July 14, 2010

Knitting & Crocheting a Community

I was happy to find out that there is a small group of people here in Lethbridge that get together once a month "for laughs, friendship, good conversation about social justice, perhaps good food and drink, and of course - knitting! Whether a novice or expert, all are invited to participate!"

And, their group is called Knitting a Revolution!  I admit, I haven't actually gone yet, but did participate in one of their projects:
"As you may or may not have heard, this past Saturday a young gay man in Lethbridge was the victim of a hate crime. His garage was broken into and his vehicle was spray-painted with several anti-queer slurs. In response, the Lethbridge community as a whole is coming together to protest actions of hate. Several organizations are coming together to hold an Anti-Hate Rally on Thursday, June 24 from 6pm-7pm at City Hall.

As this is during the Lethbridge Knitting a Revolution's monthly knitting circle time, I was wondering if we would be interested in being a group at the rally....perhaps knitting against hate or something? I think that having people knit is symbolic of anti-violent gatherings but we could do more than that."
So a few friends and I got together in my living room and whipped up a few squares over some wine.  The squares along with some foam heart cut-outs that people could write on were installed on the trees outside city hall:

Thanks to Arron for the pics!  Someone commented that once installed, the flags reminded them of Tibetan Prayer Flags.  These colorful flags, printed with prayers, are often hung in the windy hills of the himilayas and as they are blown in the wind, it is thought that the prayers are 'read' by the wind.  Lethbridge can be a pretty windy place, so I liked the comparison :)

Anyway, lots of folks turned out for the rally- and as it was said, this incident has caused more good than harm, as a community banded together to show support & love.

3 comments:

Arron K-W said...

Great blog! Thanks for posting about this, I'm so thrilled with the response|!

Andrea Ostapovitch said...

Good-job for being a part of this. That young man will surely be holding his head high with all the support from you lovely people.

PrairiePeasant said...

I like the group's mandate, and I'd be there in a heartbeat if I lived in Lethbridge! I hope the media gave the event a bit of coverage.