Friday, August 12, 2005
The Banned Post
Our intrepid list moms are at it again. I think I may unsubscribe after this. There has been a polite, but high traffic thread going on about whether or not knitting has been dumbed down by all of the trendy, garter st, projects and yarns out there. So far, nobody has been rude, called names or insulted anyone, and it has been an enjoyable debate. It took less than a day for the list mommies to moderate the whole list (over a polite debate). I had this post rejected because it wasn't about knitting. I thought that the time directed toward, or set aside for knitting was knitting content, but what do I know? I'm not a list mom. I will leave out the name and email of the person to whom I was responding to preserve privacy.
"I think with today's pace and the hours we work, anyone who wants to get
into the knitting craze will have more opportunity of getting lured by
something fast, easy, and trendy."
People keep saying this (not just about knitting), but I'm not so sure this is the case. Technology has enabled cooking, cleaning, farming, production, etc. to go much more quickly and easily than it did in the past. Our work days are shorter by about 4-5 hours than they used to be, people spend less than half the time they did at cooking and cleaning, children go to school earlier than they used to, and we have leisure time in abundance, we take far more vacations, go to health clubs, go out to eat, movies, etc with much larger blocks of time than people in days gone by. We simply do not allocate the time to crafts such as knitting or sewing as people did in the past. We don't _have_ to do it to wear something, so we don't spend the time on it. Those women who used to sew by hand and knit suits at 8 or 9 sts to the inch did so while rising early in the morning to do chores, cooking over unreliable stoves, making everything from scratch (including some butchering and cleaning of animals), teaching children to read and caring for their needs, doing laundry in vats, washed dishes by hand, etc. They also helped on the farm, milked cows and such, raised a family vegetable garden, made clothes for the whole family, decorated their homes, and many other activities.
I once commented to my husband that women of the olden days would likely get so much more done than we do now, because of all of the conveniences we have now. He replied that they would probably fritter away their time just as much as modern people, since their work could be done in a rush and they could put it off as much as we do. If the work isn't absolutely, critically necessary, it tends to get pushed aside.
Regards,
Ranee
How long until this renegade gets booted off the knitlist, do you think? I may simply unsubscribe to save them the trouble.
"I think with today's pace and the hours we work, anyone who wants to get
into the knitting craze will have more opportunity of getting lured by
something fast, easy, and trendy."
People keep saying this (not just about knitting), but I'm not so sure this is the case. Technology has enabled cooking, cleaning, farming, production, etc. to go much more quickly and easily than it did in the past. Our work days are shorter by about 4-5 hours than they used to be, people spend less than half the time they did at cooking and cleaning, children go to school earlier than they used to, and we have leisure time in abundance, we take far more vacations, go to health clubs, go out to eat, movies, etc with much larger blocks of time than people in days gone by. We simply do not allocate the time to crafts such as knitting or sewing as people did in the past. We don't _have_ to do it to wear something, so we don't spend the time on it. Those women who used to sew by hand and knit suits at 8 or 9 sts to the inch did so while rising early in the morning to do chores, cooking over unreliable stoves, making everything from scratch (including some butchering and cleaning of animals), teaching children to read and caring for their needs, doing laundry in vats, washed dishes by hand, etc. They also helped on the farm, milked cows and such, raised a family vegetable garden, made clothes for the whole family, decorated their homes, and many other activities.
I once commented to my husband that women of the olden days would likely get so much more done than we do now, because of all of the conveniences we have now. He replied that they would probably fritter away their time just as much as modern people, since their work could be done in a rush and they could put it off as much as we do. If the work isn't absolutely, critically necessary, it tends to get pushed aside.
Regards,
Ranee
How long until this renegade gets booted off the knitlist, do you think? I may simply unsubscribe to save them the trouble.
