Have you heard of Banksy? Yes. We’ve managed to track down the Fastener who is part of a team who are the equivalent of Banksy on the knitting world. Crafting knitting pieces to adorn public places, it’s called graffiti knitting, read more to find out how it happens…
Why are you called the Fastener?
The Fastener is my graffiti tag name, I use a lot of buttons, beads and embellishments and fasten it all together on the urban landscape.
How did you get into graffiti knitting?
My friend told me about it and I loved the idea. At the time it was early days for her group, Knit in the City, but the operated a strict closed door policy. So, I went off and did it on my own. Finally they asked me to join them, I was really pleased and now I’m part of knit in the city, it’s good because we all have very different styles!
Where have you graffiti in London?
I started in Twickenham, but I’ve graffiti all around London, at the Royal Opera House, Aldwych tube station, London Bridge and many more places. We’ve got the Knit in the City book coming out in March, which shows many more places.
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| Aldwych tube station |
Do you have many fans?
We have a very large fan base around the world, graffiti knitting is really popular in Germany and Switzerland, we’ve chosen to launch our book in Germany. We’ve also had a few camera crews travel over from Brazil to film us, which has been cool. National Wool Week last year, was a very busy time for us, we appeared on the sofa on This Morning and we also worked with Stitch London to create a knitting shop display for John Smedley to represent key times or places in their history.
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| John Smedley |
What’s next?
If I told you I’d have to kill you! But it will be connected to the book launch in Berlin in March.
Do you teach knitting?
Not at the moment, sometimes I help out at the free stitch London learner classes, but I may teach more in the future.
What else do you have planned for the future?
I also create original pieces of jewellery which I’m going to sell online, check out the website; www.emmatoft.co.uk
For more details about graffiti knitting and Knit in the City check out the Fastener’s blog http://thefastener.wordpress.com/ or tweet the Fastener at @TheFastener
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