It’s no secret that over here at BUST we consider ourselves huge fans of all things knitting (Stitch ’N Bitch, anyone?). But knitting as activism? Way cool.
Last week in South Burlington, Vermont, five women took to the lobby of a Vermont Gas Systems office, staging a “knit-in” to protest a pipeline expansion. According to the research of one protestor, Jane Palmer, they had reason to believe that a pipeline permitting process was being mishandled (which requires a series of applications and regulations for the company to fulfill).
Apparently, many of the company’s employees and contractors had trespassed on their property, due to the fact that their houses were within the planned route of the new pipeline. They decided to protest after their complaints went unheard.
The knitters ran into a little trouble when the office building closed at 5 p.m. that day; if they remained any longer, they would be trespassing. Soon enough, five police squad cars showed up to serve four of the protestors with trespass warnings and to haul off Jane Palmer to jail.
Fittingly (and hilariously), they were knitting “pipeline cozies.” Now, only time will tell if they’ll actually be necessary or if Vermont Gas Systems will heed their yarn-strung warning and abandon the project.
Images via Vermont Public Radio, Kathryn Flagg via Seven Days
