A few thoughts on Really Cross Stitch: For when you just want to stab something a lot by Rayna Fahey

Really Cross Stitch: For when you just want to stab something a lot by Rayna Fahey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is a call to action with many cross stitch patterns so you can stitch the revolution. It is an entertaining and engaging read which also includes space for a lot of anger at what is happening in local and global politics. This book is a useful addition to craftivism publishing.

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Welcome Blanket at Smart Museum (and some nifty cataloguing)

The Smart Museum in Chicago is having what is described as an artistic action.

On the museum website it says:
Welcome Blanket is a crowd-sourced artistic action that calls for over 3,000 blankets to be knit from 3,500,640 yards of yarn, a length equal to the proposed border wall dividing the United States and Mexico. Welcome Blanket invites participants to knit, crochet, or sew the blankets for new immigrants as well as for refugees seeking resettlement and send them with personal notes of welcome and stories of immigration to the Smart Museum of Art.


You can read more about it on the museum blog.

You can see the catalogue in this image from Instagram, and you can see the online catalogue by scrolling down at this link.

Now you can scroll through the Welcome Blanket catalogue!! You can check it out both on the Smart's and our websites. Thank you @smartmuseum for making this happen 💕🗽💕 ・・・ New #welcomeblanket tool: a digital catalogue of blankets! On the @welcomeblanket exhibition page on our website, you can now scroll through images and other details about the blankets we have opened and documented so far. We still have many, many more boxes to open and blankets to catalogue. You can help! Join in one of our unpacking parties, held every Saturday from 1–4pm.

A post shared by Welcome Blanket (@welcomeblanket) on Sep 13, 2017 at 4:52pm PDT

You can see how people are sharing their #welcomeblanket photographs. 


This is an impressive collaboration, and I really like how quickly the museum is cataloguing the material, as the catalogue keeps changing and being updated.  I figure this is part of the whole art experience, but this is an art experience with practical outcomes.  I had a look at the representation on Instagram of #wrapwithlove as I thought aspects of #welcomeblanket sounded similar to Wrap with love.

A key difference is the documentation and cataloguing. I have not found a library which photographs each wrap and includes the photograph in the local studies collection.  If anyone knows of this happening, I would be very interested to hear. I really like the #welcomeblanket for what is doing as an 'artistic action', and I really like the way the Smart Museum is cataloging all the wraps.

Craftivism discussion, on video and with lots of links

While this is a long video to watch, it is a very interesting discussion.  It is one to give time to, and to see the different ideas, tensions and cultural differences.  It also demonstrates an extended hangout, and could be a method of programming to consider for a library.

Hearing this discussion is a reminder to think about how people are collecting for their libraries.  What craftivism and activism books/dvd/streaming have you added?

Is there collecting for local studies? Denver Public Library put a call out for collecting material from the local women's march, and various museums (including Fuller Craft Museum) are also collecting in this space.

Have a look at the analysis of twitter from the women's march in Washington, and some additional resources to explore for craftivism.

Has your library connected with local craftivists?  Don't forget groups like the knitters for Wrap with love.  There are many ways to connect with, support and record these communities.

Museo Textil de Oaxaca

This group was crocheting items for display at the museum (and I asked their permission before photographing)

It was nice fit for this museum. You can see more photographs here.

My review of Crochet coral reef

Crochet Coral Reef by Margaret Wertheim
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really like this book. I had come across the idea of the crocheted reef when I was discovering hyperbolic crochet. I like the maths of it and that a crocheted shape is best way to demonstrate hyperbolic shapes. This book brings together conservation, craft, art, maths, feminism and much more as well as demonstrating a large scale and distributed craftivism project. There are lovely photographs of the different reefs, combined with stories of the different contributors and creators. They are all named in the book, and so a chunk of it is taken up with acknowledgements. This is brilliant as is highlights that these are not anonymous contributors (although some choose to be anonymous), but people with names and diverse geographies. This long acknowledgment added to the value of this publication.

To quote from this book (p131)
'In The tempest, Shakespeare proposes the sea as the site of transformation and renewal:

Full fathom five they father lies
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange"

Pulling in different directions, the Crochet Coral Reef points us towards mathematics, towards a consideration of collaboration, towards eco-consciousness and action. Most of all, the work draws us into the space of looking carefully, with a sense of wonder, at the infinitely varied forms and their combinations."

It is a wonderful, challenging book to read, with many photographs illustrating the reefs.


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Kathryn Clark: foreclosure series - local studies potential

K A T H R Y N C L A R K: foreclosure series: From 1999 to 2004, I worked for a private urban planning firm designing New Urbanist neighborhoods throughout the US. In 2007, as f...



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I came across this via Betsy Greer's craftivism board on Pinterest. I was struck by the potential for local studies, as I often am when looking at many amazing things which are made. These quilts tell the story of land, in different local areas.  They are much more complex than this too, as art works, and as art works calling for action.  You can read a bit more about the quilts here.

My review of Knitting for good

Knitting for Good!: A Guide to Creating Personal, Social, and Political Change Stitch by Stitch by Betsy Greer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I first read Betsy Greer's work in the anthology she complied called Craftivism. This earlier work show the origins of her later one. This book is her personal story of coming to knitting and discovering the connections which can be made with it, connections to many people, including a previously difficult to speak with relative, connections to strangers who see her knitting in public, and connections to activism, or craftivism. This personal story shapes the narrative, but does not overwhelm it. The author has been very proactive in using her knitting to connect to others, and made me think that I should make a few changes around how publicly I knit.

Interspersed within this work are the stories of others, told in their own words about how crafting has connected them more deeply to their community either nearby or to be able to help strangers who they may not meet. There are also knitting patterns which can be used for different works of craftivism/charity knitting. When reading this, I kept thinking about the many knitting groups in public libraries across Australia who knit for Wrap with love and other charities, and the powerful act of craftivism these many people are continuing to do. It was great that this was brought to mind by reading this work.

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My review of Craftivism by Betsy Greer

Craftivism: The Art of Craft and Activism by Betsy Greer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had not come across the term craftivism before reading this book, but I had come across the actions of craftivism, having seen many people be active in Wrap with love, and other charity knitting done in many libraries, as well as other public projects (and been involved in some myself).

This book brings together a wonderful range of craftivism people and actions, some you will have heard of and others which are new. There are some lovely options, which help communities, such as the crafted baskbetball nets to replace stolen and vandalised ones, and the work of the Adithi collective who were stitching the story of Chile, but were not regarded as dangerous as they were embroidering. Their embroidery was able to tell people what was happening (because it was regarded as harmless), this subversiveness was critical for sharing information outside the country during a very tough time.

Some of the stories are about individuals and their singular paths of craftivism, while others are stories of communities or groups working together.

There are a many countries and styles of craftivism discussed, as well as some interesting historical examples. This book would be useful for libraries to add to their collections for local craftivists, but also for thinking about programs and services provided by the library, and for helping people connect to information to help with their craftivism. This is a key role which libraries and their staff can play.

It struck me that there should be a deliberate discussion in more places (including libraries), so that people think more strategically about the craftivism, and acknowledge that it is as powerful as it is.

I am now doing a lot of catch up reading about craftivism.



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