L'Aquila
The news from L’Aquila this week continues to get worse as the death toll rises and hope fades for any more survivors. The heart-wrenching scenes of horror and grief were lent a quantum of relief yesterday when a 98-year-old Maria D’Antuono was pulled from the rubble after 30 hours of interment. How did she pass the time? She got busy with her hook and wool and did a bit of crocheting. Not only is this testament to the amazing lady’s strength, but also to the way craft can see us through some bad times. Through every personal crisis in my life I’ve always had some knitting on the go, a way to switch off and produce something positive in a bad time. In fact my craft output often intensifies during dark days – go figure. Don’t need to preach to the converted – anyone reading this probably feels the same and I don’t want to be flippant about a tragedy, so enough said.
Meantime, Red Cross are running an appeal for the victims.
Vodafone vs. Ravelry
Bundle!
It’s all kicking off on the Ravelry boards … words flying, comments censored, needles aimed … the cause? A post submitted by someone working with Vodafone in Ireland on a ‘Cheer Up Ireland’ campaign which involves a bit of urban knitting (although there’s no mention of the project on their website.)
The idea is not a new one but started out with the best of intentions by Eilish Tuite, a third year sculpture student in Limerick school of Art and Design. She is working on a project called Urban Knit, the aim of which is to cover a disused building in Limerick City. The cover will eventually be chopped up into smaller blankets and donated to St.Vincent’s Charity (hopefully washed and repaired after much exposure to the elements?), although as DeadlyKnitshade points out in her post, the charity don’t seem to be asking for knitted blankets, more “help financially and/or by giving of your time”.
Eilish has been calling for contributions of wool since the beginning of February, and I’m not sure whether Vodafone approached her after the project had been initiated or if it was the other way round.
After a few initial encouraging messages, the mood has changed as knitters have started to voice their resentment at the attempt to lure them into a corporate campaign.
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