Wartime Knitting Circle, 2007

"Wartime Knitting Circle" was an interactive installation created for the Museum of Arts and Design's exhibition "Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting" (on view Jan 24- June 17, 2007).

The installation consisted of nine machine knitted photo blankets - which in 2005 became a popular way for families to honor relatives who had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan - depicting images culled from newspapers, historical societies and library archives. The images showed how knitting has been used during wartime: for civic participation, protest, therapeutic distraction, and even direct attack.

The installation provided a space and materials for knitters to work on wartime knitting projects; it was also a place for them to consider the role their handcraft could play in the Iraq war, and a place to interact with people who may have had different political opinions from their own. Four wartime knitting patterns were provided, although knitters were allowed bring in their own projects. Photos of knitters at work and viewer comments were presented in a photo album at the museum.