Welcome to WAYWO, the weekly series playfully titled, "What Are You Working On?" and aimed toward crafters and creative people in our Daily Kos community. We welcome all sorts to come in and talk about what is currently on your project plate, be it home improvements, needlecrafts, kidcrafts, writing, blacksmithing, or anything else you can think of!
We also welcome anyone to guest host WAYWO - just post a comment or email this week's author, and we'll get you on the schedule. Join our email notification Yahoo group here, and you'll know when WAYWO is posted.
Hi y'all! I'm filling in for emeraldmaiden tonight, and it's my first time ever hosting WAYWO, so hopefully my attempt here isn't too terrible! I'm coming off of several weeks of an absolutely crazy schedule, so I haven't been hanging around here much...I've missed you all!
So, as the title of this diary would indicate, I'm going to write about being a thoughtful crafter. As some of you know, I'm a graduate student in Cognitive Science, so thinking about thinking is something I do all the time! I've also been a knitter since I was about 13 years old, and I think about that all the time, too (and sometimes post about it on my knitting blog).
There has been a lot of talk recently, with regards to the bailout for the financial industries vs. the lack of bailout for the auto industries, about how we as a nation seem to have left behind an economy in which people make things...tangible things. I certainly don't support making stuff (like say, bad cars) just for the sake of making stuff (that would be rather wasteful, I think), but there is something very important about creating things. At the same time, I don't want to discredit the very important work that people do with their minds (I am in academia, after all!). One thing I like very much about the DIY ethic, and about crafting in general, is the way it combines creative thought with the creation of tangible goods. And for me, there's something just plain amazing about being able to take some yarn, and a pair of sticks, and turn it into something wearable that will keep someone warm. Or that I can take a bunch of fiber cut from a sheep's back, and with some fairly basic tools, turn it into that yarn. It's almost like magic, except that it's real!
I think of myself as a "thinking knitter", in that I feel like I use my brain almost as much as I use my fingers when I create knitted things. I have always been a bit fearless in attempting to knit anything that sprung into my head; my first scarf (knit when I was in middle school) is an example of one time I jumped in before I really had the skills (or the understanding of, say, "tension") to create what I'd envisioned in my mind:
Shortly after that first foray into knitting, I decided it would serve me well to learn more about technique and design, so that I would have the skills to actually realize the things I imagined. Thankfully, there are so many resources available for educating yourself about all things knitting (and I'm sure this is true for many other crafts)! I am so grateful for the community of knitting blogs around the world, who, through their collective sharing of thoughts, ideas, and expert knowledge, have taught me to be the resourceful, thinking knitter I am today.
But more than anything, I am grateful to a rather old-fashioned source of knitting knowledge: Elizabeth Zimmermann. Her writings give you the basic knowledge you need to create hats, mittens, sweaters, and pretty much anything else. She offers basic "recipes" rather than patterns, giving the knitter the freedom and encouragement to use whatever yarn they choose, at whatever gauge they get with it, to create whatever size and shape they desire. More than anything else, her writings have empowered me to use my brain to understand the hows and whys of the knitting I'm doing, instead of blindly following patterns. Thanks to her, I was able to knit the sweater I am most proud of, making up my own pattern as I went:
And what I'm working on right now is a sweater for my husband, using Zimmermann's "Seamless Hybrid" sweater architecture:
After a failed attempt at knitting him a sweater from a pattern, I decided to go the "thinking" route, and took his measurements, negotiated the set of design features he wanted (a fair amount of ease, a contrasting hem facing, not very much stitch patterning), did some math, and was ready to go. I am inching ever closer to the armhole, at which point I'll knit a pair of sleeves and then join everything together to make a seamless, saddle-shouldered sweater. And then I'll cut those steek stitches you see in the center of that photo (eek!), and turn this thing into the cardigan my husband has been dreaming of...how cool is that?
I think empowering people to be able to create anything they can think of is a beautiful, important thing to do, and that the sort of clever resourcefulness that so many crafty folks have is something very valuable in these economically uncertain times. I love that we as a community are so willing to share our knowledge with each other, and to teach our craft to others. Another thing I love about us thoughtful crafters is our willingness to think not only about ourselves and our craft, but to extend our thoughts and craft to those who are less fortunate. As jlms kqw wrote in her WAYWO diary, there are quite a number of organizations through which we can donate our time, money, and abilities as crafters to help those in need. I have had the great joy of participating in a few of these myself, so I am going to close my WAYWO post with a little bit about each of them, in hopes that some of you might be interested in them, too:
The Red Scarf Project is a project through the Orphan Foundation of America, through which knitters and crocheters donate scarves to be included in care packages that are sent to college students who have aged out of the the foster care system.
Knitters Without Borders is an initiative started by the Yarn Harlot through which she has managed to collect over $500, 000 for the Doctors Without Borders organization, which does very important work around the world.
Donors Choose is an organization which allows individuals to contribute towards educational projects. They hosted a knitting blogger challenge in October, and though my particular contribution was not that impressive (as you can see, if you click on that link), we knitters did make a positive impact!
Heifer International is fantastic organization, through which you can fund various livestock and plant life to be given, with training, to people around the world who are struggling with poverty and hunger. One item of particular appeal for knitters are their "Knitting Baskets", which fund two sheep and two llamas, which in turn will produce fiber to be spun into yarn and turned into fabric, as well as milk to drink and offspring which can be given or sold to neighbors to improve the standard of living for the entire community. I'm also currently holding a stash sale to raise money for them this holiday season.
Wow, I didn't mean to make this quite such a long diary! I'm eager to hear what y'all are working on, so I'll shut up now :)