Appologies

I need to apologize for the formatting of my last post. Difficulties with Blogger made me take a...creative shortcut. I creates the post in another program and then copy/pasted it to Blogger. Then it wouldn't allow me to edit. I may re-post when I get a chance. In the mean time, sorry of you got annoyed!
Be careful out there!

Survival Through Knitting

I give you fair warning: this post will have a more somber tone than I will normally employ.

Yesterday marked the two-year anniversary of my nephew's death. I thought this was a good time to delve into this subject.

In days of yore, people knit to survive. They needed thick woolen garments & blankets to survive the bitter winters in wet climes. Betty Higdon from Charles Dicken's Our Mutual Friend subsisted on funds from the sale of her knitting as many poor people did in Victorian England. And through that utility, the art was born.

In these days of central heating and cheap, store-bought sweaters, knitting is less about physical survival. Fewer and fewer people depend on this ancient art for subsistence. However, physical survival is not what I'm thinking of on this day. I'm thinking of how knitting helps people survive emotionally.

Emotions can and do kill. When a person hangs on to anger and resentment, they become more likely to suffer from ulcers and ailments relating to high blood pressure. If we hang on to grief and refuse to deal with it in a healthy way, it can lead to many health problems ranging from migraines to difficulty breathing. These feelings are real and must be dealt with. People have different ways of dealing with emotional turmoil. I knit. I don't know if it's the rhythm or the knowledge that I am making something that will bring a measure of joy to someone's heart, but I find it incredibly soothing.

With all of the joy and hope a new life brings with it, I made my nephew a beautiful blue baby blanket in Knit Picks' Shine Sport. It had sailboats on it and was deliciously soft. When they took his final pictures, he was wrapped in my blanket. This was totally humbling. The only pictures my sister would ever have of her beloved son...and she wanted him wrapped in the banket I made for him. I have that picture above my desk at work with pictures of all my precious nieces and nephews.

The day I got the devastating call, it was as instinctual as breathing; I went online and found a beautiful pattern for a lace shawl, then I went to the LYS and bought bright orange superwash merino and the needles I needed. I started it the day I headed out for SD to be with my family and the whole week I was there before the funeral, I spent almost every moment at my sister's side, holding her hand and knitting. Every ounce of my anguish moved through my fingertips and away from me so I could be the person my family needed me to be. Without that project, I felt so totally helpless. I may not have been doing anything "useful" in a conventional sense; I mean I wasn't cleaning house or helping with the funeral arrangements but this was something I could do. And so I did it. I made that shawl with every bit of love in my fiber of being. And now when I see it, I don't think of the shock and the horror, I only remember the love. My sister always says when she wears it, it's like getting a hug from me. This is what I love about knitting.

I know that I am not the only person who knits to survive. Maybe you don't battle sadness; maybe you battle anger or fear. If knitting help you survive, there's no reason to feel ashamed or that you are not handling things in a healthy way. Knitting helps us survive. We should celebrate our survival. Every time you pick up your needles to work out some mental or emotional problem, you are refusing to be a victim. You are dealing with your problems in a mature and healthy way. Give yourself a cheer and a hug.

I am proud to say that I am a survivor. I survive through knitting.

Take care of yourself!

Hot Ears and Itchy Hands

I love listening to things while I knit. Audiobooks and audio plays top my list of favourite listening.

Now, I've been thinking about voices a lot lately. No, you silly non-gender specific person, you. Not the voices in my head the...oh wait...erm...forget that hehe. Let me start again: I have been thinking a lot lately about other people's voices.

There's a line in Louise Jameson's "Pulling Faces" that just really fits what I'm thinking about. She says, "a voice that goes straight to your...knees." (emphasis on the "..." Maybe?) I would add "and makes your ears burn."

I've been listening to "The Scarlet Pimpernel" again and thinking just how perfect Ralph Cosham's voice really is for audiobooks. In my library, I have him reading "The Phantom of the Opera", "Tess of the D'Urbervilles", "Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass", and, of course, "The Scarlet Pimpernel". I just love the richness and timbre of his voice.
Then, I was watching "Arabian Nights" with Dougray Scott and Peter Guiness. Now, Guiness has that kind of voice that can both thrill you and chill you to your core. He played Erik in Big Finish's "The Phantom of the Opera" and I just fell in love with his voice.

A very different voice that creates a very similar feeling is the legendary Vincent Price. Seriously. That voice could make you feel very safe or in great danger.

On this list must belong Paul McGann. When I met him recently, every time I heard him speak, my ears would get red hot and my face would flush from chin to hairline. If ever there was a voice that went straight anywhere, it would be his.

OK so my litany of favourite voices is over for the moment. You can find "Pulling Faces", "The Phantom of the Opera", and many adventures featuring Paul McGann at www.bigfinish.com. I have no affiliation and are not getting anything from them. They're just a bunch of great, hugely talented guys with products well worth listening to.

What's one of the best part of knitting for me? Planning my next project. I get really into my project when I'm working on it but as a reach the end, I just start itching for a new project. This is especially true when I'm working on a design project. I love the idea stage, figuring out what fibre to use, colour work or texture?, gage, I love it all. But then I'm ready for something new. I call this itchy hands.

My friend says that she is project monogamous. I have wandering eyes. I may stick with my project, I may not. Does that make me project promiscuous? Right now I have two design projects on needles, one sock I will never finish & baskets of yarn to fantasize about new projects.

This is my style. Should I feel bad? Maybe. Do I? No. Why? Because I think keeping my mind thinking about my next project keeps my creativity and my love of the art alive.

Keep cool out there!

Marilla & Messing with Ravelers

Recently, I re-watched my favourite movie series Anne of Green Gables and it struck me: Marilla was constantly knitting and there were gorgeous cabled guernseys and thick hats, gloves and scarves throught the series. It got me thinking...for a heretofore unknown reason, I had wanted to learn to knit from the time I was 6 years old. I have now figured it out. I wanted to be Marilla. This is also the reason I love people and characters that surprise you...but that's for another post... Marilla was starchy and occasionally crotchety but beneath everything, she was a warm-hearted generous person with the capacity to adapt to any situation and the strength of character to accept people and to love them as they are. And her knitting was in my mind, although also a necessity of the age, an expression of who she was. The skill shown was amazing (and, yes, I am now well aware that she's a fictional character and that the knitted items were probably not created by the late Colleen Dewhurst...but, I was 6). I don't think I ever consciously noticed all this before but I do think that's the reason I knit now. And that makes me happy.

Ravelry. We love it. We use it. We connect on it. People must learn not to mess with Ravelers. One would think the USOC would have learned from Mo Rocca's experience. But then, maybe they don't listen to Wait, Wait. They should! When Mo Rocca stated that he hates homemade sweaters because they're "always itchy", he was immediately and profoundly taken to task. However, the generosity that lies at the heart of most knitters kicked in and pity was taken upon him. Imagine never experiencing the delights of a comfy hand knit sweater! It hardly bears contemplating! And so, this poor deprived child was provided with a beautiful and non-scratchy homemade sweater.

When the USOC issued their cease & desist order for the "Ravelympics", they made a bigger mistake. Now, don't get me wrong, I do not care if they don't want people to use "lympics". I don't know how they can copyright a word that's been in use for thousands of years...but I guess they can. Because they did. I bridled at the USOC's attitude, not their action. 

What got my back up was when they stated that the Ravelympics were denigrating to the integry of the games. What?! When's the last time you heard of a knitter taking illicit drugs to improve the look of their cables? When's the last time a knitter deliberately threw a sweater to get a better placement in a competition? They mention how the athletes have been working many years to get to this skill level. Rrrrrreaaaaally? And what, pray tell, is the average number of years spent by knitters to get to, say, the point of perfecting their Intarsia technique? How much practice and trial and error and tears and headaches and despair? 

Being a younger knitter as I am, I have been ridiculed, belittled and mocked for exercising my chosen art. Seriously. Most recently, by a 17-year-old girl...who then professed that she was a "nice person". I think the verbiage used by the USOC felt bullying. And I don't think I'm the only one. Ther's a line in Wounded by Third Eye Blind that says "back down the bully to the back of the bus, 'cause it's time for them to be scared of us." I do believe the bully of the USOC us scared of us now. The backlash from their statement was huge and somewhat amusing. And they apologized. Twice. What amuses me about their first apology was the statement that they had many passionate knitters. This is not obviously true. No, that was not a grammatical error. I mean from their statement, it's not obvious they have knitters that are truly passionate. I don't know anyone on the USOC so I cannot say this is NOT true...but no passionate knitter would insult fellow knitters & then make a watery apology AND THEN ask for free stuff. They just wouldn't. What's the point in all this? Don't mess with Ravelers. We don't like it. We will make you pay. We may take pity on your ignorance. Don't count on it. Lots of love!