We all heart a bit of craftivism and if you don't you will after I shove you in the direction of some of the most outspoken knits ever. Ladies and gents, the sweaters of Lisa Anne Auerbach.
Lisa's Little Red Blog of Revolutionary Knitting drags you by the yarn into a world of jumpers with attitude. A far cry from twee hearts and bunnies of sweater past these machine-knit garments tell it like it is in stitched spadeloads.
Featuring phrases with a sense of humour, such as "Thank God I'm an Atheist", a political message "Pro-life is Pro Living" and the philosophical, "If nothing changes, it changes nothing." they're comfortable sweaters with uncomfortable messages.
Lisa choose sweaters as they're more permanent than t-shirts and, quite frankly, they seem so much more effective. You can see a good selection on Steal This Sweater with some wordless items that are just as effective too.
Inspiring stuff. Saying it with stitches certainly gets the message across.
The World Cup has certainly left its mark on South Africa as projects all over the country work towards making life better for those in need after the football frenzy turned the spotlight on troubled areas. Highlighting the move towards peace a little bit of yarnstorming joins the movement on the city streets.
Smuts Avenue, set between Zoo Lake and the Goethe Institute, has been host to a little peace-flavoured guerrilla knitting in the wake of the World Cup. The pieces cheerfully sit there smiling out at the city stitchingly and giving out good messages in several of the country's official languages.
A noble bit of yarn art to highlight the fact that there's a hopeful and optimistic feel in the South African air even after the sound of the vuvuzelas has faded. Lovely.
Flower Power is very in vogue at the moment and it's cool to go green. With this in mind I thought I would share something cool I found on the ever-ingenious Instructables for helping turn your earthy spaces flowery.
The Seed Grenade is an easy-to-make project which will provide an explosion of petal-covered goodness wherever you chuck it. Made from clay and filled with the seeds of your choice it allows you to go out into the world and throw yourself into some guerilla gardening.
The tutorial takes you through each step from choosing the parts to your weapon to customising your seed grenade to give it a fruity flavour.
Now all you need to do is get out there and guerrilla garden. Good luck, seed soldiers.
Craftivism is about taking what you make or can make and using it to give voice to people who can't speak for themselves. Hands can make more of a statement than countless words sometimes do. This is very apparent in the case of the latest project to stride bravely onto the Craftivism scene.
Desconocida Unknown Ukjent, by artist Lise Bjorne, is an ongoing community art project that uses embroidery to highlight the plight of the growing number of women who disappear on the border between Mexico and the USA.
Since 1993 there have been 800 documented cases in the area but unofficial numbers suspect many many more. The cases go unsolved due in part to the Mexican Government remaining passive, and often hindering the process of justice.
Workshops on July 24th at London's Pallant House Gallery invite you to embroider labels containing the names of the dead and missing women of Juarez. These will be exhibited in the Contemporary Eye: Crossovers in October.
So far 2100 individuals in 27 countries have so far participated in the project. If you feel strongly then join them to speak out with your craft.
Art + knitting continues to pop up on the craft scene and prod you with a pair of DPNs till you take part. You are invited to join the fibre-fabulous folks at Prick Your Finger and their friends at the Shipley Art Gallery to take part in an interesting knitting art project.
The Gateshead Gallery opened its Craftivism: Objects to Change the World exhibition on July 10th.
This exhibition combines historical and contemporary craft with craftivism, which reflects the different ways craft has been valued as a powerful force for social, political and personal change over the past 150 years.
Part of the show are benches, the concept of artist-curator Trevor Pitt and Kate Pemberton, knit in different areas of the country: London, Northampton, Devon and Talgarth.
If you're in the area drop by and knit a row or two in the name of art.
Craft isn't content to sit quietly these days and is stamping about in its handmade boots to make all manner of statements worldwide. The movement has been dubbed 'craftivism' and it seems that craftists aren't afraid of anything. Not even a sleek and well-trained industry giant such as Nike.
From 2003 to 2008 knitting needles and crochet hooks were wielding by crafters internationally in a microRevolt project called the Nike Blanket Petition. They describe it simply as "a 15-foot wide handmade blanket of the Nike swoosh" made up of 4 x 4 inch stitched square to create the Nike logo. The idea is that it is a handmade signature demanding fair labour policies for Nike garment workers.
Virtual and handmade squares were collected on tour, electronically and by mail, representing over 30 countries demonstrated and the multi-coloured squares were knitted into the border of the Nike Blanket at Garanti Gallery in Istanbul Turkey in November 2007 next to a Nike store.
Since then the blanket has been toured across the US and has made it to the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, Oregon. The blanket be displayed at the museum, which is 9 miles from Nike Headquarters, until June 26th.
See it in Oregon or read about it where ever you are on microRevolt's website.
You can also check out their KnitPro free online application that turns logos into knitting charts, allowing you to handmake brand logos for a little microRevolution of your own.
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