Knit Activism: cash corner

Okay, the last few posts have been about organizations, so I'm gonna shake it up a bit. This piece was put up at "Cash corner" what is cash corner you ask? it is a place where people, majority of them homeless congregate downtown Calgary, and employers needing day labour head down there to "head hunt" basically. I have heard some extremely rough stories of cash corners, of guys fighting over jobs and of guys being ripped off by the employer which results in the labourer making some pretty scary threats. So I thought they could use some advice and let them know they should "Play Nice"

I purposefully went in the late afternoon thinking that no one would be there anymore but there were several guys sitting along the side walk, this would explain for no wider shots.

they liked the claws!

So while driving past the small cow this morning, it was noticed that he had some signs posted on him, upon further investigation it was noted the signs say " THANK YOU nice person for the new claws"

Hurray! I for see boots and a hat for when the snow comes and maybe a tutu at some point also!

Knit Activism: Inn from the Cold

That "IFTC" banner in the background there is the entrance to "Inn from the Cold"

IFTC is Calgary's only family shelter. While I was putting up this tag, the school buses were dropping off kids and I was heartbroken and happy at the same time to see all the little kids get off the bus, heartbroken that these beautiful children are in this situation, but happy that families are staying together.

the picture of the back is so sloppy, i fixed it up but i was in such a hurry I didn't take a new picture, but i was trying a new technique, the image you see at the top is several felt hearts used as a part of this piece, i quite enjoyed it.

As I was putting this piece up a older gentleman who appears to be homeless approached me and said "oh so your the one who has been putting all theses up! they are very nice...i had seen one several times and later saw it on the ground, so i picked it up and gave it to my granddaughter, she wears it as a leg warmer"

so precious!

Knit Activism: Mountain Air Lodge

As you can see...it was raining the last time I was up at Mountain Aire Lodge(MAL)but the yarn bombing must go on!

So the Mustard seed's website describes MAL as

Mountain Aire Lodge near Sundre, Alberta offers a tranquil environment beyond
the inner city where homeless men and women from Calgary and Edmonton can
realize their full potential and positively change their lives

.

I spent 5ish weeks at MAL during a transitional time. I was there supporting Jamie (as par this is not the persons real name) who was at the time a 18 year old who was coming down from Crystal Meth. I remember a while back reading a story on to write love on her arms about these people who were staying with someone who was coming down from drugs, and they would just sit up and listen to music with her all night so she wouldn't have to be alone. I remember Jamie coming and knocking on my door after 1:00am, instead of music we watch several episodes of sex in the city and cleaned her room. Jamie showed me pictures of herself in the height of her addition, she was skin and bones, her words " i want my meth body back" burned in my mind and then she explained "well i want my meth feelings back to but if i want to keep my son that's not going to happen"

MAL is not a treatment center, and a treatment center was very obviously what Jamie needed, MAL gave her a place to clear her head and prepare herself for the brave choices towards sobriety she would need to make. I have no idea what happened to her....I hope she's doing well

Knit Activism: The Mustard seed street level

Oh Mustard seed how I love you! and street level I love you also! in a different way fro m the shelter. Whenever I am down at street level I get this feeling of being part of history, this is not exactly where the seed started but a lot of its 25 year history is down here. My tag says "Hope grows here" (in case you couldnt tell!) because this is in fact the truth, Hope does grow at the mustard seed!

and I have a very specific knitting story to have to do with street level. Across the street from the doors in this picture is the "creative center" (maybe I will have to tag the creative center and do a seprate post on that!) and up until recently the creative center had a art studio in the basement, I volunteered in the art studio for a while and spent a lot of my time with Julie (again not real names) Julie was a male to female transgender, who happened to be on my caseload at the shelter, it was good to spend time with her exploring her creative side. Julie loved knitting, one afternoon we spent the entire time the art studio was open practicing knitting and walking literally by circling a table, it was hilarious and a memory I will keep with me a long time.

if you would like to read more about the Mustard seed, check out the blog

the neighborhood cow

Okay! okay! so I've never yarnbombed on someones private property and didn't really plan to BUT friends and family were demanding that this neighbor's cow lawn ornament be tagged, and what can i say? i give the people what they want. This was a first for a few different aspects, A) I have never yarnbombed at night B) I have never been extremely nervous while yarn bombing C) I have never used buttons to close a yarnbomb.

I hope it is appreciated and taken with good humor!

Monster claws!

I recently learned how to crochet and oh what fun I have had! it only took me 3 separate tries but I must say it has been worth it.

I've made a few monster claws which are far to lovely!

Knit activism: the low track stroll

The low track stroll. I didnt know very much about where exactly the stroll was here in calgary until a few weeks ago when I went on a ride along with the DOAP (downtown outreach addictions partnership) team(i dont know how but i do hope to tag them). The DOAP team carries several condom kits filled with condoms, lube and wipes and drive down the stroll, they dont offer the kits but rather wait to be flagged down. I was surprized when we were flagged down by a guest I know from the shelter...I think there is a lot to understand about prositiuation, a lot that i straight up dont.

I remember time at the shelter asking one of the ladies where she had been as i hadn't seen her for a while and she told me "in jail" but that she didnt want to tell me why. I left it at that and later she came back and was like "are you going to judge me?" after pinky promising her that i wouldnt she told me "im a prostitute and thats what i was in jail for" she told me a little bit of her story and informed me that now that she's in her mid forties and since she got tricked into starting this way of life at the age of twelve she doesnt really know what else to do. This conversation blew my mind a little as her and i usually talked about how much she loves her grandkids or about africa...

I chose this specific pole because as we drove by the employees of the DOAP team saw someone they knew and said "I would never mess with that girl she's one tough lady"

Knit activism: Bottle picking!

Turns out my first knit activism blog is going to be on Bottle picking, even though this wasnt the first installation.

Bottle picking is odviously a common sterotype of homeless people and people often think its because people are to lazy to get a real job or that its easy money to fuel an addiction. I have a very hard time with blanket statements when it comes to homelessness as truely everyone is not the same.

I left these in kensington, i met someone who lives down there and he said "well its pretty awesome to live here cause you basically have a 24 hour bottle pick up service, if you have bottles you just leave them on the front lawn"

I crochetted them with the intention of telling you the story of Perry (Im using fake names just out of respect because this person doesnt know Im using his story) Perry was working with a staff member towards housing, one of his goals was full time employment, he had recently been hired for a job and decieded that, bright and early friday morning he was getting up and was going to bottle pick all day and into the night, he decieded he would sleep in the park with his cans and take them to the bottle depot so that he could buy bus tickets to go to work that next week....I really like this story because its probably not what people think about when they see a guy digging through the garabage for a can....

Knit Activism

So Knit graffiti is often described as something that shows beauty is places that aren't beautiful. Homelessness is often seen as dirty and something to avoid and something people dont know a lot about so...I have decided to use my Knit art as a way of high lighting different things I care about.I work in a homeless shelter and poverty is a huge issue for me, I have decided to start up some "Knit Activism", over the next few weeks my posts are going to be very centered on organizations, activities and places that have to do with homelessness. I'm not claiming to be any type of expert but I do hope to share some of my experiences and some of the stories I have heard.
(I have a HUGE list of places that I plan on tagging but anyone who might have some suggestions I am open them!)

pole cover

I missed tagging! I haven't put anything up since March, I found this wonderfully lovely colourful yarn and just started knitting, I knew I wanted to do a pole cover and I just haven't been sure of where. I decided to do it outside of the Mustard Seed Shelter. Earlier I did one outside of the Mustard seed's downtown location. I'm not really sure how to explain this but with my yarn bombing I want there to be a clear connection to poverty. I did some stuff when I was in India and I'm gonna see more about doing more in Canada. I see Knit graf as bringing beauty to places that doesn't always get it, and we all know the homelessness is stereotyped and feared, so here we go bringing some beauty. I also want to use it as some sort of tool of activism...not sure how yet but I'm gonna be highlighting these place with my knit graf.

a correction

okay, remember when i posted about how some silly neighbor of mine had taken down my yarn bomb and brought it back to our house. Well my mother was in the back alley and so was a neighbor and he came over and told her that he took it down and brought it back because he was very sad that the school kids had been tearing it apart. Lovely!

Road Trip to Ersilia

A different kind of yarn bombing....

SOS childrens Village

This is the second piece I put up in India. I spent the months before India knitting just long strips unsure of what I was going to do with them, after my time volunteering at the SOS childrens village I decieded that the best thing would be to sew them all together around a tree. While I was putting this piece up the kids were SOO cute, when I was done they like hugged the tree saying "wow wow wow" it made me smile for sure.

Also funny story, when I got home my mom let me know that while I was away one of our "lovely" neighbors took it upon themselves to take down my piece that was up in the alley and deposit it on our porch. Well it was quite nice of them to return it, I will put it back up after some repair....but I guess Im going to have to start putting up pieces in the dark...silly neighbors

India!

so! as I mentioned in a previous post, I have been stockpiling pieces for a project I would be reveling in march, well friends the time has come! Currently i am in Pune India and my suit case was basically only knitted pieces to be put up around this country!

This piece though was made by Laura. This morning her and I went to a slum community to help with a program put on by Peace foundation. Basically Peace foundations supports a local lady who comes and visits with the children, plays with them and teaches them hygiene, they also get a snack when they come to program.
I think Laura was embarrassed when i put this piece up but the people seem to like it, its a very open room and members of the community have access, based on that we don't think it will last very long...which is fine.
stay tuned for more projects from India!

find

found this one in Kensington today, how I do love finding knit graffiti