Knitting as Protest and a Show of Love

$fracking protesters stage knit ins$ This week’s knitting news spotlights how knitting can be so much more than “just” making things.

First there’s a group of knitters in Australia who have been protesting against coal seam gas mining (also known as fracking) in their communities by staging a knit in at Member for Dubbo Troy Grant’s office every week since December.

The knitters say they want to show that protest doesn’t have to be violent or radical. One of the knitters, Helen Jeffery of Narromine, got involved when she learned there was a CSG exploration license on the land she and her husband own.

(Of course this story reminded me of the woman in Vermont who got arrested during a knit in protest at a local gas company, but I looked and there doesn’t seem to be more news there.)

Knitting can be an act of protest, but it can also be an act of love, as Virginia knitter Anna Taylor has shown by reaching her goal of knitting 1,000 sweaters for needy kids.

She started working with Guideposts Knit for Kids program in 2006, and it took her almost exactly nine years to knit 1,000 sweaters for the charity, which distributes garments to people in poverty throughout the world.

Now 87 years old, Taylor says she’s sleeps better at night knowing that she’s done something to help little kids, but she’s ready to take a little break from her knitting. She plans to read some books and clean her house.

Have you seen knitting in the news? I’d love it if you’d share, either in the comments or send me gossip at the top of the page.

[Photo via the Daily Liberal.]

Next Pattern:

Not too long ago I was seeing a crochet pattern for a glasses holder shaped like a bear all over the Internet. It was super cute, and also useful as a place to put your glasses on your bedside table instead of just throwing them somewhere random.

This project stewed in my brain for a little while and I decided I needed to make a knit version, but I didn’t want to make a bear. If you know anything about me you might know that I’m a cat person, so of course my version had to be a cat.

The base is just a basic little basic worked from the center out to the desired size, then up the sides as long as you want them. Knit some ears and add embellishments to make it whatever kind of animal you want.

The way I figured out to work the base from the center out was to use a crochet cast on, which gives you an easier way to pick up stitches from the back of the cast on than if you worked a more traditional cast on for a knitting project. It’s kind of fun to do things in a different way from time to time.

This little project is adorable if I do say so myself, and even as a plain little basket not made into an animal it’s a cute way to keep your glasses or other little things in one place. I’m tempted to make one for my desk to hold pens or even little little scissors and sewing needles that are always on my desk but somehow always seem to get lost on my desk.

If you need a little holder for your glasses on your table, check out the pattern at Our Daily Craft.

[Photo: Our Daily Craft]

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