Knit One

Imagine my surprise this morning when, upon tuning into BBC Breakfast, I was confronted with the site of people sitting at a table on London Bridge and they were knitting.

Cue “sound bite” from one of the artists (I use the term artist as presented in the piece):

“I like the political aspect of knitting, the feeling of taking things into one’s own hands.”

The political aspect of knitting? I bet democracies across the world felt a small tremor when he said that, dictators peered out of windows wondering why the crows were flocking over their palaces, and across the nation the sound of disbelief echoed through the streets – sounding just like people stifling laughs behind their cornflakes.

I did agree with his second point – that you could also see knitting as a backlash against commercialism – but the order in which he presented his “knitting beliefs” says more about him than I fear he realises.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of knitting – I’ve mentioned all that before though – but I’m not sure I see the appeal of knitting things like lampshades or handgrenades (via) or food (via).

However I do think everyone should have at least one hand knitted garment in their wardrobe. But having grown up with a constant stream of jumpers (in varying colours and designs) I guess I was kinda spoiled. It did stop Aunties giving me knitted jumpers though, always a blessing.