One-hundred-and-fourteen-days until Election Day! I have started to machine-knit to expedite Stitch for Senate helmets. A good many people have volunteered and we're on track to make it to 100. Right now we have 51% of the helmets, the newer ones being the Class II Senators (whose term is up, many seeking re-election) ...the posts have links to a few voting positions on Iraq and Veteran policies. I prefer the special uniqueness of the handknit but what can I say it's faster (2 hours vs. 3 days) and Election Day is closing in on us! IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO PARTICIPATE!! I would love your help. Final deadline is August 16, 2008 (In the mail not postmarked.)

Adama Kargbo was born and raised in Sierra Leone, but moved to New York when she was 12. After graduating from the famous fashion design program at Parsons, she returned to her home country, ravaged by a desperate and brutal civil war, to launch her high-end line. By Andrew Price Photos by Henry Jacobson

Read whole article on Good Magazine.

Robot 250, a city-wide program designed to celebrate the art and technology of robotics, developed in conjunction with Pittsburgh's 250th anniversary. Meet the visionaries behind the groundbreaking program that has enabled Pittsburghers of all ages to build their own customized robots. Meet representatives of the Robot 250 community, including students, professional artists, teachers, project directors, sponsors and funders of this unique event. Get a sneak preview of the Robot 250 Festival, featuring 11 gigantic robot installations that will be on display at major cultural locations around the city from July 11 - 27.

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U.S. states, cities, and counties are inadvertently using millions of taxpayer dollars to purchase goods from companies engaged in serious human rights and labor violations, according to a first-of-its-kind report released today by SweatFree Communities. The study, Subsidizing Sweatshops: How Our Tax Dollars Fund the Race to the Bottom, and What Cities and States Can Do, includes in-depth case studies of 12 factories in nine countries that produce public employee uniforms for nine major uniform brands.

Elected officials, religious leaders, human rights groups, students and labor unions today participated in at least eight rallies, press conferences or other events around the country. "We are calling on public entities to join the Sweatfree Consortium, a collaborative effort of states, local governments, labor rights experts, and human rights advocates to end tax dollar support for sweatshops," said Bjorn Claeson, Executive Director of SweatFree Communities and an author of the report. "We can use our collective purchasing power to improve working conditions instead of furthering the race to the bottom."

Hello from Scotland. This was taken in the last days on Shetland Island, sheep are everywhere! I'm now writing from Fair Isle Bird Observatory visiting for my research on the isle's infamous knitting technique. (More on this soon.) I'm also posting because I got an email from someone on my mailinglist who got SPAMed by a hack of my MAILINGLIST. If anyone else had this problem please mail me @ the query address. Another disturbing tech related issue was I got a google alert for my other site Stitch for Senate that mentioned Russell Feingold which led to a virus. Luckily it was stopped in time.

Saturday, July 12, 11:00am-1:00pm
Broad Street Ministry, 315 S. Broad St., Philadelphia

11:00-12:30pm Worker Rights Board Hearing:
Sweatshops & State Purchasing Practices
Testimony by sweatshop workers and public employees who wear the uniforms they make.

12:30pm-1:00pm Sweatfree Rally
@ National Governors' Association Centennial Meeting
Gather at Broad Street Ministry
Urge all 50 governors to join the Sweatfree Consortium to stop tax dollar support for sweatshops.

Speakers at the events will include:
Carmencita "Chie" Abad, former sweatshop worker in U.S. territory of Saipan
Kalpona Akter, former child garment worker from Bangladesh
Dennis Brutus, human rights activist
Bishop Dwayne Royster, Pastor of the Living Water United Church of Christ, Philadelphia
...and many more!
The Philadelphia Workers' Rights Board is a project of the Philadelphia Area Jobs with Justice, a coalition of faith leaders, students, unions, and community members who fight for living wages, top-notch benefits, and respect on the job for people in Philadelphia.

SweatFree Communities is a national network that organizes to end sweatshop exploitation by inspiring responsible local purchasing and fostering solidarity between U.S. communities and workers worldwide.

This event is part of the National SweatFree Summit. Visit http://www.sweatfree.org/summit

via sublime stitching

This is next week June 21st noon-6pm, and I will be participating in the army. Here's the description from artist/designer Liz Collins:

On Saturday, June 21 in Providence, RI, artist, designer, and RISD professor Liz Collins will stage KNITTING NATION PHASE 4: PRIDE. The piece will be an homage to and reconstruction of the original rainbow pride flag. It will ascend the steps and hill at Waterplace Park over the course of 6 hours, engaging all who enter this picturesque public space in the center of Providence.

KNITTING NATION (KN) is an exploratory and multi-faceted art project, inaugurated in 2005 by Liz Collins, which combines performance, site specific installation, and collaboration with clothing and textile design and manufacturing, using manually-operated knitting machines. The project is a commentary on the interaction of humans and machines, global trade, fashion and iconography, and a celebration of machine knitting as a creative medium.

Messed around with google map to document the Stitch for Senate helmets as they get made. I've only created a map for ones that have been mailed to me, not the ones still in progress.

= where participants were knitting helmets

= made at Stitch for Senate headquarters

We've just crossed the one-third of seats threshold and the goal is to get to 50% by the end of July. Participation in this pro-peace project is welcome. More information here!

More guerilla crafting at Knitted Landscape, Knitwit Netherlands and Radical Cross Stitch...

Yarn hand-spun from alpaca wool.

Downtown Cusco "Down with Privatization" ... the government is considering privatizing Inca ruins, obviously a devastating idea to everyone we talked to.

Machu Picchu

Yes, they sell sweaters on the train to Machu Picchu

Just watch for yourself and read more