Melissa Corkhill

By Melissa Corkhill

07th October 2016

The Wool Against Weapons campaign was actually thought up around a campfire in a muddy field the day Stroud resident Jaine Rose managed to scale a very large barbed wire fence as part of a direct action protest at Hinckley.

Melissa Corkhill

By Melissa Corkhill

07th October 2016

Melissa Corkhill

By Melissa Corkhill

07th October 2016

A conversation about activism and wool started up as she sat there with her knitting needles and the rest, as they say, is history. That was October 2012, and the campaign was launched 6 weeks later.

Two things fire Jaine up about this project. Firstly, the Government is planning to spend an obscenely large amount of our money - in excess of £100 billion - on renewing Trident nuclear weapon in 2016. There is a fantastic opportunity to send a clear message to the world saying, ‘Nuclear weapons do not make our planet a safer place.

We do not want them, nor can we ever use them. Let’s redirect our resources into healthcare, education, environment and positive change!’ The other thing that is getting everyone excited is the thought of linking up thousands of knitters, crocheters and crafters in a fun and accessible protest - knitting for peace is hugely inspiring and something all the family can be part of.

‘On August 9 we are going to unroll possibly the UK’s largest yarn bomb to date,’ says Jaine. ‘A seven mile long pink peace scarf between the bomb factories at Aldermaston and Burghfield in Berkshire. The scarf will drape over trees, down roads, over fences, and of course we will need hundreds of willing hands to help hold up the thousands of joined up scarf pieces! It will be a positive, celebratory family day with music, refreshments, and, of course, lots of creativity. ‘It feels like everyone is knitting around the clock,’ she continues. ‘All pink of course, the most wonderful anti-war colour.’ Even Jaine’s hair is dyed shocking pink - when people stop her in the street to ask about her crazy hair, she tells them about Wool Against Weapons and promptly asks them if they can knit. She has no idea how many pieces have been knitted to date - but thousands of people are already joining in across the world.

And the best thing of all? After the event, all the pieces of scarf are being repurposed into blankets for babies, children and adults, supporting small, grassroots campaigns in Tanzania, Uganda, Syria and the UK, so nothing is being wasted.

STREET ART

Knit the City make street art. But not as you know it. They are a band of sneaky stitching graffiti knitting and crochet artists. ‘We have an ongoing mission to guerilla knit the city of London, and beyond that the planet,’ shares Deadly Knitshade (undercover name!), one of the founders of this yarnstorming collective. No part of the city is safe from Knit the City’s woolly war on the mundane, humdrum and expected. Each of the members of the collective have their own reasons for their knitty crimes but the overall mission remains the same: ‘We want to yarnstorm until we can yarnstorm no more,’ says Deadly Knitshade. So what is “yarnstorming”? ‘Graffiti knitting or yarnstorming (or yarn bombing with a nod to guerilla knitting cousins in the US) is the art of conjuring up a piece of knitting or crochet, taking it out in the world, releasing it into the wild, and running away giggling like a mad thing,’ says Deadly Knitshade. ‘This is a street art that harks back to woolly stereotypes of grandmas, itchy jumpers, illfitting socks and nice cups of tea by the fire,’ she explains. ‘But yarnbombing takes this stereotype by the blue rinse and drags it into the street to blanket a bollard in beasts, swathe a signpost with stitched silliness, or cover a corner in wild woolly creatures. We don’t just “put knitting on things”. We use our fibre art to tell “stitched stories”, employing our sticks and string to tell a tale. An idea we’re proud to see has been taken up by sneaky stitchers worldwide.’

MAKE A DIFFERENCE

In Stratford, knitters are gathering together to make crochet squares to benefit AIDS victims in Africa. Escape Community Arts are working with Goodwill and Growth for Africa UK (GAGA) and have organized workshops to make crochet squares to contribute to the Yarn Bombing Event in December. The sessions are open to everyone of all ages, to bring along existing skills or learn new ones. All squares produced in the workshop go towards forming a beautiful vibrant knitted tree cosy called The Remembering Tree. It will be unveiled on World Aids Day on December 1st in Bancroft Gardens. The Remembering Tree will be made up of 1,500 crocheted squares, many of which have been produced in South Africa by women from poor communities to help boost their income and give them new skills. Once the yarn squares are removed, the wool will be washed and recycled into blankets to be sent either to Sierra Leone or a homeless charity in the local area. Members of the public are encouraged to purchase a square for £5 to celebrate or remember someone that they love. The organisers believe it will be the biggest tree ever yarn bombed in the UK. GAGA is dedicated to helping children and communities affected by HIV, AIDS, poverty and violence in Africa. The charity supports health clinics, pre-schools, primary schools, skills and business training programmes (leading to individual self-sufficiency) and university scholarships. The charity works on the principle that no child deserves to live a life without the security of shelter, health care, education, food or opportunity. Without these things development and progression is often stunted and sometimes impossible.

MORE INSPIRATION

READ Knit the City by Deadly Knitshade (£9.99, Summersdale)

GET INVOLVED Check out woolagainstweapons.co.uk for the 9 Aug event.

FIND The Remembering Tree on Facebook at facebook.com/ therememberingtree.

YARN BOMBING TIPS

Yarn bombing simply means covering a public item with knit, crochet or woven yarn fabric. It’s a form of artistic expression and frankly, just good ol’ fashioned fun. Here are Vickie Howell’s tips for successful yarn bombing.

BE BOLD. Big stripes of bold colours give yarn bombed pieces that extra pop!

GO CRAZY…but don’t make yourself nuts. Don’t be scared off by oddly shaped items. Remember, your cozies don’t have to be perfectly tailored. I suggest working with small pieces or long strips and sewing them together as you go, to fit whatever you’re covering. Knit and crochet pieces are pliable, so you can pull, wrap, tuck and sew them into place. Perfection isn’t the point here; making the world more colourful is!

THINK BIG; START SMALL. We’ve all been inspired by photos on the web of completely knit-covered apartments, stairways and automobiles, but it’s best to begin your yarn-bombing follies with a more attainable goal. A tree branch, street sign pole or park bench legs all offer great canvases for spreading a little yarn love, without making a huge time commitment. From there though, the sky’s the limit! Literally; you can’t yarn bomb the sky.

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