CALGARY (CP) - Members of the Revolutionary Knitting Circle are preparing for next month's G-8 protests, where they plan to fly knitted banners and proudly carry the group logo - a ball of wool with a lit fuse.
"We're a loosely knit group," said Grant Neufeld, founder of the RKC. "We use this humorous approach to show the contrast of the peaceful act of knitting and these forms of protest that have been to a large extent misrepresented as harsh conflict." The revolutionary knitters are just one of several offbeat groups that promise to add colour and flavour to protest marches during next month's meeting of the Group of Eight industrialized countries at nearby Kananaskis, Alta.
Raging Grannies from across Western Canada are writing new satirical G-8 lyrics to sing at protests and for warm-up acts at political debates and speeches.
Dozens of cyclists from the G-8 Bike Brigade in Saskatoon, Edmonton and Vancouver have been training for months to get in shape for their multi-day bike rides to Calgary.
There's also a four-day G-8 Prayer Summit to be based in Calgary, with churches around the world using teleconferencing to pray for police, activists and G-8 leaders.
The revolutionary knitters have put a call out to activists throughout the world to join in a global knit-in June 26 - the day the leaders arrive in Alberta.
Neufeld said knitting circles started as protests about two years ago, with several groups in British Columbia and throughout the United States.
"This is the first global knit-in that I'm aware of," he said. "The knitters' theme is for activists to try to increase social justice and the health of the environment."
Up to 40 Calgarians have said they will participate in the knit-in, with eight to 15 people showing up at monthly meetings at people's homes, Neufeld said.
As well as knitting banners that could also be used as blankets, Calgary's knitters are also making "tree cozies."
"The idea is to symbolically protect some of the trees in Kananaskis from some of the security forces that are going to be traipsing around in there," Neufeld said.
Male knitters are challenging traditional gender roles - a point Neufeld has no trouble making, judging from the raised eyebrows he gets when he pulls out his yarn and needles while riding the public transit.
"For some people it makes them uncomfortable to see me doing what is traditionally associated to women," he said.
But Neufeld said the attention gives him an opportunity to talk about his cause with fellow riders.
"It gives me an opportunity to bring activism into it but in a context that isn't confrontational," he said.
The Raging Grannies say they are concerned that the leaders are holding their 30-hour meeting in a remote area an hour's drive west of Calgary, far away from protesters who want their voices heard.
"It's a bunch of white power guys meeting in seclusion to decide issues that affect all of us," said Susan Stratton, a Calgary granny.
"All of those G-8 countries are theoretically democracies."
Bike Brigade members, who plan to ride into Calgary June 22, say they want to work toward eradicating Third World debt and improving the environment and human rights around the world.
Rev. John Hutchinson, media spokesman for the prayer summit, said church leaders will call upon God to guide and protect everyone involved in the summit.
"The issues being raised by the leaders are extremely important - from the plight of Africans to the horrors of terrorism - so it is important that we pray to help them make decisions," he said.
"And it's equally important that violence does not touch protesters or police."
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