In the past few days there have been two posts on other knitting blogs that I have found interesting. One is from confused knitting. The second was Kerstin’s from April 18th.
I have been thinking about why I knit, and why I want to write about knitting. Knit blogging is a curious phenomenon to me. It seems to me that as knitters we want to share our love for our craft with others who enjoy the same thing.
In my mother’s era, women met regularly to do the crafts that they loved. The knitting or sewing was the initial reason that they got together, but ultimately their homemakers’ groups or craft clubs became a source of friendship and support that would last for years and sometimes decades. My mother and her friends shared their knowledge of their crafts, but more importantly, shared their lives and all the joys and sorrows that happened along the way.
I think that we miss this type of friendship and connection in our lives. Most people I know are too busy to have much of a social life outside of their jobs or their children’s activities. Recently I discovered that an acquaintance of mine is a knitter. We decided that it would be fun to get together for an evening and share a glass of wine and knit together. Six or seven emails later, we still haven’t been able to settle on a date. Between her busy life and mine, there is not one evening in the next month that works for us to get together. Our lives seem to be dictated by our day planners.
I think that blogging about our craft/art is a way to fill that void. I have a list of blogs that I read on nearly a daily basis. I look forward to reading what my “friends” have written today, and to seeing what they are up to now in their knitting lives. I feel like I know many of these women (and a few men!) quite well from having my morning coffee with them over the past year.
It is reassuring to know that there is someone out there who has the same love for knitting that I do. I don’t think that it is just the actual knitting that I enjoy, though that is certainly a big part of it. There is a definite satisfaction in doing something that women and men have been doing for centuries in essentially the same way. Though we have a much wider array of raw materials to choose from than did earlier generations of knitters, the process hasn’t changed much. I can easily imagine a knitter many centuries ago sitting with neighbors or family members and knitting an essential garment while gossiping or sharing household tips. This isn’t much different than the current “stitch and bitch” sessions that our generation seems to think we invented. And I don’t think it’s too far a leap to compare these long-ago knitters to the online knitting community of today.
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I am still knitting the same stuff. I think I have decided to use the Interlacements Seeds yarn from my previous post for a sweater. It keeps staring at me and whispering “sweater”. So it’s back to shopping for bucket hat yarn.
Interesting post! I have found that knitting groups in my city, blogging, and teaching co-workers how to knit have really helped me create special new bonds with people I would never have met otherwise. The blogging conection may not be as strong as face-to-face contact, but it at least opens the lines of communication, which is a good start!
I agree, we are missing something. I remember discussing this very topic once with a group of historians. We determined there was a culture, “a front porch culture” at one time, that we lack today in our busy lives. People used to know their neighbors, have community events, and a personal interest in the events around them. You are right, the business of life has, to some extent, taken that away. However, I suppose blogging is just another extension of our “front porch culture.” It is a way to bond with our neighbors. I guess the neighborhood is just larger now.
I agree with your points about knitting and blogging. Blogging is especially great for someone like me who doesn’t know any knitters where she lives. It’s such a great resource, too, to see how other people deal with problems or produce beautiful results with yarn you’ve wondered about or whatever. I wish I could get together with a group of crafty folks, but in the meantime, lucky me can read everyone’s blogs.
I’ve been blogging for about four months now, and I enjoy it. While I know some knitters. Charleston, SC doesn’t have fabulous yarn shops or authors who visit knitting groups or conferences–yet, that is.
So one thing that blogging and reading others blogs does for me is help me to connect with others who have access to those things. I’ve found to some great on-line sources for supplies from other blogs.
What blogging also does is gives me the support to start projects I would have never done on my own. I’m in the Broadripple Sock KAL, and I made one sock, and I love it. I looked at the same pattern a couple of months ago and thought I couldn’t do it.
Most of all, I’ve met some great knitters and crocheters on the web, and I have a wonderful place to express myself.
I agree that blogs seem to be increasingly taking the part of the porch culture. As big a fan of the blog as I am (and I’m the biggest) I wonder sometimes if giving me an outlet to get pseudo-human contact without any actual humans is a good thing? I work from home, on my competer and sometimes I worry that my whole life (work, play, friends) will shrink down to the size of my monitor, or that every reason I had to leave my house will evaporate.