First, happy May The 4th to everyone. I really wanted to have a day that was full of space travel, action, romance, and a cast of characters that have become inspirational, iconic, and familiar. I wanted to write about the fun Star Wars projects I have made in the past and hope to make in the future. Sadly, today is not that day. I need to address the pink square top cat hat in the room. Let’s take a walk down memory lane and look at the world between November 2016 and January 2017. Hilary Clinton lost the election but not the popular vote. Regardless, many of us knew that things were about to get real bad and scary, and for many in the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ community things were about to get much worse. A lot of people said to get over it and that things weren’t going to be that bad. Ha. At some point during the time between election night and the inauguration the *cat hat project came to take the nation by storm. I myself jumped into the project with full force. I even co-hosted an event where people from all walks of life came together to make the hats. It was a night and an event that I am still proud of. I liked the project because it felt unifying. After writing to my representatives and signing petitions there was still a lot of time left in my day and working on those hats made me feel like I wasn’t alone with my fears for the future. Remember, 45 wasn’t in office yet. There was only so much change myself or our elected representatives could do about a person/administration that was not yet in power. I also liked the project because it was a simple pattern that didn’t require a lot of tools, expensive materials, or great skill. It was easily adapted to sewing or crochet. And as with all fiber art projects you could alter it any way you saw fit. It was or at least at the time appeared to be accessible. Even my hat wasn’t a solid pink and the yarn was dyed by a dyer who shares my values. The day of the Women’s March was amazing. I walked through Seattle with my sister and my best friend. I ended the day feeling positive. I felt like I was going to be able to do a variety of things to make a difference. In the five years since the march and the prominence of the pink cat hat I have learned a lot. First- the hats made a lot of people feel excluded. Not everyone has a pink cat and therefore did not feel welcome marching or creating warmth for a cause that impacts everyone’s lives. Discovering this broke my heart. The project had the potential to be so inclusive and inviting to everyone. The march was in January, every single person needed a hat.
Second- the hats become a symbol of performative white female “allyship” which is so harmful and counterproductive. They became an accessory for the white mean girls of the world. It gave the appearance of being helpful without actually doing anything. Third- they distracted people from doing anything more after the march. Yes, the hats were nice. It was a cool moment. It was January so everyone should have had a hat regardless of what the hat looked like. Brrr. But then they stopped doing anything else to make sure that the incoming administration didn’t do everything it said it would. And now we’re moments away from Roe v. Wade being overturned. Something we all knew they were going to do in 2016. I’m hearing rumblings about people wanting to make more hats. I’m going to ask for the love of everything, please don’t. I’m asking this as someone whose first instinct is always, “what can I knit?” I’m not saying don’t knit or that you can’t create protest pieces. You absolutely can and should. Our knitting is political. But it’s May, we don’t need millions of hats. We don’t need performative activism that over shadows the fact that the loss of reproductive choice is going to have deadly consequences for generations. Protest. Write your representatives. The moment of the cat hat is over.
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Technically, it is spring. We have turned our clocks forward and the days are staying lighter longer. Except here, in the Pacific Northwest it is still cold. Yesterday, it was raining with thunder and lightning. The wind was intense. During my drive home I was worried that I would end up in Oz. Heck, there was even a hail storm at one point. It would be really easy to get down and retreat back into hibernation until the warmer weather becomes a series regular and not just a guest star. But I will not let the gray skies bring me down, in fact I am bursting with creativity and inspiration. Something that has been filling my creative bucket is spinning. I woke up early last week and the only thing I wanted to do is spin. I love spinning. It gives me a sense of calm and peace that I don’t get from knitting. Knitting has a tendency to hype me up but spinning is soothing and meditative. I think part of it comes from having to give up some control. Sure, you can spin the spindle or treadle your wheel just so and you can control the draft of the fiber but sometimes the fiber is gonna do what it’s gonna do. I work at a yarn store and purchased two one-ounce bumps of fiber. These are bumps that I have been staring at for a while. One is a bright shimmery yellow and the other is a bright shimmery pink. They scream spring! So I brought the bumps home, pulled out my Turkish drop spindle from Jenkins Spindles, and got to spinning. I draft the fiber and think about the sunny days to come. I mentally plan spinning in the park with my friends and indulge my hopes for a spring and summer that is filled with luscious fiber and laughter. My spinning has gone to several places with me this week. I carry it around in a little basket like Little Red Riding Hood. It’s been so satisfying to see the cop increase bit by bit. I’m hard at work preparing to record the first episode of the Knitters Assemble podcast which is due to drop in May. This requires outlines, research, and other content creating. One segment of the podcast is going to be about projects that I am working on that are related to the specific fandom or genre that is being covered in that episode(s). I have so many projects that are fandom related that I want to do. My goal is that by making it a regular segment of the show I will be able to manage my ambitious “to knit” list.
I cast on my practice project for the fandom project I want to work on for the first episode. I cast on a lovely pair of color work socks from the Operation Sock Drawer book by the Knitmore Girls. The main color is a lovely light lavender from my deep stash. The contrasting color is a bright self-striping yarn from Artistic Yarn by Abi that I bought in Colorado when I was visiting for my brother’s law school graduation. I’ve finished the ribbing and the first chart repeat for the cuff. It is looking so nice. I’m using the Chiaogoo Twist Shorties which are a small circumference interchangeable needle. It is making the stranded color work very manageable. The small circumference means I am not fighting the breaks in the knitting that come with double points, magic loop, or two circulars. I have been wanting to try colorwork socks forever and am so jazzed with the experience. The sun is playing hide and seek with the Pacific Northwest but the feeling of spring is alive and well. We know that warmer days are ahead of us and I for one cannot wait. Frogging and Casting On…
I’m going to assume that most people who are reading this knitting blog have a basic understanding of frogging and casting on. For those who don’t I will offer a brief explanation. Frogging is the act of ripping back or completely ripping out your knitting or crocheting because you “rip it, rip it.” Casting on is the process of putting the desired number of initial stitches onto your needle in order to start the project. Recently, my life has been a lot of frogging. My family business and full time job had to close suddenly. The process of closing and the hard decisions that go with it were very similar to ripping out lace mohair. It was kind of a sticky, knotty mess. Then while all of that was going on my boyfriend and I were moving out of our apartment without having the next apartment secured. That kind of move requires a person to tug at the mess of yarn that is life and hope that it helps untangle the mess instead of making the knot tighter. Talk about a lot of frogging in the course of a month. Thankfully, I have a new place to live and a variety of jobs that are blending together to become an exciting living. I’m looking at the several balls of rewound yarn that survived a month of crazy frogging and I can’t help but think about what beautiful raw materials are in front of me. I have spent the last few years spinning and plying different skills and tools for creating a new fabric for my life. They are waiting to become something new, something interesting, and something that will keep me intrigued for a while. I’m still test knitting this thing we call life but I am really excited about where it’s going. (Also, I finished the knitting on the sweater I cast on during the opening night of the 2022 Olympics. Pattern: Harvest Cardigan by TinCan Knits. Yarn: Shepherd’s Wool in the color Storm.) Frogging and Casting On… I have been watching the HBO Max series Peacemaker. This is not an all ages, family friendly program. It is rather crass and violent. The DC cinematic universe introduced the Peacemaker last summer with James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. Also, not even close to being family friendly or appropriate for all ages. This is dark and twisted adult content. Last night I sat down on my couch, sweater project in hand, ready to enjoy this week’s installment of humor and violence. I promise this not to spoil major plot points or anything like that. But one running point that ran through this episode (S1 E7: Stop Dragon My Heart Around) was that there is never a wrong time to rock and roll. There is no wrong time to rock! This is a sentiment that dove deep into my heart. There isn’t a wrong time to embrace something that brings you joy and soothes your soul. There isn’t a wrong time to use that art when you are grappling with loss and sorrow or scaling new heights and finding new happiness. For myself, there is no wrong time to knit. I knit when I am excited. I knit to mark the arrival of a new baby or a wedding. I knit during comicon and in line at Disneyland or at Target. I knit when I am feeling sad or lost. I knit for my friends and family when they are experiencing grief or hard times. During my last quarter of my undergraduate studies I took math. It was the last subject I needed to graduate and the subject I was the weakest in. I was upset and frustrated almost every night. I didn’t understand the directions and every assignment felt like I was walking in mid-conversation. Instead of continuing to indulge my frustration I put my homework aside and picked up my knitting. I might not be able to do whatever kind of math I needed to do at that moment but I could confidently execute the complex color work pattern I was working. The act of knitting calmed me down and renewed my confidence in being able to do stuff well. It also served as a reminder that this math class did not determine my value or lessen my ability to do other things well. So when things get hard or when things are going really, really well just remember that there is no wrong time to rock and roll or knit. Harvest Cardigan by TinCan Knits using Shepard’s Wool in the Storm colorway.
I am sad. Yes, I do think sad is the simplest descriptor for what I am currently feeling. Sunday evening I was sitting on my sofa, knitting a grief project for a friend, while generally feeling restless and unsure about the future. There’s a lot of uncertainty in the world right now which can lead to a sense of unease when left to ponder it for any significant period of time. But there I was, knitting and pondering, when I received a text from my brother, “Bob Saget died.” What? That can’t be right. I have tickets to see his stand-up show later next month. I do a quick Google check and sure enough, America’s dad has left us. Now, I was already thinking about mortality and loss as I was working on a grief project for a friend. For a loss that was local and tangible but I was still nearly brought to tears by the loss of a celebrity, a tv personality, someone that I have never met. We mourn for the loss of celebrities and characters but not everyone understands why anyone would be upset about the passing of a celebrity. But Full House in some form whether it be prime time, syndication, DVD box sets, or streaming has been making its way into my living for my entire life. The hijinx of Danny, Joey, and Uncle Jesse are just as real to me as adventures I’ve experienced in real life with my own friends and family. Then when you add social media into the mix it blurs the lines between real life and the celebrities we follow even more. In any given scrolling session my feed is mixed with people from my real life and people who have come into my life through an entertainment medium. I think that makes it harder when those personalities leave us. There are three things I have learned about Bob Saget with his passing. I have learned that he was incredibly kind, he was very funny, and that he never shied away from telling those in his circle how much he loved them. And now I’m knitting this grief project, making stitch after stitch and row after row and hoping that as we continue to move through these times of sadness and exhaustion, of unease and restlessness that maybe we can all be a little bit more like America’s dad. Grief project. Cast on Sunday 1/9, Pattern Goonies Never Say Die Cowl, Yarn is Meeker Street
Values Statement:
An Overview: My values as a person and as a creator are based around the simple concept of not engaging, supporting, or promoting persons, places, behaviors, actions, or corporations that are rooted in or benefit from of the oppression of others. What that looks like offline: In my offline life I am a teacher and am helping my students develop the skills for critical thinking, social-emotional literacy, and not shrinking away from subjects or questions that might make uncomfortable as a cis-het-white woman. I also read and research about different cultures, histories, and ways to help break cycles of oppression. The oppressed are not responsible for my education. It is my job to research systems or actions that are oppressive or harmful that I might not be familiar with. Monetary donations are made when it is feasible. Community participation is also something that I engage in when it is possible to do so. What that looks like online: In online spaces I try to stand up and speak out in spaces where it is appropriate to do so. I also sit down, listen, and learn in spaces that are not mine or not made for me to speak out. I do my best to research who I follow and like on social media to make sure that I am not enabling hateful or hurtful misinformation being spread through my likes and follows. I use my money to support companies and businesses that have similar values to my own. In our capitalistic society, money talks. I want my money to support and uplift as much as possible. Why am I sharing all of this: There are a few reasons why I am sharing this. The first is that I don’t have the energy for virtue signaling or developing a massive white savior complex. Posting or bragging every “woke” thing I do or think is not helpful. The journey to a more equitable and loving society is not going to be furthered by my virtue signaling on social media. The second reason is because I have to say something. Being silent is a great way to be on the side of oppression. I don’t agree with the many “isms” in our world and I can’t be silent when others are suffering. The third reason is that knitting, crocheting, and so much of our escapism is political. Art is created out of the environment in which it was born. That makes it political. Now, the sole focus of this blog and podcast isn’t politics or activism per se but I am not going to shy away from those topics either. The political is personal. If you just want to knit without politics or do not want to look at our society with a critical view then this is not the space for you January 1, 2022
This past Thanksgiving, I was able to go to Disneyland for the first time since the pandemic shut the world down. I was standing in line for the Spider-Man Webslingers ride at Disney California Adventure. This was not a short line by any means which allowed me plenty of time to knit and people watch. While standing in line I was thinking about how integral my knitting was to my theme park experience. I was wearing a hand knit sweater, made specifically for this trip, knitting a sock- cast on specifically for knitting in line, and using a project bag that made for ease of knitting in line and with fabric to match my outfit and the theme of the park. I started thinking about the different projects that I want to make to enhance my future trips. Then I began pondering what I would knit the following week at Emerald City Comic Con and it dawned on me how knitting had become such an important part of my comic-con experience too. This led me to think about all of the patterns, books, yarns, and other accessories/tools that have been inspired by different genres of entertainment and popular culture. How many of us have a knitting book with patterns that are inspired by Twilight or Outlander? How many of us have bought the amigurumi kits for Star Wars, Harry Potter, Friends, or The Office? Who saw Bernie Sanders’ inauguration mittens or Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s collars and thought, “I have to make my own version of that!”? With this blog and podcast I want to explore all of the ways that fiber arts and fandom intersect. There are so many genres to explore. Everyday creators and makers are using their fiber arts to connect to those genres and experiences. I think it deserves exploration and recognition for the amazing creativity and joy it brings people. I look forward to going on this journey with you. Knitters Assemble! |
AuthorBethany is a knitter, podcaster, nerd, and educator from the Pacific Northwest. Archives
May 2022
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