It was an unusually warm February night in Pilsen. Cops drove by slowly, patrolling the neighborhood because there had been a shooting earlier in the day. Four girls were out on a mission, and at this point, not even cops were going to stop them. Although they looked suspicious walking down the street with scissors, zip-ties and hoodies in tow-they were harmless.

They headed to 18th Street, despite the traffic and frequent pedestrians. While one girl was holding the knitted artwork on a pole, another was placing the zip-ties onto the parking meter and one was looking out to see if anyone was coming.

They had never done this before, and without knowing the consequences, a rush of anxiety and adrenaline kept them going. As they completed their masterpiece, another snapped a picture to capture their work, and off they went to find the next pole, parking meter or tree.

Today they can walk by that same spot and see their knit graffiti in the daylight, secretly knowing they took part in its conception.

These four members of El Stitch y Bitch have one mission in mind: to conquer Pilsen with their colorful, handmade knitting projects. Their inspiration comes from various blogs like the knitta girls of Knitta Please, the founders of knit graffiti.

The Pilsen chapter of Stitch and Bitch hopes to follow in their footsteps by placing knitting projects throughout the neighborhood in peculiar spots, such as benches and poles, to create the harmless graffiti-knit graffiti. Though this trend is slowly starting to grow in Chicago, other cities across the country have been expressing their ideas and art through knit graffiti for years.

Founding member of the group Thelma Uranga, 27, has been knitting since she attended Illinois State University. After graduating from college last year and coming back to her hometown of Cicero, Ill., she eagerly looked for other people to join her in forming a knitting circle. It took countless MySpace bulletins to get four of the regular members to get together last June. They met at one of their houses and had one of their grandmas show them her technique.

Now they meet at Efebeos Cafe, 1640 S. Blue Island Ave., whenever their schedules allow. They walk in with their big, colorful tote bags and head to the usual couch situated in the middle of the cafe. Large needles and different colors of yarn stick out as they place their bags down. Another smaller bag inside holds more necessary supplies-needles of every size and color.

They quickly take out their latest projects, cross their legs and start knitting away while complimenting each other as they notice their progress and new supplies.

“I started knitting in high school, and when I came back home a lot of my friends were knitting. We always said, ‘Yeah we’re going to start a knitting circle,’ so we did,” Uranga said. “There are four of us that are regulars. We’re having an event coming up because we want more people to join.”

Another member, Vivian Ramos, 29, sits patiently, sliding small green beads one by one through a string of yarn for her next project, an Old English beaded “B” that will take 457 beads to create. Ramos admits she was always the knitting geek growing up.

“I’ve been knitting since I was in high school, so over 10 years [now],” Ramos said. “My sister’s mother-in-law would knit and crochet all the time, and she taught me. But she taught me the [old] way of knitting, not like the way we knit now. It was a lot faster, and I never made anything anybody wanted. I would just make stuff because I just wanted to.”

Their first knit graffiti can be seen in front of their hangout spot. Layers of knitted yellow, lime green and red, topped off with a colorful fuzzy layer of yarn sits on the pole in front of Efebeos Cafe. Since they are familiar with the owners, they knew placing it there wouldn’t be an issue. Another on a nearby tree down 18th Street stands out with its red yarn and the word “knit” reads vertically in bold white letters.

Although it would make more sense to go out and choose a spot before starting a new project, they don’t. The group begins working on something and once it’s completed at their next meeting, they go out to 18th Street to find a pole, tree or parking meter that fits their piece.

Other than adding color to the streets and making it more appealing, they agree that when it comes to knit graffiti, there has to be a positive point coming across to the community.

“I want to do more statement pieces,” Ramos said. “I want to work on messages like love and patience so that when people read it, it can have a positive affect on them rather than just looking pretty.”

Though they haven’t seen or heard much reaction from the community yet, they hope the recent graffiti won’t cause any disturbances.

A couple of weeks ago, Ramos was knitting a rainbow-colored gay pride scarf for one of her lesbian friends. When she was more than halfway done with it, her friend told her she was going to start dating a man. She took the scarf to their next gathering, and they decided to put it up somewhere. The chosen spot turned out to be a parking meter in front of Knee Deep, 1425 W. 18th St., a men’s and women’s vintage shop.

Uranga said she knew the owners of the shop were openly gay, so placing the rainbow scarf on a parking meter there wouldn’t offend them. But compliments and positive reactions are not always what knit graffiti receives.

“[Our] main thing was that [we] didn’t want to offend anyone or get in trouble with the private property, and [we] figured, if someone doesn’t like it, [we] can cut it off and it’s not permanent,” Ramos said.

Corrine Bayraktaroglu, a member of Jafagirls, an Ohio-based knit graffiti group, has not received any negative comments personally, but she’s aware of them because of what she’s read through various blogs she follows.

“There’s a lot of negativity,” Bayraktaroglu said. “A lot of people, especially traditional knitters, will think it’s a waste of yarn and that [we] should be using it for the homeless or that [we] shouldn’t be wasting our time doing that. The homeless need food, clothes, toiletries and money. It’s nice to donate knitting, but there are more pressing needs for the homeless.”

Bayraktaroglu and her friend Nancy Miller covered different trees, poles and benches in their hometown of Yellow Springs, Ohio, with knit graffiti.

One bench in front of a post office, which they tagged with knit graffiti, was dedicated to one of their friends who had passed away. The top row of the bench is decorated with a bright flower-like pattern with flowers made out of beads and a sign reads, “Elaine’s Bench.” Unlike the girls in Pilsen, Jafagirls go out at any time of the day to place the knit graffiti.

“Yellow Springs has been remarkably supportive of this,” Bayraktaroglu said. “Our street maintenance crew had to replace a pole that had been knocked down by a truck, and they actually took the knitting off the pole and fit it onto the new pole.”

Although some of the knit graffiti in Pilsen has been taken down, the members of El Stitch y Bitch are not giving up anytime soon.

“We were totally bummed about it, but we plan on going on and making many, many more,” Uranga said.

To keep up with the group’s latest endeavors, visit ElStitchyBitch.BlogSpot.com.