Knitters banding together for climate 🧶The Tempestry Project

“Every piece that's knit is 20 to 30 hours of somebody thinking about climate. And then every person who sees that piece thinks about it and hopefully talks about it...It's activism, but sort of a cozy activism, a “craftivism,” that's not too threatening to people and permeates conversations and dialogue about climate change.” - Justin Connelly and Emily McNeil 

Knitters have been doing temperature knitting for a long time--checking their thermometer on their porch every day, writing down the information, and turning data into patterns for a particular year or time period. But today there is a growing movement of turning these crafts into political statements. Justin Connelly, Emily McNeil, and their co-founder Marissa Connelly have codified this practice into a shared framework and language that cohesively illustrates the history of climate change. 

They call their efforts the Tempesty Project. The project started in 2017 as a DIY guide for activists and knitters to extract and preserve environmental data in the form of scarves and wall hangings. Local knitters were eager to get involved in the project but not as excited about extracting the data. So, Justin, Emily, and Marissa created a kit with data and let the knitters do their knitting. 

Two-thousand people have purchased the kits and are spreading the story about climate change with colors. Groups in local churches, classrooms, college campuses and towns have weaved years of history, some as far back as the late 1800s which is on display at the Philadelphia Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. 

By banding together, what would have been an isolated experience of climate transforms into a collective language for activism and environmental change. 

👋🏻Check out the work of the Tempesty Project at www.tempestryproject.com/

✨Say hi to our correspondent, Mia Quagliarello

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