Well, here it is coming on Christmas. I have had the feeling I should be knitting to cope with a lot of family stress, but I can't actually get myself to pick up the needles. I don't have a project I'm interested in starting. It's empty-page syndrome, only in knitting terms. At the beginning of November I had the opportunity to talk at a local coffee shop about activist knitting. They put a
big article about it in the paper, and the sponsoring shop,
Iris, was very good about publicizing. So we went from what was planned as a talk for 20 to a talk for 120. All women, mostly over the age of about 40 or so; not my usual crowd! I don't know if they appreciated the part where I talk about how useful knitted boobs are (
TitBits prosthesis for breast cancer survivors, but also there's
a group in the UK who knits them to teach breast-feeding to new moms.) Anyway, I think it went okay, but they were a practical bunch, and it was difficult to tell if I was delivering vital and inspiring information, or if they were just happy they got free snacks since my talk was "not their thing." People in Wisconsin are so polite, often to a fault. It's eerie.
Anyway, after the talk you'd think I'd be doing some charity knitting, but I'm not, and I think it's because I've felt (selfishly) that this year I needed some charity myself. Thanksgiving was pretty dreadful... followed by day after day in which we got good news for 2010! And buoying me up as always were my terrific students, and successful alumni. (What would I do without my kids? They actually react when I talk, unlike those audience members from my public talk. I'll take an open and honest scowl over a politely raised eyebrow any day.)
I am vowing then, to start my charity knitting blitz in 2010. If Obama is sending more troops to Afghanistan, I'm going to send more stuff there too, through
afghans for Afghans.
Now if only the Boy wears the hat I barely managed to knit him for Christmas, I can say 2009 ended on an up-note.
3 comments:
Am I a charity? I feel I could be.
I'd love to see any knitting you do. And I'll repost that link.
You're cool!!
How exciting to have so many people show up for your talk! It's always so great when that happens!
I know what you mean about not wanting to knit anything, lately, it's almost been work dragging out the needles, which is no fun.
I'm sure you inspired lots of people, even though you're not sure. You'd be surprised how much people get out of talks sometimes, even if they act nonplussed. Getting them to think of crafting as activism is sometimes a small tweak in people's "normal" mode of thinking that it just takes someone to plant the seed... which you did!
Hooray!
You said it Craftivista. One woman actually said, "I don't think of myself as an activist, but I knit for charity, and..." I replied, "Well, I think it's activism whenever individuals band together to make a difference in their community or in society, so..." She looked at me like I'd grown another head. I think many people are just nervous around words over-used and misused by certain all-to-present media outlets.
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