Betty Christiansen - Knitting for Peace: Make the World a Better Place One Stitch at a Time

Editor: Melanie Falick
Designer: goodesign
Production Manager: Jane Searle

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Christiansen, Betty.

Knitting for peace : make the world a better place one stitch at a time/Betty Christiansen.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 1-58479-533-6

1. Knitting--Patterns. 2. Knitting--Social aspects. 3. Charity. I. Title.

TT820.C4957 2006
746.432--dc22

2006001296

Text copyright 2006 by Betty Christiansen
Photographs copyright 2006 by Kiriko Shirobayashi

Versions of Rebuilding Lives, Stitch by Stitch: Snow Cabin Goods, Knitting a Safer World: Sheilas Shawls, and Knitting Behind Bars: Prison Knitting have appeared in Interweave Knits magazine.

Published in 2006 by Stewart, Tabori & Chang
An imprint of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

The text of this book was composed in Clarendon and Neutra.

www.hnabooks.com

Chapter 1
Peace and War

Chapter 2
Peace on Earth

Chapter 3
Peace at Home

Chapter 4
Peace for Kids

Chapter 5
Knit for Peace

NOT SO MANY YEARS AGO, I BEGAN KNITTING FOR PEACE. I RESPONDED TO A FLYER I DISCOVERED ONE JANUARY AT A ST. PAUL YARN SHOP.The Minnesota Knitters Guild was collecting Cardigans for Deserving Babiesbabies born at local hospitals who hadnt a stitch of warm clothing to wear home. Something about these thinly clad babies pierced my heart. I knew exactly what yarn to use, and, once home, I dug it out of my stash with a particular urgency. I remember picking out buttonswashablethat would contrast brightly with the blue yarn I used. I remember blocking the sweater and folding it just so, creating a sweet package deserving of the baby whod receive it. I wondered about this baby and wished it well. I thought of the mother and what she might think of this anonymous gift. I wondered what would become of the childand the sweaterover the years. Then I dropped it back off at the yarn store, my questions unanswered, but no matter.

Knitters have been doing this kind of work well before I discovered it for myself. Theyve long been gathering in yarn stores and guild meetings, calling the work they do charity knitting, community knitting, or knitting for others. They knit whole afghans, piece by piece; they knit preemie caps to warm heads the size of oranges; they knit lap blankets and mittens and socks and hats. They knit for people in their hometowns and for people across the planet, and they do it selflessly and willingly. Throughout the generations, they have knit for soldiers and civilians in battles from the Revolutionary War to the recent conflicts in Iraq. They knit for countless reasons, but they all share one thing in common: a desire to knit the world into a better place, through handmade gifts of love and peace.

As a contributor to magazines like Vogue Knitting, Family Circle Easy Knitting, and Interweave Knits, I found myself frequently talking to and writing about knitters who were doing just that, and I discovered that knitting was helping people all over the world in amazing ways. Who knew, for instance, that knitting could be used as a therapeutic tool for inmates in prisons? Or that knitting could help heal the shattered lives of women survivors of the war in Bosnia? Or that ordinary peoplesay, a yarn store owner in Wisconsin, or a laid-off dotcommer in San Francisco, or two friends in Connecticutcould start national charity knitting movements? And how did that happen? What were their stories? I wanted to know, and in celebration of what these people were doingwhat knitting can doI wanted to share them with you.

Sit down with any knitter, pull out your needles, and stories are soon to flow. And as I contacted the individuals and organizations featured in this booksome well-known to me and others found through labyrinthine Internet searches or serendipityflow they did. I was surprised by the generosity of spirit I encountered with every phone call I made; every person featured here is passionate about her or his cause, and grateful for every single knitter who has contributed. Most of the charity organizations featured here began as one persons good idea, and wereand often still arerun from that persons dining-room table or spare bedroom, where knitted donations pile up despite the dismay of family members. Its this humble quality inherent in every organization featured here that impresses me most. Knitting for peace is not about credit or praise. There is no room for ego. Its about helping people, pure and simple.

I expected to be uplifted by what these people had to tell me. What I didnt expect was that my heart would be broken, many times over, by the hard realities of orphans in Russia, or children with AIDS in South Africa, or any number of the desperate situations American children are in when they receive a Binky, or women when they receive a prayer shawl. I didnt expect to be left speechless on the phone when I learned the impact one knit itema blanket, a shawl, a teddy bearcould have in the face of almost any tragedy. It makes me want to knit for them all, I told someone during an interview. But I cant. Thats why Im writing this book.

We knitters work a powerful magic when we knit for others. By doing so, as you will see in the pages that follow, we can build bridges between warring nations, help to heal deep wounds, offer a primal sort of comfort, and create peacehowever small, and in whatever way that may befor others and ourselves.

I hope you will be as inspired by these groups and as filled with hope as I have been while researching and writing this book. The groups featured hereand those who knit for them and so many otherscreate in me a new excitement for the future of humanity. We can, stitch by stitch, inch the world in a more positive direction. We do this by knitting for peace.

If we have
no peace, it is
because we
have forgotten
that we belong
to each other.