Knit a River

Knit a River, Photo Courtesy of iknitlondon

Knit a River is a project that perfectly embodies the Craftivist collision with Network Cultures. It was organized by the London group I Knit in conjunction with WaterAid, a charity organization that aims to provide access to safe water all over the globe, as a protest to raise awareness for this inequality. In June of 2006, I Knit invited the global knitting population to contribute to the project by sending six inch blue squares. The squares would then be sewn together to make a patchwork blanket of squares from all over the world. 

I Knit received 100,000 blue squares and the blanket traveled to venues around Europe in parades or draped across surfaces to invite people to hang out in the "river." In May 2007, over 200 knitters and WaterAid volunteers joined to carry part of the river down the Albert Embankment to give to the Prime Minister in order to put the issue in the spotlight right before the G8 Summit.

Knit a River, Photo Courtesy of iknitlondon

Knit a River embodies the type of peaceful protest that can occur when likeminded individuals come together to promote change. Through the use of a global network, I Knit was able to exponentially increase their workforce, just the type of activities which occur when social networks and services crowd source their online communities.