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Meet the Park Slope Woman Who Has Been Dressing Up Trees
By
Jen Carlson
Published Feb 17, 2011
Modified Feb 18, 2011
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Feb 17, 2011
Modified Feb 18, 2011
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
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Photos via IMBY
Move over Knitta Please and Olek (whose show is opening tonight)... 57-year-old Laurie Russell has just been exposed as the woman behind the trio of trees adorned in knit in Park Slope. According to Park Slope Patch, that's who has been keeping the trees on 16th Street (between 6th and 7th avenues) warm for the winter. She told them:
“I knit as a hobby, and I was tired of making scarves. I had knit one or two sweaters, but I’m not a very advanced knitter. I was looking at dogs, sausage dogs, and think about what a fun sweater shape that would be. But I don’t have a dog. So I started looking at trees as a simple sweater.”
Russell had no idea she was part of a budding community of knitting street artists, though says her saffron-colored piece was an ode to Christo and Jeanne-Claude's The Gates. She's been at it for years, and says she dresses her first tree in mid-December of each year, removing them when spring approaches. Can any Fashion Week people tell us what's "in" for trees this Spring?
Tagged
brooklyn
knitting
Laurie Russell
park slope
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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