Calling All LOUDfence Crafters
R
ev Dr Steve Taylor is undertaking research on knitting. He is wanting to interview people who knitted strawberries for LOUDFence. People need to be aged over 18 years and willing to be interviewed about the reasons they knitted for LOUDFence and what participation in the project meant to them and their faith and spirituality. The research has higher education ethics approval and will result in research publications on the subject of knitting in Christian practice. For more information see https://www.facebook.com/ordinaryknitters or email Steve Taylor on kiwidrsteve@gmail.com).
Calling all crafters
During the first week of March 2024, we took part in LOUDfence.
LOUDfence began as a protest movement in Australia in 2015 and has spread far and wide since then. The idea is to tie brightly-coloured ribbons to a fence as a sign of support for and solidarity with victims and survivors of child sexual abuse. These "loud" ribbons also represent a determination to break the silence around abuse.
Our LOUDfence was displayed in Newcastle Cathedral from 3 March alongside a displacy of creative work by survivors. The survivors leading on this project thought that a fence full of loud strawberries, inspired by the artwork from If I Told You, What Would You Do? would be more appropriate than ribbons in our Diocese.
We are very grateful to the many volunteers who knitted strawberries using the following knitting patterns Knitting pattern, Crochet pattern 1 and Crochet pattern 2. You can read more about the event's succes here.