Why These Knitters said, "Yes!"

Way back in 2001 when I was still in my sixties, I had big goals for tilting the universe toward enviornmental change through yarn.  First I knit 150 red wiggler worm interpretations, then asked knitters everywhere to join in.  Great response!  "Knit One Red Worm" in the first KnitLit book and my website, Cityworm, led knitters I met to respond, "Oh, the worm lady!"

Fast forward to 2005 (see ABOUT page). I was bumping along on a more modest project--knitting Condom Amulets to feature on my blog, A Little Red Hen.  Between sweaters for my grandchildren and a periodic "great idea" for another amulet, life was uncomplicated.  But no. Someone thought it would be great to once again inspire all those good-hearted knitters. "What about a zine?"

Seemed a good idea.  Asked friends in New York City--Kay Gardiner, Lisa Daehlin, Amanda Gale. Lisa and I met in 2002, at the Upper West Side Knitting Circle that began shortly after 9/11.  Amanda and Kay are friends from Kitty City, the community-oriented yarn shop in my neighborhood. Michelle Edwards, is an online knitting friend in Iowa.   

One problem.  How would the patterns be widely distributed at no cost?  Jenna Freedman, Zine Librarian at Barnard College, in "What about a zine?"  says the prime motivator behind zines is "The desire to express rather than to profit."  She's talking about paper zines that people mimeo or photocopy in their offices, distribute in small numbers through alternative bookstores and cafes.  But what about reaching thousands of knitters?

Sitting in Jenna's tiny office, I proposed a new name, the one I'm using here, blogzine.  (Barnard is a couple of blocks from my apartment.)  Just plain "zine" is what I call the photocopied, little paper ones like this. But it only introduces the Condom Amulet idea to those I meet, directs them here.  Online, the blogzine has the actual patterns to make the amulets and a gallery for those others contribute.  (Jenna is thinking it over.)

All of us hope you'll respond to Knit A Condom Amulet, our consciousness-raising blogzine. Each of us has a personal reason for participating.  We're single, we're mothers, we're grandmothers.  We've lost good friends to AIDS.  We worry about kids in high schools where sex education does not happen...about undiagnosed STDS that cause HIV and cervical cancer...about the spread of AIDS around the world.  Join us, please.  Use the free instructions on this site to knit any of our seven pattern.  We invite you to add your amulets HERE.

Thanks!   Yours for Safe Sex, Naomi Dagen Bloom and my four knitting friends--

Lisa Daehlin (at dinner in a dark cafe, French Roast, on Manhattan's upper west side)

All the designers, received a copy of what she's holding,"Sexual Etiquette," an out-of-print, 1990s parlor game.  More about it here and the effort to encourage the psychologists who invented it to bring it back to life.

Kay Gardiner (meeting for lunch in our neighborhood's local quasi-fast- food chain from Belgium, Le Pain Quotidien) and receiving her prize.

Amanda Gale

Looking more formal than most of us usually see her in a dress-up picture for Ravelry.com. 

Michelle Edwards Joined us New Yorkers all the way from IowaShe's represented here by one of her popular notecard illustrations.  This "Hat Knitter" suggests another Condom Amulet possibility .  Could you make one?                                 

 

Way back in 2001 when I was still in my sixties, I had big goals for tilting the universe toward enviornmental change through yarn.  First I knit 150 red wiggler worm interpretations, then asked knitters everywhere to join in.  Great response!  "Knit One Red Worm" in the first KnitLit book and my website, Cityworm, led knitters I met to respond, "Oh, the worm lady!"

Fast forward to 2005 (see ABOUT page). I was bumping along on a more modest project--knitting Condom Amulets to feature on my blog, A Little Red Hen.  Between sweaters for my grandchildren and a periodic "great idea" for another amulet, life was uncomplicated.  But no. Someone thought it would be great to once again inspire all those good-hearted knitters. "What about a zine?"

Seemed a good idea.  Asked friends in New York City--Kay Gardiner, Lisa Daehlin, Amanda Gale. Lisa and I met in 2002, at the Upper West Side Knitting Circle that began shortly after 9/11.  Amanda and Kay are friends from Kitty City, the community-oriented yarn shop in my neighborhood. Michelle Edwards, is an online knitting friend in Iowa.   

One problem.  How would the patterns be widely distributed at no cost?  Jenna Freedman, Zine Librarian at Barnard College, in "What about a zine?"  says the prime motivator behind zines is "The desire to express rather than to profit."  She's talking about paper zines that people mimeo or photocopy in their offices, distribute in small numbers through alternative bookstores and cafes.  But what about reaching thousands of knitters?

Sitting in Jenna's tiny office, I proposed a new name, the one I'm using here, blogzine.  (Barnard is a couple of blocks from my apartment.)  Just plain "zine" is what I call the photocopied, little paper ones like this. But it only introduces the Condom Amulet idea to those I meet, directs them here.  Online, the blogzine has the actual patterns to make the amulets and a gallery for those others contribute.  (Jenna is thinking it over.)

All of us hope you'll respond to Knit A Condom Amulet, our consciousness-raising blogzine. Each of us has a personal reason for participating.  We're single, we're mothers, we're grandmothers.  We've lost good friends to AIDS.  We worry about kids in high schools where sex education does not happen...about undiagnosed STDS that cause HIV and cervical cancer...about the spread of AIDS around the world.  Join us, please.  Use the free instructions on this site to knit any of our seven pattern.  We invite you to add your amulets HERE.

Thanks!   Yours for Safe Sex, Naomi Dagen Bloom and my four knitting friends--

Lisa Daehlin (at dinner in a dark cafe, French Roast, on Manhattan's upper west side)

All the designers, received a copy of what she's holding,"Sexual Etiquette," an out-of-print, 1990s parlor game.  More about it here and the effort to encourage the psychologists who invented it to bring it back to life.

Kay Gardiner (meeting for lunch in our neighborhood's local quasi-fast- food chain from Belgium, Le Pain Quotidien) and receiving her prize.

Amanda Gale

Looking more formal than most of us usually see her in a dress-up picture for Ravelry.com. 

Michelle Edwards Joined us New Yorkers all the way from IowaShe's represented here by one of her popular notecard illustrations.  This "Hat Knitter" suggests another Condom Amulet possibility .  Could you make one?