This is one of my rants. You've been warned.
I am tired tired tired of the phrases "not your grandmother's knitting" and "...think knitting/circles is/are for grannies?"
TIRED.
It is for grannies dammit. Grannies are the ones that kept it alive when women's lib came along made all homemaking crafts taboo. It angers me that we are so harsh as to dismiss the "Grannies" and what they have done. How many people learned to knit/crochet from their granny or someone else's? Why would we continue to bash the people that gave us the knowledge to create almost anything we can dream up with two sticks and some string?
Almost every news article or commentary on knitting these days says "not your grandmother's knitting" and I say it's time we take a stand. It IS our grandmothers' knitting. Knitting belongs to everyone who participates in the craft, regardless of what they make, or how pretty or horrid we think it is.
One day, we'll be "grannies" and I don't know about you, but I will still be knitting when I am grannie aged. And it will be MY knitting.
"Taking back the knit" doesn't mean we have to take it away from previous generations.
Of course, that's just my opinion.
4 comments:
Hey, I hear ya. Whenever I go to anything that has to do about knitting I always say "I'm off to knit with the grannies." My girls have even picked up on the phrase.
Dismissing the value of experience is something our society does too much. Just because the knowledge is in the mind of an older person does not meant that the knowledge is bad. Or boring. Or useless. My parents taught me that all knowledge is useful. Whenever one of us learned something (including my parents) that had no immediate usefullness, we called it "Trivia pursuit info". That was our way of saying that no knowledge is useless. It may come in handy at the darndest time. Like playing Trivia Pursuit.
This was a great reminder to me. I often reflect negatively on my local knitting guild because of the age of the average member (because they tend to treat me like a kid) but you are right, without these women we wouldn't have the craft we love. They are amazing, and so are we for embracing something so traditional and each, in our own way, remaking it to suit who we are. Very well put! Thanks.
You think knitting is bad, try mentioning the hobby/skill of 'tatting'! That one won't even get you a rude grannies comment - it'll get you a totally blank look! I learned to knit from my Grams who soon after gave it up to tat lace instead - apparently that was easier for her than knitting???? (....the mind reels.....)
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