Inexplicable Behavior, NP Edition

I read the Yarn Harlot’s blog quite often. She’s very funny--for a knitter--and I find a lot of the things she runs into (a stash that grows by leaps and bounds and yet never has what you need when you need it, for example) in her knitting life resonate in my needlepoint life. So I enjoy reading what she blogs. Just today I read something there that got me thinking. The Harlot is finishing a new book on knitting just now and is in the final edit stage. Pretty soon the book will be ready and she’ll go on tour to promote it.

She’s going to set up the book signings a bit differently and explains why this way:

“It is my experience, that people don't have a clue about knitters. They think that everything we do is pretty nutty. If you don't believe me, rent a mini-van and drive to another country for a sheep and wool festival with four knitting friends. Hell, just say you have "knitting friends" and watch ordinary people glaze over. I used to think that it was a problem of stereotypes (which I still do) but now I've gained another layer of understanding. I think that knitters upset people because we lack a demographic, and because you don't understand knitting until you do it.

"Think about it. Imagine trying to finish the sentence "Knitters are...." and see what kind of trouble you can get yourself into. Can't say old, can't say young, can't say women. Can't say we all like wool, can't say we all knit acrylic. Can't say we all enjoy knitting socks, can't say that all of us see the pleasure in an afghan. We don't all knit for charity, we don't all have cats. We didn't all vote for the NDP, we don't all go to church. We don't all have grandchildren, we don't all go to Knit Night, we aren't all hip - or not hip. We don't even all stash yarn or knit in public. We are almost impossible to describe, and the things we have in common aren't really visible. Now try "Knitting is...." and you'll have the same trouble. What are you going to say? Fun? Easy? Hard? Challenging? Meditative? Cheap? Expensive? No matter what you try to say, a thousand exceptions are going to crop up and ruin your point. The truth of all of it is (I think) that the answers are so complicated because they have to do with what we've learned about knitting and how the practice of it has influenced our thinking and behaviour."

Sound familiar? Look at your NP friends and what you all like to stitch and try to sum them and it up and you’ll have the same trouble. The Harlot has an advance copy of her new book at her house (it’s called “Things I Learned From Knitting….Whether I Wanted To or Not” by Stephanie McPhee and I think I’m going to buy this one) and she goes on to explain:

“While I was carrying it around this weekend (Yeah. I know, but it's sort of a big deal to me) I was talking to someone who clearly wanted to be kind to the little author with her silly book, but totally could not get what it was about. Once we had established that there were no patterns and no instructions for knitting, he was clearly at an impasse about what the hell could be in it? "Humour and Philosophy about knitting" I said, and he looked at me exactly like I had said it was full of "the crushed and dried entrails of a wildebeest with my personal diary written in blood". It was, I realized, inexplicable to him. Just like a bunch of knitters partying in a yarn shop, or travelling to a knitting event, taking over a coffee shop or filling a bookstore, it was inexplicable knitter behaviour. Next to the stereotypes, it's probably the biggest thing that knitters face. They can't define us, so they can't understand us, so they ignore us, or stare. Now, this is not a call to arms (or needles). We are never going to get them to understand us. Instead, I have realized that the way that non-knitters find us inexplicable is an invitation. I can't be the only one who, upon realizing that they don't get us and don't care that they don't get us (in fact, they don't think about us at all) suddenly develops an urge to be as absolutely inexplicable as possible. “

If you want to read what the Yarn Harlot said in full, go to the link below and scroll down until you find her 3/24/08 entry.

http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/

Now back to the inexplicable behavior part. The Yarn Harlot finds all this an invitation to have knitters be themselves in as many ways as possible in public. I think when it comes to needlepointers, we are going to use the invitation to reach out, to ask folks if they’d like to try it, if they’d like something stitched just for them, if they just want to sit and watch a bit and talk about making something with your hands.

Try it. You might find issuing invitations to the NP party fun.