Viva la yarn revolution!

It's been a busy week. After the rally on Saturday, I attended another Assembly on Sunday and I knew it would be too busy a week for me to do much else on the ground. In my spare time, I did get another hat done for the Occupiers and a set of mittens as a special request.

I'm not sure that mitten is what you think it is...

The mittens look like they just should not work. The thumb looks odd, the pocket for the fingers looks way too long, but I tried them on, and they are actually comfortable. They should also do well at keeping hands warm. The oddness comes, I believe, from making this up as I went along.

I tried to follow a pattern, I really, really did. I went and looked at no fewer than 10 patterns, trying to find one that didn't seem ridiculously complicated for a MITTEN. I was unsuccessful in my search. Me being me, I decided the best thing to do was DO IT MYSELF. So I did. I took bits of one pattern and bits of another pattern and decided to fake it. The result, as I said, was odd looking but functional. It won't win any awards for prettiness, but it should keep fingers from falling off.

So how did I make such an...interesting piece of crafing? Well, I started by creating a base chain. I stitched 10 and then started crafting around the base chainUsing the last two as a turning chain, I single crocheted along one side, putting two stitches in the final link and then stitched back around the other side, creating an oval. When I reached the other end, I put two stitches in that too, so I created a increase. It worked. I kept stitching and increasing until I felt the mitt was wide enough and then just crocheted a tube.

The thumb was going to cause me difficulties, I knew it. So, when the mitt pocket was long enough, I pulled a lesson from another piece of crocheting I had don and began to crochet in lines again, back and forth, creatiing a gap to go around the thumb. When it was wide enough, I slip-stitched the edges back together and continued to finish the palm. For the thumb, I went back to my gap and basically did the reverse of the mitt. Instead of increasing, I decreased every row and ended up with a thumb. Even more shocking, it worked. Mind. Blown.

I then attached a cuff to the bottom and voila... A mitten. I'm rather proud of myself. Boy, does it look MESSED UP.

Wordless Wednesday: Solidarity

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men - Abraham Lincoln

Occupy South Bend rally wrap-up

The rally I attended on Saturday was awesome.  There's nothing like working with people towards a common goal to make your spirit feel empowered.  I crocheted a hat, made and flew signs, participated in a march, and enjoyed the company of an amazing group of people.  It was truly an amazing experience.  I encourage everyone to get out there and take part.  These people are protesting for your rights. 

The detractors seem to be missing the point of the movement. These are not people looking for a handout, many of them have jobs (some more than 2 or 3), the ones that don't have jobs (lost when the economy collapsed beneath them) have been actively looking.  This isn't about politics.  This is about stopping the progression of our country from democracy to corporatocracy. 

The threatened clean-up of Zucotti park is a prime example.  It's a public park, right?  Wrong.  Even though everyone is TOLD it's a public park, it's owned and run by a private corporation.  Brookfield said that their agreement with the city required the park be used for free enjoyment of the public...  That is, until the public don't toe the company line and then they have to go.  Indiana's toll road is another good example.  It was built with public funds but is now owned by a corporation.

How much more do you want to give to big business?  Tax dollars saved them when they were "too big to fail".  The hope was that by saving them, the government would be saving and creating jobs.  Tell that to the people who have been unemployed for over a year because companies have learned that their workforce is so desperate to keep their jobs that the employees do 5 times the work for half the pay. 

This is what the movement is about.  People are angry about the state of the country.  And they should be.  The government (all parts of it) and the corporations are in bed together.  Companies don't differentiate between Republican or Democrat, they'll give money to both to guarentee that the laws passed benefit THEM. But governments shouldn't work for companies.

Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address that our government was "of the people, by the people" and most importantly "for the people."  When did that stop?  When did the government give up on the people and become "for the corporations?"  We've let it happen.  But as the situation degenerates, I believe we need to avoid violent revolution and take part in non-violent, constitutionally granted ways of changing the system.  An Op-ed piece in the NY Times calls this America's "primal scream."  We need to scream our heads off before things get worse.

Occupy Together

Occupy Indiana: Occupy South Bend

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Wordless Wednesday: Occupy Together