The New Rebellion - Knitting

I just had to buy The Grauniad today after Bath Crafting Cranny's (thanks Jess!) tip-off about the free rebel knitter's guide give away. This turned out to be 12 knitting patterns by Marisa Turmaine, who hit the headlines recently following her freebie Dr Who monster knitting patterns on the internet were seen as a bad thing by the BBC.

I rather like the idea that something as innocuous as knitting seems to have taken a more edgy, subversive turn. In the guide I learnt that there are knitting guerillas from a group called Knitta, who adorn public artefacts such as signs and statues around the world with bits of knitting. This seems to be a more extreme form of the Innocent drinks' The Big Knit, where over 400,000 mini hats were sent in by knitters from all around the country last year to adorn Innocent drinks bottles, thus raising over £200,000 for Age Concern. I'm hoping that my SUP friends will be joining me in this year's campaign in the Autumn.

I'd heard about this pattern already and I must admit I was a bit skeptical, as being a previously daily banana toting commuter I'd been accident free for over 25 years - though I did nearly cause an international incident at Singapore airport a few years ago when their security thought the banana in my luggage was a hand gun. So I was prepared to pooh-pooh the rest of the patterns. However, I found myself thinking 'oh, I'll try that' (a re-usable hot drinks cup cover, plus a wristband to hold a doorkey and change - ideal for when my Moonwalk training for next year really gets going) and 'that's a good idea' (using plastic bags and cassette tape as yarn for e.g. placemats - and we need some new ones soon). There was even a more complicated (and nicer) version of the fingerless mitts I knitted last winter to avert a gardening disaster, with a design based on basil leaves - what more could a gardening friend want? So I'm a bit of a convert to the cause.

Now, a combination of guerilla gardening and knitting - wouldn't that be fun? How about publishing a pattern for your pink dahlia festooned balaclava to kick things off Arabella?