Knit for Climate Action

In September 2020, Common Grace called on Christians across Australia to combine their creativity with their passion for creation and climate justice to knit scarves that convey the reality of our warming climate.

The pattern of these climate scarves shows the long-term increase in average global temperatures from 1919 to now. The average temperature band for each year was calculated and then each temperature band was assigned a colour on a spectrum (from blue to red) to show the progression from cool to warm, and then a stripe knitted to correspond to each year. This means you can clearly see the reality of our warming planet with a single glance. 

Our initial vision was to gift scarves to Australia’s federal parliamentarians, delivering a gracious and compelling message urging swift action on climate change. We have been blown away and humbled by the generous and heartfelt response of our knitters and the impact the gift of these scarves is having in helping spark deep conversations for urgent climate action. Thanks to the remarkable efforts of our Knit for Climate Action community, we have had thousands of knitters register to knit a Common Grace climate stripe scarf, with many knitting multiple scarves for friends, family, and political, faith and community leaders. 

Would you like to knit and gift a scarf that helps spark conversation and action for climate change in your community? 

Register for access to our Knitter’s Handbook. It doesn't matter if you're an accomplished knitter or a recent beginner, you’ll be supported with resources to complete and gift your scarf. You could also consider who else in your community would be interested in knitting alongside you and invite them to join in too. As you knit and gift your scarf, please share photos and your story on social media (tag us @CommonGraceAus) and send them to Common Grace at [email protected].

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Reflections from some of our wonderful knitters

Rebecca and Imojjen NSW Rebecca: "My daughter Imojjen and I were so thrilled to be able to use our love of yarn to join with others to show our concern for God’s creation. I love to knit. I love knitting for good. I was astonished as I knitted this scarf at how rapidly the colours changed - particularly in the last decade and the temperature never goes back to 1919. My hope is that this scarf brings both joy as it is worn and helps engage in meaningful conversations that will lead to climate renewal." Imojjen: "I loved knitting my scarf as it was a way to use my love for knitting to bring awareness of something I feel strongly about. It is also so great that these scarves are coming from other people who love God and the world he created! I hope wearing this scarf brings really great discussion about our world, and what is happening to it, and what we can do to make it better."

Sue Pyke, Intergeneration scarf (Sue, sisters, niece and mother) - "My heart leapt at the email from Common Grace, with its plan for parliamentarians to wear scarves telling a century-old story of climate change. Imagine, every politician, no matter how red, green or blue, wearing climate justice as the issue, led by the sovereign peoples of this land...A rough around the edges scarf, salted with tears. A bond between me and my family, our concern for the future of the young ones we love, rolled up in stitches of hope for the world that gives us life. I sent it off, and the prayer that went with it was this: may this beautiful project free governments to act with bipartisan effectiveness. May policy responses be as swift as they have been for those more visible and related disasters, the unprecedented – but predicted – fires, pandemics and floods. May this scarf be part of a stitch in time, to get people behind the targets needed to keep the earth habitable for all the species of this world."

Greg, QLD: "I haven't knitted before this project, but I do a lot of needle work. It keeps me focused and energised, when I'm sitting still. This often helps me to listen to people for longer than I otherwise would. I picked up knitting so that I could make a climate scarf and specifically, so I could Knit for Climate Action with Common Grace. The colourful scarf is a useful tool for talking about climate change. It's non-threatening and doesn't take control of a conversation in any particular way. It prompts people to talk deeply about the aspects of climate change that are on their minds. I am very concerned about how easy it is for us to end conversations so quickly when we don't agree with each other. We need to have complicated conversations. We need to be able to start our conversations about climate change from a variety of starting points, and we need to be able to find ways to stay in these conversations when they are difficult."

Chris, SA: "I'm very concerned about climate change, and I wanted to do something that would help motivate others to be concerned about it too. I enjoy knitting and I love the idea of communicating graphically with knitting. This scarf became very personal as I knitted. My son was born on the last blue stripe year and my daughter was born on the first yellow stripe year! Please study our climate-stripe scarves and let the sheer urgency of the data they hold sink in. Mark off the decades. When were you born? When were your children born? See how quickly we have plunged into red!"