sustain:if:able kiwi

making a single sock and the work of academic writing

I’ve just knitted my first ever sock. I’m feeling very pleased.

This sock is the result of several years of effort. A few years ago, I was given a book of knitted sock patterns. The book came with a bookmark carefully inserted, suggesting a place to start. So I brought the wool and began to knit.

But I’m a slow knitter. And I tend to pause when I get to tricky bits, especially tricky bits where I might need help from others, who might not currently be available. (My partner is a much more experienced knitter than I and a very helpful voice of calm when I find my knitting tricky).

So this week, after nearly 2 and a half years, I have knitted my first sock. While there were months of no knitting, often related to a tricky part approaching, it is clear that knitting socks is – for my slow fingers – a long and slow labour of love.

However socks come in pairs. And so amid the elation of completing a first sock, is the realisation that I am only half way there. It is a strange thing to feel both pleased and daunted and both at the same time.

This week I also submitted a 2,000 word conference presentation. It began as a possible idea in December 2025, 250 words submitted from a hotel room in Rwanda. Then a few weeks ago, I carved out a few hours and realised the data I was working with was far richer than I had remembered. Then a week ago, I carve out another few hours and realised that I could adapt a theoretical framework from some earlier writing.

So this week I completed a sock and 2,000 word conference presentation. These milestones got me pondering how knitting is like writing.

The data for the conference presentation comes from analysing 12 interviews from my Ordinary knitters research project. I was working with interviews from 2019 through to 2024. Five years! The theoretical framework comes from reading done in 2012, which became part of my First Expressions book published with SCM in 2019.

So the conference words are also slow words. And the Ordinary knitters research project is something I hope to turn into a book. Of which I have about 40,000 words, of a possible 80,000 word book project.

So I’m half way to a book and half way to a pair of socks. I’m feeling pleased with progress, yet daunted by progress. At this stage, I can learn about writing from the processes of knitting.

Both writing and knitting are projects too big to do in a single burst. But one stitch, repeated, makes a row. One row, repeated, makes a leg.

Making as connecting: IAMS 2026 conference paper

I’m pleased to have a paper proposal accepted for International Association of Mission Studies, July 17-21, 2026 in Pretoria, South Africa. I am so grateful the conference is offering a hybrid option, to enhance accessibility for global scholars.

The theme is “Walking Together in Mission: Facing Global Challenges for a Sustainable World.” My paper responds to this theme and brings together two of my research interests, craftivism and digital technologies.

Making as connecting: the role of digital technologies in the diffusion of handmade missional innovation

Key words: digital technology, innovation, knitting, local Christian communities, making, missio Dei

This article analyses the role of social media in the diffusion of innovation among local Christian communities. In Making Is Connecting (2018), David Gauntlett argues that the internet is a new media technology that amplifies makers and making in our world today. He proposes a shift from a ‘sit back and be told’ culture to a ‘making and doing’ culture. This paper examines the implications for the missio Dei in local Christian communities by bringing empirical case study research into dialogue with contemporary theories of innovation in digital technologies.

In research published elsewhere, I have used the five Marks of Mission to analyse craftivism in local community outreach, including yarnbombing knitted Christmas angels, knitting scarves in climate justice activism, and knitting strawberries in solidarity with victims and survivors of church abuse.

Different Christian organisations initiated these knitted missional innovations, including a local Methodist circuit, a parachurch organisation and a Diocesan staff team. In each case, an active web presence and grassroots social media activity were essential in how individuals in local church communities became involved. Despite online toxicity, digital technologies enabled a peer-to-peer diffusion of innovation, driven by grassroots interest rather than top-down strategies. Digital technologies facilitated unplanned innovation at the speed of authentic sharing and peer-to-peer local connections.

Theoretically, the research supports claims that digital culture is a domain of God’s action in the world. Practically, it outlines how digital systems can support local Christian communities as they participate in the missio Dei.

“Making a Christian witness in Australia today” published in Colloquium

I’m delighted to have an article published in Colloquium: The Australian and New Zealand Theological Review. Colloquium is an international peer-reviewed journal published twice yearly. The journal aims to be a place for theological conversation which includes engagement with local and global context, interdisciplinary interaction and public debate. In a brilliant move, Colloquium has just gone open access, so the article is free to read (here).

Titled “Making a Christian witness in Australia today,” I argue in the article that while Christian witness is generally seen as occurring through words and deeds, we need to consider making as an essential domain of Christian mission. To understand making in mission, I conducted qualitative research into contemporary acts of knitting, particularly of Christmas angels and climate scarves, by Christians in Australia. These interviews unravelled understandings of making as a joyful experience of active praying that provided distinct ways of relating. The research has significance for how mission and theology are conceived in contemporary Australia and practised in local church contexts, particularly given a contemporary culture saturated with words and cynical of deeds.

This article is a first step toward a larger project, a book on Making in mission, which I am working on.

My thanks to the knitters willing to show and tell, to peer reviewers for their attention to the craft of writing and to AngelWings Ltd for the allocation of pro-bono time to undertake this research project.

Knitting as public theological witness

Researching Ordinary Knitters – people who knit for Christian projects in public spaces – has been a research side project for me since August 2021. This paper, if accepted, will be the first public articulation of data.

A paper proposal: Knitting as public theological witness

LOUDFence knitted strawberries, Newcastle 2024

This paper examines the ways in which acts of making are public theology. Matthew Engelke has researched how the Bible Society in the United Kingdom is active in public domains. He uses “ambient faith” as an analytical tool to theorise Christian activity that challenges the political and civic constraints imposed by the modern secular imaginary.

This paper applies “ambient faith” to recent practices of knitting in which Christians have been publicly active through yarnbombing and social activism. This paper draws on interviews with fifty knitters in four countries, along with participant observation of public interactions with several knitted projects, including visible displays of solidarity with those affected by abuse. While knitting is commonly seen as a domestic activity, done in private spaces, this paper describes how making offers new ways of relating and gives voice, particularly to lay women. Making as “ambient witness” offers new ways to think about the nature of public theology and Christian witness.

knitting is gendered

With Tom Daley knitting at the Paris Olympics, 3 years on from his knitting at the Tokyo Olympics, there is a fascinating article in The Conversation:

Knitting helps Tom Daley switch off. Its mental health benefits are not just for Olympians

The article notes the benefits of knitting for wellbeing and for community. The article also names the gendered nature of knitting. Knitting is an activity, usually done by older women, and normally at home. Each of these three reasons – wellbeing, community and gender – are reasons why I’m researching Ordinary knitters – people who have knitted for church projects. I am seeking to understand what happens when an activity, associated with women, is taken from the home to public places as an expression of Christian witness.

To date I’ve interviewed over 50 people, including people who have knitted Christmas angels to yarnbomb in their neighbourhoods, climate scarves to give to politicians and LOUDfence strawberries to express solidarity with survivors of church abuse. Given that only two of my participants have been male, knitting is clearly gendered.

What is fascinating is how in different ways, a hobby that is domestic and private is being made public. There is Christmas love made visible in streets and parks, concerns for future generations expressed in politicians offices and the secrecy that surrounds abuse made visible in public places. Knitting becomes a way for women to express a public theology.