My sister has recently turned into one of those knitting gurus. Ever since she taught herself how to do this, she constantly has a ball of yarn in her lap and keeps her needles clicking and clacking. The wedding season in Omaha was a bit slow last year so she had to turn those crafty instincts of hers elsewhere. On the whole, it's been a good thing. I got a sweet cashmere blend scarf for my birthday.
She's always looking for new projects. I don't think this one will pass muster, though.
Yep. You saw that right. That's a grenade purse. Helpfully, The Guardian has given you the instructions on how to make your very own grenade purse in this article!
But why would someone want to make one in the first place? you ask.
{...}An exhibition at the Crafts Council Gallery in London next month will show that knitting - long belittled as the preserve of elderly ladies declining towards senility - has become a politically engaged, radical artform.One artist constructs intricate, two-metre-high knitted panels based on prostitutes' calling cards. Another knits balaclavas and photographs people wearing them around New York. There is even a group of activists that stages knit-ins on the London Underground, occupying a carriage and knitting around the Circle line.
The exhibition comes as knitting enjoys a fashionable resurgence, with celebrities from Madonna to Julia Roberts and Russell Crowe extolling its virtues as a creative outlet and a stress reliever.
Katie Bevan, one of the exhibition's curators, believes that the roots of the trend are deeper. "There's a sort of zeitgeist: a make-do-and-mend spirit during this war on terror or whatever it is. Everyone just wants to go home and knit socks."
For many of the artists in the show, the act of knitting is itself political. Shane Waltener, who is making a site-specific, web-like piece embedded with a text from the French semiotician Roland Barthes, says knitting has been "long underrated because it is 'women's work'". Part of the point for him is "going public as a guy doing knitting ... I had to teach myself to knit and crochet, because 'boys don't'."
For many political knitters, the craft represents an act of rebellion. Waltener says: "On the one hand I am celebrating this tradition that I really believe in. On the other it is about self-sufficiency. By knitting you are resisting capitalism and consumerism. You are not responding to the fashion industry; you are making your own decisions."{...}
Yes. That's right. Knitting is a political statement. These folks want to be self-sufficient. They don't want the fashion industry telling them what to wear! They're rejecting capitalism. They're resisting consumerism. So, of course, their knitting project of choice would be a grenade handbag.
{Insert sound of head repeatedly slamming against desk ala Don Music here}
Methinks someone should hand these people one of the real things and have them knit a cozy for it. If we're lucky, the pin will fall out during the measuring stage and we will be spared more of this sanctimonious, self-righteous, and utterly meaningless crap in the future.
{hat tip: Adrianne}
Posted by Kathy at February 2, 2005 10:54 PM