Laurie was telling us all last night about the Red Sweaters instillation that opened last week. If there is enough interest we'll do a knit along as there are still a couple hundred sweaters needed. Here's a little information from the website...
"At first, I wanted to knit a mini-sweater for everyone who died in the war. Then, after I did some research, I discovered that the death toll of American soldiers plus soldiers from other countries plus civilians was so high (over 16,000) that it would be nearly impossible to make one sweater for each death related to the war in Iraq. At that point, I decided to make one sweater for each fallen American soldier. The number is still staggering, but possible to achieve for this project.
Then, I had to figure out a way to display over 1500 mini-sweaters. The trees outside my house have bark that looks like camouflage. Camouflage reminds me of army soldiers, and since my project is inspired by war, the tree seemed like the perfect place to display the installation.
Once I figured out that I wanted to knit mini-sweaters and display them in a tree, I had to decide what material I would use to make them. I thought about death again, and of some of the images I’ve seen on TV of the war casualties. The color red popped up in my mind. It is the perfect color to represent blood loss, and would be striking and eye-catching against the tree leaves and branches. Since I chose to use the color red to represent blood, I suddenly felt that it was important to use yarns that would maintain the same symbolism. Blood has no politics, ethnicity, or class. It is made of the same stuff in every body. Yarn can be made from many different materials; silk, cotton, wool, man-made fibers, etc. By using the same stuff for each sweater (acrylic yarn), the symbolism of blood is maintained. "
You can see a photo gallery & get the pattern to help make more sweaters at redsweaters.org
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