Needles & hooks

Knitters Represent!

My ITMFA cross-stitch piece ended up on the ITMFA site today. Reader Abigail gave Dan a head’s up and he posted the photo (thanks, Abigail!). I’m mailing him the original to adorn the office.

He also copied the post to The Stranger’s staff blog, Slog, where the first comment was someone blasting me for wasting my time making pretty craft pieces instead of “doing work that will create actual political change”. They signed the comment “Too much time on their hands”. You can read the rebuttals that both Dan and I made there.

There are a lot of things that bother me implicit in that criticism. That smart people can’t be crafty. Or that crafty people can’t be smart. That crafty art isn’t valid. That you have to speak with the right voice or you shouldn’t speak at all. That there’s something specific I need to be doing to create change (not that my flamer gave any suggestions). Whatever happened to “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”?

Never mind that I vote. Never mind that I contribute to causes I believe in with both my time and my money (local politicians, national politicians, and Planned Parenthood in recent months). Never mind that I did a 60-mile walk for breast cancer last October or that I’m spending 4 days volunteering as a camp grunt for the Boston 3-Day Walk this year (as a volunteer, I don’t have a fundraising requirement this time, but if you’d like to support me, click here). Never mind that I boycott Wal-Mart. Never mind that I support small businesses with many of my yarn purchases. Apparently, some people feel all that is invalidated because I chose to spend a little time with a needle and thread.

I think that you never know how someone is going to finally hear your message. Maybe it’s in a classroom. Maybe it’s on a bus. Maybe it’s on a TV show. Maybe it’s reading a knitting blog. It doesn’t always sink in the first time around. Or the second. Or until the government logs all of our phone calls and gas costs $6 a gallon. But if you spread it around in enough ways, people will start to notice, and it will be there when they finally are ready to hear it.

I think several of you heard about ITMFA for the first time by reading my blog. Maybe you’ll make your own handcraft (Kerstin is designing a knit handbag!). Maybe you’ll buy a pin from Dan. Maybe you’ll buy one of the t-shirts or stickers that others have designed. Maybe you’ll start lobbying your elected representatives. And your voices will join the groundswell and maybe the people who got voted into office and can do something about it will finally listen and start an investigation.

So, for all of that:

If you have a slight objection to the language, an good alternate is “Impeach The Massive Failure Already”.

Oh, and yes, I really did buy a copy of Styx’s Paradise Theater just so I could listen to “Too Much Time On My Hands”. I’m listening to it while I write this.

Thanks for reading.

Comments: 5 — Posted under: Musing

Don’t call me Mom!!!

Tonight I want to sound off a bit about something I’ve noticed that always irks me each time I see it.

Why are the admins of just about any knitting/craft list/swap/craft-along/online group called “moms”?

Sure, as far as I’ve seen, they’re all women. Because yes, the participants in these groups are predominantly women. But I’m guessing that the admins of more male-oriented groups, like perhaps a fishing group, aren’t called “dads”.

I think this bites at me on several levels.

Part of it is an inter-group equality issue. In the groups I’ve seen, the admins see to the smooth running of the group. They handle the administrative and organizational tasks. They deal with any technical or social issues that might arise. But for the most part, they are just another member of the group. And the term “mom” implies a dependent, subservient relationship that I don’t believe exists or should exist in the group. These people aren’t my mother. They didn’t change my diapers. I don’t look to them for advice. I don’t blame them for my neuroses (yet). I’m not gonna look after them when they age.

Part of it is a feminist-reactionary response. The term “mom” is loaded. Sure, the group admins probably adopt it because they feel like they are responsible for the care and feeding of the group. And many of them may be moms in real life and feel a great deal of pride in that. But society also perceives the role of mom as undervalued. And yes, I feel feminist-reactionary conflict for even thinking that.

Maybe the idea is to make the group seem more cozy. Okay, why not use a term like “big sister”? Which I still don’t like in this context, but I find less bothersome. Or is it the housekeeping aspect of the task? What about “list maid”? Yeah, no one likes that one, with good reason.

If the idea is the notion of leadership, there are a lot of other female leader terms that have more powerful connotations, if we have to have a gender-specific term at all. I’ve seen “webmistress” used in contrast to “webmaster”. “Queen” would be good. Or how about “maven”?

I often see complaints that outsiders don’t take our craft(s) seriously. Instead of being respected as artisans, we’re belittled and maligned. Well, with things like “listmom”, I’m not sure that we do a lot to seem worthy of the respect.

Maybe what it really comes down to is how would I feel about it in a professional sphere? I’m a computer scientist at a leading research institution. While the number of female colleagues I have is on the rise, I still work with a lot of men. I oversee a number of people implementing a large project. And I certainly never want to be called the “project mom”.

Comments: 4 — Posted under: Musing

Let me tell you all a story…

I wanted to be able to show you this tonight and tell you that I had finished a spontaneous project.

I would have told you about how I’d seen the Danica scarf pattern at Knitty and started thinking about entrelac. And then about how I’d seen this yarn at the local yarn shop and had to buy it and thought it might be good as an entrelac scarf.

Then I would have reminded you that I took an entrelac class at Stitches West and the teacher showed us a hat that I thought was incredible. But that the pattern was by Elizabeth Zimmerman published in an old issue of Wool Gathering. And how I scoured through all her books looking for it and then happened to find the website for Schoolhouse Press, run by her daughter, Meg Swansen, who is gradually making old issues of Wool Gathering available as leaflets called Spun Out. And how I figured out that Spun Out #31 probably had the hat pattern I was thinking of and how I ordered it. And how it arrived on Monday and how I was thrilled that it was the hat I was looking for.

I would have then told you about how, even though I’m working on Mermaid, and Whirlygig, and another hat, and a secret project that no one has guessed yet, I decided that the Stripe yarn and the hat pattern were the perfect pairing and would make a nice snuggly gift for a friend having knee surgery shortly. And how I cast on and knit frantically last night and tonight. And how thrilled I was to finish the 8-pointed star on top about an hour ago.

And how I then tried it on.

So, it falls a little short. Sure, it’s supposed to have a ribbed band at the bottom, but really, in the pattern, it’s supposed to be more of a floppy beret. And somehow, I missed that in my excitement to get to the 8-pointed star.

Clearly, some re-engineering is needed. I think I know how I want to change it. I think it should start differently and I think it should work up a little differently as well. So tomorrow, I’m stopping at the yarn shop to see if I can’t get a couple more balls of the Stripe. If I really focus on it, I think I can finish the redesign in a night or two.

As an aside. This is the first time I’ve worked with a pattern written by Elizabeth Zimmerman. I’ve heard people before say that her patterns are too wordy and are better as stories than instructions for actually knitting something. I have to say, that clearly extends to this pattern. I’m somewhat adventurous in my knitting but approach it with a lot of forethought. I like to work things out in advance and I often find mistakes in patterns, or I aim to tweak things that don’t work out quite the way I was hoping (just look at my work with Mermaid or Clapotis to see that). But I know a lot of knitters are far less cavalier and really rely on concise, step-by-step instructions. You don’t find that with EZ. You have to fill in a lot of gaps yourself.

Anyway, I do get a burnished-gold/orange star for my efforts. And I just keep looking at it on the desk beside me and smiling. Isn’t it pretty?

Comments: 6 — Posted under: Knitting, Musing

Who says Main Street is disappearing?

I’ve been meaning to write a little bit about the new projects and goodies that I’ve received in the mail. And about the dangers of web shopping. As I thought about it, I grew concerned that I’m buying more over the web than ever before. And a little guilty that many times I often go to the web first before looking around for local shops to provide the goods I seek. Is my willingness to buy online shutting down the small businesses of the world? Am I responsible for closing down Main Street, U.S.A.?!

But then I thought about what I purchased on-line recently:
- a suit jacket
- some sock yarn
- some crochet kits
- some internal components for my TiVo
- some custom-made pom poms
- a new Palm PDA
- some Kinder eggs

And I realized that with most of those purchases, I was supporting small businesses. Yes, the Palm purchase was from a Big Box retailer, but I probably wouldn’t have bought it anywhere else and at least by buying it online I was spared an actual visit to those stores I detest. The suit jacket was also from a major retailer, but they didn’t have my size in stock when I wanted it. And I’m not at a point in my life where I might regularly go to a tailor.

But the rest, all small businesses.

The pom poms came from a small cheerleading supply company. The TiVo stuff from a boutique web store that only sells custom-made TiVo parts and sells them along with a few other geeky items: 9th Tee (look at one of the most useful products I’ve seen in ages: Power Strip Jumper Cables). The Kinder eggs from a guy who sends them from Canada to people in the U.S.

The crochet kits are for farm animal finger puppets are from Nancy Queen Designs, a designer with a small web storefront. I love making crochet toys because they turn out so neat and they usually finish quickly. I don’t know who I might make these for, but when I saw them, I knew I needed to get them, if only to have the patterns.

The sock yarn came from Threadbear Fibers, a yarn store whose owners both have active blogs (Black Dog and Crowing Ram) that serve as inventory advertisements. They gush over the products that arrive and it’s almost like I’m opening each of those boxes myself. It seems they do a huge mail order business that way.

Which brings me to the point. Both the crochet kits and the sock yarn I discovered by reading blogs. I stumbled onto Nancy Queen’s site when a co-worker asked what else she might make with eyelash yarn besides scarves. I remembered some purses on a blog I’d recently read, went back, followed the link to NQ’s site, and looked around, stumbling onto the kits.

Maybe some small stores are finding it hard to compete in the modern world. But others are thriving in their place. Not only do they have dynamic websites and mail order, but they have mastered the art of self promotion by talking about their craft in such a compelling way. For the thrilling account of what it is like to start your own yarn shop, read Digital Yarn (and don’t miss the blog at the store itself: Knit Happens). I wish I lived near these stores so I could visit them. Someday I may find myself in their towns and wander in.

So, either I’m a more responsible world citizen or I’m just justifying my inability to control my crafting habits. Either way, I’m happy.

Comments: 0 — Posted under: Musing