Don't think that just because I haven't been posting, that I've been slacking. No. Not the case.
I haven't taken more photos, but the second layer of flags for the Peace Project is well underway. Will have more photos sometime this weekend.
In the mean time, here are some images of other projects that will be in the show:
This piece is about 1/8 of the way completed. I'm at 800/4700 rows. I know. Just looks like plain old garter stitch, right? A beginner scarf. What's it doing in an art show?
I'll tell you. That red portion represents one stitch for every person who died on 9/11, all 2993.
The black portion, which is only a small sample of the total to be completed (and is actually about double that length now) represents all American, American Allied, and Iraqi deaths since that date, including the war in Afghanistan (578 Americans in Afghanistan and 364 Coillition troops, plus 4145 in Iraq and 86661 Iraqi civilian, military, and pseudo-millitary deaths. I can't include the number of Afghan deaths because no one kept track of them; the number ranges between 1,000 and 5,000, depending on who you ask and where you look), meaning that it will be 94741 stitches total (using current numbers), or about 4737 rows.
The reason I'm using garter stitch is because in the military, soldiers are trained to think of themselves as a small part of the whole; the individual is at the service of the group. They wear their hair the same, wear the same uniforms, eat the same food, and live under the same conditions, just the way garter stitch lines up in perfect, neat, uniform rows. Conversly, for many Americans, the deaths of Iraqi and Afghan civilians mean that a faceless bunch of people thousands of miles away have died; it has little impact on them. By having all of the war deaths in the same color, it raises the question of Who's Who? Is that stitch an American, British, Iraqi, or an Afghan? Do the differences in yarn signify different countries?
Above all, however, you should be asking yourself this: compare the black portion to the red. All of these deaths have been taken in revenge for the loss of those 2993 on September 11. More than thirty times the number lost in the terrorist attacks. Has it been worth it? Is this really honoring their memory, their sacrifice?
Okay. Take a breath. This next piece isn't meant to be taken as seriously. It's not meant to be as thought provoking. It's poking fun, and while it should make you (or at least, some people) think (just a little) it's intended more as an opportunity to step back and laugh. That being said, I'd like to warn those of you who don't know me well that I am sarcastic and just a little bitchy, and if you are conservative (politically speaking and otherwise), please just turn back now.
George here represents the first in a series of embroidery pieces I'm working on (and yes, he is still in progress just like everything else). When have we had a President who has had an entire website dedicated to the stupid things he says? Okay, maybe we haven't had the internet for that long, but while Lincoln was not well liked in office, and not necessarily considered the best public speaker, I don't think anyone followed him around writing down all of his grammatical errors, or lying in wait for him to say something that didn't make sense.
Also, I somehow doubt that Bush will ever be held in the same regard as Lincoln. But that's an entirely different blog post.
As I was saying, if you are not familiar with
this page,, you might want to pop on over and have a look. You'll get a good laugh out of it.
This series is called "Shut up and Get Along." It will be a series of "talking heads" from around the world--leaders from various countries who need to maybe take a look at some of the websites people have set up and think, "What? I said that? Really?" Just as the confident but off key singer occasionally needs a good friend to record them and play back that recording at top volume to shock their friend into perhaps lip syncing at the next choir competition, so these leaders need a quick twack upside the head and a close friend to say "What the hell were you thinking?"
In knitting, blocking can fix almost any mistake in sizing. If these leaders would relax a little, maybe lay out with a Long Island ice tea and a hot tub, a couple nice girls to give them massages (anyone know if Monica Lewinski is looking for a new job?), then perhaps the world would be a better place. If that doesn't work, we could just pin them all to our blocking boards until stop fighting. Whichever works.
