Saturday 2 August 2014

There have been some rather

serious meanderings on these pages recently so I thought I might try for something a little less heavy this morning.
I was sent this link
page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/124212030@N06/sets/72157645273951310/
and it contains some photos of flags knitted for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Some flags are easy to knit. Others are very difficult. I was once asked if I would knit an Australian flag into the front of a jumper for a rather large man who was going to travel abroad and wanted to announce to the world that he was an Australian. I declined. I am a yarn snob. I refuse to knit with cheap acrylic. I do not like the type of knitting called "intarsia" which was called for - and I didn't particularly like the man.
I would never consider wearing such a thing myself but another knitter made it for him and he apparently toured the world wearing his flag on his chest.
Before my parents went on the inevitable Grand Tour By Rail of Europe back in the 70's my mother bought two cloth "badges" of the Australian flag and sewed them on the raincoats she had purchased for herself and the Senior Cat for the trip. As the Senior Cat does not speak another language this may have been wise. My mother's schoolgirl French was apparently revived with some success on a couple of occasions.
I went briefly to the Continent. I did not do the Grand Tour By Rail. I did not wear anything which labelled me as anything and I travelled with nothing more than one of those old airways type bags that someone had given me. It belonged to no particular airline. I can't have looked too much like a tourist because, more than once, I was stopped by tourists wanting to know where to go.
Was it a good idea? I don't know. It didn't seem to do any harm. I really didn't want to be labelled. I am not a flag waver.
But the knitted flags are fun because, although they represent individual countries, when they are all put together they represent a common effort. It was, unlike the Games themselves, not a competition but something done in the spirit of cooperation. I like them for that reason - and they must have looked bright and cheerful hanging out there. 
And here is a "flag" I made years ago. There is the word for "peace" in twenty different languages on it. Have a peaceful weekend!

 

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