This National Federation of Women Workers banner (a replica of the 1914 original) s in the People's History Museum. The NFWW was formed in 1906 to campaign for the rights of low-paid women workers, like those included in the marvellous description of a protest march in No Surrender: "Textile workers from Lancashire and Yorkshire in their shawls and clogs...Welsh women from the pit's mouth; sweated tailoresses, doing Government work...at half men's pay; post office clerks, who had also experienced the bitter difference between justice as meted out to those with the vote and those without; chain-makers...hat-makers, bottle-makers, match-makers, jelly-makers, each bearing on a banner the emblem of their trade; on and on they came...the interminable miles and miles of women".

Several museums now collect protest materials, including the People's History Museum in Manchester which acquired this banner after it was discovered in a charity shop. Although many banners were designed by suffragette and artist Mary Lowndes, this was made by the Manchester-based banner-maker Thomas Brown & Sons. It appeared on the platform alongside Emmeline Pankhurst when she spoke on 19 July 1908 at a rally in Heaton Park, Manchester, to a crowd of 50,000 people, many of whom, like Ursula in The Call, no doubt looked 'rather fine' carrying banners of their own. 

This week, during a period of strikes in the UK, we have banners and placards on the Post. As nurses here have never before gone on strike, there is no stock of protest materials. So we see hand-made, home-made signs created with whatever are to hand. Pictured are nurses outside Kings College Hospital, London, earlier this month, publicising their message by means of scale, typeface, and brilliant colours (and perhaps a reference to Manchester United?)

Kaffe Fassett has also reinvigorated the craft of patchwork and designs collections of cotton quilting fabrics which he then puts together in his fearlessly exuberant way. His skills bring to mind 'The Bedquilt' (1906) by Dorothy Canfield Fisher which is in The Second Persephone Book of Short Stories. It is left to the reader to picture the exquisite quilt j,ust as Kaffe Fassett opens up a whole world of creativity which is limited only by the maker's imagination. This is 'Kaffe's Hexagons' (2014-15, designed and made by Kim McLean.

It is possible to take any of Kaffe Fassett's knitting pattern charts (eg from his Pattern Library book (2003)) and adapt them to make small or large square and rectangular items such as scarves, cushion covers and blankets. There is no need for shaping, but plenty of room for  experimentation, as here with the Gridlock Swatch. Kaffe's rather heartening motto is, "If in doubt - add twenty more colours".

Kaffe Fassett has also transformed the previously rather genteel pastime of needlepoint into something exciting and exuberant by working on a much larger scale, using canvas with more holes per inch, wools which are doubled, more and brighter colours. His designs are the modern versions of the 'bright gigantic roses' done in Berlin woolwork on the Victorian chaise-longue. This is his Rose Couch which is a one-off, but Kaffe Fassett kits are available from Ehrman Tapestry 

Kaffe Fassett has continued to charm largely female audiences for years, rather like the Wing Commander in Elizabeth Taylor's At Mrs Lippincote's (1945) who leans against the mantelpiece in the Mess doing his wife's knitting and turns the heel to the delight of the officers' wives. Kaffe Fassett's early ground-breaking knitting patterns used dozens of colours and were notoriously complex, but they inspired knitters everywhere. This is his Kilim Jacket, modelled in 1992 by a young Kate Moss on the cover of Rowan Magazine 10.