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