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    Protest Knits: Got needles? Get knitting
    Protest Knits: Got needles? Get knitting
    Protest Knits: Got needles? Get knitting
    Ebook147 pages55 minutes

    Protest Knits: Got needles? Get knitting

    By Geraldine Warner

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Protest Knits is the book for you: from pussy hats to protest scarfs and political pin cushions to shy anarchist socks, make your point with a crochet hook or pair of knitting needles. From the easy-peasy to the more complex, here are more than 15 projects for some crafty therapy.

    Knitting and handicrafts have a long history in protesting – the pussy hat project has been particularly successful but it joins a long tradition of crafty activism. In Canada, there's the Revolutionary Knitting Circle, which first made headlines for their protest at the 2002 G8 summit. Australia has the Knitting Nannas, who protest about environmental issues by holding 'knit-ins'. In the UK, activists from Wool Against Weapons knitted a seven-mile-long pink 'peace scarf' to protest against the country's Trident nuclear weapon programme. Then, a year later, they repurposed it into thousands of blankets for those in need in warzones and developing nations. Down in Chile, it's the hombres tejedores (knitting men) who break down stereotypes and teach other men to embrace the creative hobby.

    In cities across the world, 'yarn bombing' reclaims urban spaces with a pair of needles, covering everyday items in brightly coloured knits. Like other forms of graffiti, yarn bombing can convey a message of protest - or it can just be street art for the sake of art. Knitting for change is a global activity, so get your needles and hooks out and change the world!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateOct 19, 2017
    ISBN9781912217014
    Protest Knits: Got needles? Get knitting
    Author

    Geraldine Warner

    Geraldine Warner is a freelance writer and also works at Zenzie Tinker Conservation in Brighton. She is the author of several knitting books such as Knit Back In Time (2013) and Vintage Knit (2014). Under the pseudonym Trixie von Purl, she has also written two knitted-character books: Knit Your Own Kama Sutra (2015) and Pride & Preju-Knits (2015). Her knitting expertise led her to give a talk at the London Fashion & Textiles Museum and she has recently been included in Ceci N'est Pas Un Pull (2017), a book collection of fibre artists. She previously worked at the National Trust and at the Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft in East Sussex, UK.

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    Reviews for Protest Knits

    3.5/5

    9 ratings3 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Excellent book! Fun patterns, if you are pro women it's for you! If you're not ...well then it's not good for you.
    • 3/5
      My how times have changed! Not necessarily any better though! The patterns are a bit of fun, a lot of time could be spent fixing the crude knitting technique mistakes. I’m all for protesting but this book is already outdated.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      Utter bum fodder!!!! Not worth reading, let alone buying, utter garbage !!!!

      1 person found this helpful

    Book preview

    Protest Knits - Geraldine Warner

    CONTENTS

    1) Introduction

    2) A Short History

    3) Basic Techniques

    4) Abbreviations

    5) Knitting – Patterns

    6) Crochet – Patterns

    7) Acknowledgements

    Introduction

    Why Protest Knits?

    On January 20th 2017, Donald John Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States. Four months later, the world’s first protest from space was staged. Yup, you read that right – the Autonomous Space Agency Network (a community promoting open-source, DIY space exploration) flew a message addressed to Trump reading LOOK AT THAT YOU SON OF A BITCH and got it up to 90,000 feet above the earth’s surface attached to a weather balloon.

    Take a look around at what’s going on – how did we get here? We’re witnessing and taking part in the highest number of protests this century has seen so far, and feelings are running so high that protestors are searching for ever more innovative ways to make their voices heard. When democracy and human rights are threatened, every voice counts and we have to use all the tools we can lay our hands on – not everyone can get hold of a handy weather balloon, but we protestors are a notoriously resourceful bunch; how about channelling your anger by grabbing your your needles and yarn to fight the good fight?

    This collection of 17 knitting and crochet projects should get your activist juices flowing, all capturing the spirit of protest and revolution, mixed in with a liberal dose of the humour in evidence at so many recent protest marches worldwide. Craft itself is undergoing something of a revolution and ties into a grassroots folk tradition – the materials are cheap, readily available and get the message across. You could even start up a protest knit community and work on projects together while you hotly debate the issues at hand.

    The book includes something for every occasion, ranging from the quick and simple (labelled Easy), to items with a longer-term view (labelled Difficult). Even the difficult ones aren’t that hard, although they might call on your colourwork skills.

    I came here to knit hats and punch nazis and I’m all outta yarn

    A Short History

    Knitting and Protests

    Fun fact: knitting as a hobby is a relatively recent activity, although traditionally it already comes with some baggage. For the last 100 years it has brought with it images of comfort and home-making, and is seen as a genteel pastime enabling women to feel they’re doing something useful and productive with their spare time.

    It has had its moments however: in No Idle Hands, Anne McDonald looks at the important role that knitters and female crafters had to play in the American War of Independence through the creation of garments and home furnishings to help break UK dependence. Back in old Blighty, from the Boer War onwards, women were urged to knit for the men fighting abroad, while the Second World War gave the activity a sense of innovation as yarn was rationed and clothing was unravelled to be recrafted into new items.

    As it became cheaper to buy clothing instead of making it, and lack of spare time rendered the hobby a less useful activity for busy women, knitting faded from popularity along with sewing and other textile crafts. In addition to economic practicalities, the image of women sitting at home knitting did not fit in with the modern feminist movement’s challenge to traditional female constructs. Happily, the recent post-technological craft revolution has seen a new wave of makers coming through who want to subvert the conservative image presented by knitting and to take it out of the realms of the passive into a more active arena.

    In 2005, a Houston-based group of knitting individuals formed the group Knitta Please. With names inspired by hip-hop stars (LoopDogg, SonOfAStitch, The Knotorious N.I.T.), and their method of tagging their work, they conjured a more challenging attitude. They took to the urban streets with their own brand of knitted graffiti, decorating lamp-posts, railings, fire hydrants, and anything else they considered would benefit from a bit of woolly beautification.

    This fun, edgy version of knitting took off worldwide, and hundreds of cities and towns saw increasingly ambitious knitted graffiti springing up in the streets. The term yarn-bombing was born, lending the craft a more aggressive slant.

    Fast-forward a decade and sadly, women once again feel they need to challenge their role in society. As the liberal western world faces a battle with the political right, we are motivated to provide a loud reminder of how hard we have fought to gain some gender equilibrium. The beauty of this method of subversion is

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