charities + orgs.

More information about charities and organizations you should know about.

Charity Knitting, plus DIY Robot Knitting Machine!

| Betsy

First off, I wanted to share this sweet article and photo that I came across recently! And while they may not be making crafts with a Kevin Bacon motif, they are warming thousands of strangers in need with their mighty knitting power! So here’s a big shout out to the Westport Women’s Club of Westport, CT! Article excerpted below, you can read the whole thing by clicking here:

Westport’s Sue Mahar, the other co-founder, said the knitters produce hundreds of mittens hats, scarves and special items during the estimated 4,000 hours a year they keep at their charitable work. The bulk of knitting goes on while the women are watching television — or during down time while members are doing volunteer work at various posts in the community –[co-founder Gerry] Munce and Mahar said. “Knitting in front of the TV set makes television palatable,” Munce said.

Way to go ladies!

Secondly, robots! I think “DIY Robot Knitting Machine” are pretty much the four sweetest words ever put together.

Text from post over at Ubergizmo:

It’s often nice to give your friends and relatives a knitted sweater or something for Christmas, but most of us are just too lazy to knit something. Of course, the wonderful thing is that robots are fully capable of doing many things that we dislike, and that happens to include knitting. Someone out there decided to come up with a homemade robotic knitting machine. It’s made from old printer parts, two servos and a Picaxe-18x microcontroller. The machine isn’t the quietest thing around, but as long as we aren’t doing the knitting, we’re happy. Would you rather create this machine or spend a few bucks and buy the sweater at the mall?

Also:
*MACRO Uganda- Beads of Hope
*Interweave’s Knitting Daily’s new iPhone app!
*Historical Craftivism: Knit Your Bit over at Hello Craft
*Trespass: A History of Uncommon Art over at Brain Pickings

Veterans, War, PTSD and Creativity

| Betsy

People often ask me what craftivism is. Generally I talk about how it’s about using what you make with your hands as your mouthpiece. It’s about speaking a different way, a non-vocal, raw, visceral way that pulls no punches. I never really learned how to embrace my anger verbally, but I sure as hell can find it when I start stitching. My craft is my purest voice, the one that has late talks in the middle of the night, the one that cries when this world shows us it is just as beautiful as it is wretched, the one that hugs and kisses for keeps. It’s not the voice I wish I could express in words, it’s the voice that is me beyond all the external trappings.


And just as I can use what I make with my hands to exorcise my own demons, I know that the same can be done for others. It is for these reasons that I wanted to share a very special project with you, the Combat Paper Project, which helps veterans transform their military uniforms into paper and then transform their thoughts into art. Giving these veterans a way to convert their emotions into art not only gives a therapeutic product, it also presents a therapeutic process. For some veterans, this may be the first time they really were able to create freely and honestly, without worrying about military culture or stereotypes. I love that this project exists, and that it helps so many people regain control of their lives and their creativity.


Here’s the trailer for Sarah Nessen’s (Portrayal Films upcoming documentary about the project, Iraq Paper Scissors:


IRAQ PAPER SCISSORS from Sara Nesson on Vimeo.




Some may think craftivism’s intent is liberal, anarchic, guerrilla, but in reality, it’s just about letting the real you speak and express that range of emotions we are often taught not to have. It’s a way of fighting, learning, delving into, staying with the emotions that come up outside of polite society.

It’s therapy that makes beautiful things, engages others, pushes you to learn and opens your eyes. All without saying a word… Or sitting on a couch. The bonus? Something to hang on your wall at the end. (Although if you’re a veteran and words are more your thing, there’s the wonderfully awesome Warrior Writers Project!)





Other projects helping combat PTSD through creativity:
Vet Art Project
Art Reach: Project America
National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum
More project links from Combat Paper Project’s website
Jafabrit’s son is a veteran, which is a focus of some of her work

Photo from the Combat Paper Project’s online gallery, Stolen Youth by Drew Cameron and Drew Matott, 2009

Vote for Emerge!

| Betsy

For the past few months, I’ve been volunteering some of my time to a wonderful organization called Emerge Global. This charity was started in 2005 after the founder, Alia Whitney-Johnson, went to Sri Lanka to volunteer after the tsunami. While you can read more about how Emerge started here and what they do here, ultimately it helps Sri Lankan girls aged 8-18 start their own jewelry businesses and savings accounts.

They’ve put together a Bead Program which helps these young girls learn how creativity can be empowering and allows them to start thinking about their futures and believing in themselves, for some, for the very first time.

From the Emerge website, a little bit more about the girls:

“I am from the North” … “I am from the South” … “I was ten when I became pregnant” … “I was sixteen” … “He was my father” … “He was a tourist” … “I was grade 9 when it happened” … “I have never been allowed to go to school” … “My son makes me happy” … “I am ashamed to have a child…”

Despite their diverse backgrounds, the girls of Emerge are bound together by two common denominators: the tremendous strength and perseverance it takes to raise a child despite being children themselves, and the incredible community fostered at Emerge. Emerge aims to help these girls build an even stronger community, to show them their strength and value, and to help them create beauty in their lives and find beauty in themselves. We hope the next lines of their stories will read:

I am valuable. I am beautiful. I am strong.

    The Situation in Sri Lanka:

Due to lack of facilities, many minors are kept in the prison system for their own protection as they testify in court against the man who raped them. Furthermore, according to Save the Children, Sri Lanka, there are no systems and policies whereby children who have broken the law and children who are victims of abuse are differentiated, even by the judicial process. In effect, the systems in Sri Lanka currently offer no support and protection as the abused girls wait for their hearing, which often takes several years to complete.

With this in mind, Emerge is up for a Stay Classy award for Small Charity of the Year! If won, the charity will get $10,000 and a chance to further help these girls empower themselves in Sri Lanka… Some of whom have graduated from the program with enough savings to buy houses for them and their family! So if you have a free 12.5 seconds (I actually timed it!), please consider voting for Emerge and/or passing this notice on to your blogs/friends/social networks.

As there are only 3 days left for voting, I wanted to make a note of this here, as this organization means so much to me. Empowering people with creativity can do so much good in so many ways, please help make that a possibility for more young girls!

Haiti Craft Post-Earthquake?

| Betsy

One of the projects I’m working on right now is researching craft made post-earthquake in Haiti, its political, economic, cultural elements.

It’s really interesting, and having seen this article about Levoy Exil on CNN.com from March, am wondering what I could have been told if I wasn’t stopped from speaking to him more by his one-word answer to my question when I asked him about it at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. It was through a translator, he thought I was going to initially buy some art, it was awkward.

Know someone I should talk to or somewhere I should look? Although I’d be grateful to speak with someone, I’m as equally eager to find pieces made in regard to post-earthquake Haiti. Because, after all, often times what is crafted by our hands is just as telling (if not more) as what comes out of our mouths. As our hands have the tendency, unlike our mouths (despite our best intentions at times), to tell what’s really going on beneath the surface.

Urban Engagement, Graffiti Knitting & A Really Cool Dog

| Betsy

If you follow what’s going on in the craft world, chances are you know about what’s been called yarn bombing, yarn storming, graffiti knitting and/or guerrilla knitting. It’s a crafty way to reclaim city space and make your town, city, village more personable and less drab. It’s so easy to get lost in a sea of concrete and brick and asphalt- Why not liven it up a bit? Crafters around the world are doing just that, covering statues, lightposts, bike rails… bus stops… the bus stop above was adorned in Tel Aviv by the group Savta Connection.

As generally happens in life, some people love it. Some people hate it. Either way you crack it, it opens up a dialogue about engaging with public space. For decades artists and kids hellbent on vandalism alike have used public space and walls as their canvas. Some of it is great, others not so much.

But what urban knitting does that street art doesn’t is bring the tactile into the equation. You can touch it and feel the different types of yarn involved. It’s taking street art just one step further. With this in mind, I was ecstatic when recently I discovered the project in the video below called “Sniff.” First of all, go watch the video… then keep reading.

Sniff from karolina sobecka on Vimeo.

Okay, now that you’ve seen the video, you know what I mean about it also taking street art a step further. And this is just the beginning! After you calm down again after the awesomeness above, maybe have a cup of tea or something, you may have some questions like…

1. Just what is going on with that dog? You can see how the did it over here.
2. Who made this? Karolina Sobecka.
3. What else has she done? By clicking over to her website you can see other projects listed on the left-hand side of the screen. I suggest Wildlife, which will both make you feel like you’re in a Disney movie and ask yourself, “What animal do I want running beside me as I drive to the grocery store?”

Or you may have totally different questions or ideas entirely, in which case I urge you to explore them. Search for solutions to the question. Brainstorm the execution of that idea. Just let your mind wander where it will, and try checking out other urban art projects like this one:


Kindred Times and Future Goodbyes from Leah Borromeo on Vimeo.



Also recommended, Sarah Corbett’s (of Craftivist Collective) essay My Right to be a Craftivist.

The post above the line was originally posted on the now defunct collaborative blog Make and Meaning on January 4, 2010.

Photo from Flickr user serenity_now.