One blanket and 100 million missing women

There are squares. Many squares. The colours of the rainbow, different textures, some knitted, some crocheted, some put together into blankets. There are people too, knitting, sewing together, sitting together, having a cup of tea or coffee, with a laptop on the blanket. The air is of urgency and comfort at the same time, there are lots of smiles, smiles that speak of excitement. Friendly faces that invite to be approached. Blankets laid out on sofas and chairs, on tables, a splash of colour in the dark space of Glasgow's Tramway Theatre.

It's coming together. A good few months ago, Garterstitch 100 started out on the phenomenal task to knit just one stitch for every woman missing in our world today. A staggering 100 million women who should be here with us aren't, due to gender inequalities. Women who didn't get born (sex selective abortion), women who didn't get good health care, women who died in childbirth, girls killed just because they were girls, women killed in war and at home.

To celebrate the centenary of International Women's Day on 8th March 2011, the initiative will present a massive blanket to which rather a lot of people contributed. We all knitted or crocheted 6'' squares, and if I remember correctly, a staggering 60,000 squares are needed if just one stitch represents the missing women of this world.

It's all coming together, and coming together is maybe the best description of what's happening. There were so many sit and knit a bit events, where people just got together to knit a square, sharing a space, a time, a task. And while people sat and knitted, they got to know one another. The atrocious fact of the missing women was countered by creativity and togetherness, by creating something with the skill of hands. Lots of hands.

The Tramway is already full of colour and yarn, quite a contrast to its usual steel, metal and brick. The deadline for submitting squares is fast approaching, Tuesday it will be, so if you wish to be part of it, don't tally.

 And after Tuesday, the gigantic blanket will be celebrated on International Women's Day with Loop, 100 events for 100 years. Be there.

The Gallery: Playtime at the Tramway

The Tramway currently hosts an interactive installation for children 0-12 (Folding Clouds and Hoovering Hills) which we visited today. The installation brings the outside indoors, with items that you would expect to find outdoors or items that resemble the outdoors in the spacious Tramway theatre/museum. It's truly interactive - the children can create, craft, draw, run, make music etc. For example, the old tramlines are filled with soil and look like paths, there are mirrors the shape of water splashes, felt and cushion make for great hills. There's a den, a massive kaleidoscope, pots to make music with, a giant carton tube, giant pipe cleaners (like knitted snakes, just that you can bend them into shapes), a craft table with the option of exhibiting the creations in a construction from cardboard that resembles a beehive.

What I loved most about it is that it's a work in constant change - you can create flowers with shapes, and take them apart. The children create little pieces with craft materials, some don't complete them, the next child will pick it up and transform it into something different. It's collaborative and constantly evolving, you look away and back and the room has changed. Hours of fun.

So today, our playtime was at the Tramway, complete with a stroll through the Hidden Gardens. The installation is still up for another 10 days so if you're near Glasgow, make sure not to miss it (entry is free).