fruits that fall over everything and are regularly pollarded (is that a word?). I don’t know why that is. They are not big hits with a lot of people.
Anyway, it has been noted that MMMM does not approve of the civic trees of the City and County of San Francisco, and the Committee will deal with him promptly.
Major Major Major Major
@Yarrow: the species is uniquely ugly during the winter.
Pete Downunder
Up in the hip community of Maleny,QLD (in the Sunshine Coast hinterland north of Brisbane) this trend is going full bore. The funniest is a full scall knitted blue police call box (Dr Who style) that now adorns the front of the new and brutalist cop shop.
Major Major Major Major
@jl: we have nice ginkgoes on my block.
Yarrow
@jl: Seems kind of dumb for the city to plant trees that are unpopular with the residents. Aren’t there any native trees that would do well? M4 is hoping to move from SF so maybe the Committee won’t have to bother.
@Major Major Major Major: Interesting.
Mnemosyne
Anti-tariff rumblings have already started coming from the big craft chains like Joann’s — I got an email a few days ago asking me to sign their anti-tariff petition. Apparently the tariffs are going to hit fabrics hard and fabric retailers are freaking out.
I guess Trump didn’t learn from that sea of pink pussyhats that you don’t fuck with crafters and he needs to get another beatdown.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
SF has an official range of species from which residents are encouraged to choose when planting street trees – some native, some suitable to the local conditions, some traditional favorites – but we also have a long history of past mistakes and good intentions gone awry but still very much with us.
What, like you don’t?
Also, since it’s an OT, Alexandra Petri is still a goddamn National Treasure.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Major Major Major Major: The spindly horrid examples of the same species along Market Street look even worse – and now they’re protected as part of some idiotic historic preservation designation of the landscape design along that stretch of Market, as if no one ever thought of brick-sidewalks-plus-plane-trees before. Sigh.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Female gingko trees, in a word, stink. Article keeps referring to “rot.” Olfactory experience (college campus had some female gingkos) is that damaging/crushing the fruit is sufficient.
From a few years back:
Seoul embarks on citywide effort to clear ginkgo stink
Jay
@Yarrow:
Urban street trees face unique challanges.
And no matter what you plant, there’s gonna be people who don’t like them.
jl
@Yarrow: I’m not sure why. Maybe a limited set of choices for what they want. I think the City (with ‘C’ if you please) wanted something with a European feel that would be planted in geometric patterns, easily kept compact, and cheap maintenance. So, plant sycamore type things II think some parks have maples that are called ‘sycamores’) and pollard them every year.
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: seems to know about SF Tree Policy (or lack thereof), so I’d be interested in further info if ‘Collette’ has any. We have a problem with old giant ficus trees that fall down when it rains and destroy mass quantities of nearby whatever. IIRC, this oh so liberal city threw up its hands to decided that property owners would be responsible for maintaining trees of all provenance on or near their property lines, which did not turn out well. I think the City has some poorly funded half-ass policy to take care of its owned damned trees now. But not sure if I have that quite right.
jl
@NotMax: A lot of cities ban unsterilized femaie ginko trees, or you have to plant boy trees only. I wonder if SF has a policy on it. I’ve never come across one with fruit around here.
JAFD
Greetings from New Jersey!
Not Max – Take things EASY, and be safe. We’re looking forward to seeing you again.
Minor quandry I thought I had: Looked at
https://act.moveon.org/event/unite-for-justice/search/
– rallys Saturday to stop Kavanaugh – and found:
one in Maplewood – silent march through the town center in red robes – 32 people signedup so far (I doubt I could come up with red robe by tomorrow)
one in Montclair, at the public library – refreshing page now , it says ‘we have exceeded space capacity’
And the one at Foley Square in Manhattan at noon
So looks like this is not the question I thought it was. So will try to get up early, on PATH to World Trade Center (must check to see what disruption the Port Authority has lined up _this_ weekend). Should be really nice weather, for August in NYC, this weekend.
Major Major Major Major
@JAFD:
what why
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: Fisco shouldn’t be allowed to plant Sycamores(Aliso), that’s a major part of LA history. We should sue to prohibit such heresy.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: ‘Fisco’?
From my memory of lived in Los Angeles, most Los Angeles residents have only the vaguest idea of exactly what a tree even is. It has something to do with something called the natural world, whatever that is. They knew as much about trees as they did about the famous spaghetti mines of Italy. It’s a non-issue. Maybe an influencer on social media will make trees a Thing someday.
Platonailedit
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: Los Angeles was founded under El Aliso, a large sycamore by the Los Angeles River. Geez, jl, do I have to do all your homework for you?
Major Major Major Major
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Isn’t that river, like, boarded-up concrete?
Jay
@Major Major Major Major:
The Handmaid’s Tale, Handmaids, ( breeders) wear red robes.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major:
The river flooded and changed course on a regular basis, so it was channeled by the Army Corp of Engineers in the late 1930’s. There are proposals to restore major portions of the river to a more natural state.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@?BillinGlendaleCA: At one point in the mid 1800’s the LA River made a turn just south of Downtown LA and flowed west and met with Ballona Creek and followed it’s current course to Santa Monica Bay.
JAFD
Apologies.
The rallies – again, see
https://act.moveon.org/event/unite-for-justice/search/
are on the 26th of August, which is Sunday, which is the day _after_ tomorrow
I have been discombubulated lately. A young lady, who knew me well, a couple of decades ago, concluded that I must be a space alien from a planet with 27-hour days, that that was the most logical reason I kept getting disconnected from this world’s day/night cycle. Being retired and not having to Be Somewhere At 9 AM has not helped.
Apple season has begun in the Northern Hemisphere. A while back, I kept a record of each different apple variety I’d eaten in a year (starting with my birthday, in late July). Reached 41 once, but was traversing Reading Terminal Market a couple of times a week, then. Started this year’s list, got some Paula Reds and Jonagolds at market yesterday…
Evelyn Franklin
Along the same lines, really liked ‘Yarn’ on Netflix. Inspiring!
kindness
I love the quirkiness of SF & the Bay Area. Good times.
afanasia
This bus cozy is my favorite: Mexico, 2012.
afanasia
@Evelyn Franklin: Yes, great documentary….
SWMBO
@Mnemosyne: I got the email from Joann’s too. They are sending them to everyone. And I haven’t talked to my mom to see if she got one. She’s a big Trump fan. Don’t know that she would admit to getting it.