craft + activism = craftivism.

Growing up in the 80s, there was a lot talk about Rocky Balboa. My dad still breaks into song sometimes and sings Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.” (No, really. Still.) One year we went to Philadelphia to visit my aunt, and we ran up the Rocky Steps and did this: I know you weren’t there [...]

Today’s post is a re-post of something I wrote in November 2005. If you’ve read Handmade Nation, you’ll see that I have an essay in the book with the same name. This original post was what led to the essay a few years later. I’m reposting it here because sometimes it’s good to be reminded [...]

I grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina and spent a good half hour every Christmas holiday with the bears above, watching them sing their songs at the mall. As this was in the early 80s, these bears were super cool because they were better than the band at Chuck E. Cheese. I had the pleasure [...]

I first started really thinking about knitting and its relation to community and theory when I was in graduate school at Goldsmiths College and therefore involved with the Centre for Community and Urban Research, headed by Michael Keith. During that year I fell in love with ethnography and Walter Benjamin and felt literally as though [...]

I have this photo of Bikini Kill on my desktop right now. It’s been a nice reminder back to the days of singing along to 7″s up in my room, when it seemed like music could really, honestly change the world. Lately, as part of talking about the book, I’ve been mentioning more and more [...]