indonesia

Travel Knitting in Indonesia & the Awesomest House in London

| Betsy

Ok, so I totally have a new dream. To take my knitting on a trip to Indonesia. We could drive around, go to workshops, see a concert, pay some road tolls. Not only would it be awesome, but then my knitting could trade stories with the knitting from this video.

The shots of the knitting workshop in this video made me tear up in happiness, reminding me why I fell in love with knitting, craft and all their possibilities. The spirit of DIY in other countries makes me so very happy, and makes me think I need to start working on planning some workshops. The past few years have seen me uninspired by public work, but I think this is about to change. This reminds me how wrong I am and just how jaded I’ve gotten, and that there’s still work to be done! Got any places that could use a little DIY craft workshop? I work better with parters in crime, so let’s plan something awesome!

In case you missed the first video and in order to see the finger knitting, please go to The Man Who Knit. The finger knitting video, with the usual badass musical soundtrack from these knitters, coaxes you along the steps to began your rise to finger knitting conqueror! Be prepared to rock out, be inspired, and start to wonder what grand adventures your knitting has just been yearning to go on.

Alternatively, you can go check out the work done at MuTATE Britain. This project, done by the amazing outlaw ceramicist Carrie Reichardt, is also something that has inspired me to no end this week. For more about Carrie, go visit her website, where you’ll see she has the coolest house in the universe, pictured above.


P.S. In the travel video, there is sunrise knitting. In Indonesia. On a cliff. With a rooster crowing in the background. Hello, awesome.

“We’re Rock and We’re Knit”

| Betsy

Even though I’m not entirely sure what is going on, words cannot fully express how much I love this video. Dudes, yarn, rock. Basically all you need, no? Just kidding. You also need coffee. But anyway, I like that this video shows Indonesian men crafting and enjoying the heck out of it. Bonus points for their t-shirts that say “The Man Who Knit.” Brilliant!





Want more craft from Indonesia?

Tobucilhandmade.blogspot.com is a great place to start. They can be followed on Twitter here.

A little bit about Indonesia & craftivism: More than a year ago, I got an email from a PhD student asking if I knew anyone in Bandung, as they were working on some sort of library/community center. While I’m not sure it’s totally true, but when he wrote, “I thought it would be neat to know that you are inspiring young people in Indonesia,” I was gobsmacked. He was referencing an interview with Tarlen Handayani, which if you read Malay, you can read here. The center he was referring to was Tobucil & Klabs, which is the website listed above and where the video is from! Small world!

The blog has put together a lovely list of international crafty links here but it’s a shame there isn’t more craftiness online from places like Indonesia. Or is it that I just haven’t found them yet?

*Although, I will say that the book Yarn Bombing exposed me to so much international knitting groups. More to come on that soon.*