Winter

Sometimes winter seems to go on and on, and on, and on …. and the cold and damp seeps into every corner of life. Even so there are moments of light, premonitions of spring thaw, faint scents of new growth. A few days ago I looked outside the window and noticed the first signs of buds on the rose bushes in our back garden.

I’ve been experimenting with variegated wools (Araucania Nature Wool, left), and working on some cabled leaves. Ellen has been knitting – her last skein of Peace Fleece Shaba Green yielded 15 single-layer leaves (right)! I’ve finally managed to persuade her to expand her knitting repertoire, and she’s jumped into a pair of socks (knit on a pair of Size 0 circulars!) with her usual confidence. What a woman!

There are new windows onto the TikkunTree Project, including various fiber (and other) artists from Israel who found us through Ravelry, and Minka, from Minka’s Studio. Locally, interest in knitting leaves for peace among knitters in area synagogue knitting groups grows incrementally with each conversation (and the power of Ellen’s example!).

My own travel through Ravelry is frequently focused on connecting to others interested in knitting for peace. My stranded knitting chart based on the logo for the Million Voices campaign brought new interest in knitting for peace. To find out more about the moderate majority in Israel and Palestine calling for official pursuit of peace, check out: One Million Voices.

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The 198 Countries Peace Project: living in a forest

The challenging current events in Israel/Palestine make the work of the TikkunTree that much more necessary, and difficult to maintain. It helps to have others thinking similarly.

I recently was invited to join an online needlework community, Ravelry, which has offered new paths to share the work of the TikkunTree. One of these is the “Knitting our way to Peace” group (moderated by Hanane of Knitting Our Way to Peace), which carries on a stimulating conversation about matters of religion and religious practices, peace, and ways to use our skills to promote peaceful thoughts and action. A new member of the group, Sophia, recently initiated another knittivist project, the 198 Countries Peace Project. She’s looking to join the flags of the 198 countries of the world, and needs volunteers to make this happen. I’ve volunteered to make the Israel & Palestine Flags, which I plan to join – at the hip, like Siamese twins, which is how I see the two communities (if you are interested, you can read more here). I’ve already charted the pair of flags and the way I plan to unite them. I’ll be using Peace Fleece yarns (of course).

Sophia is looking for contributions from all fiber artists, not just knitting and crochet. There are still l plenty of flags needing to be made – contact Sophia.

So while the TikkunTree has an ongoing need for contributions of leaves and doves that (hopefully) come out of conversations about mid-east peace, I encourage others to check out the 198 Countries Peace Project and make a flag for peace.

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