There is Only One Way to Do Things (NOT!)

A pet peeve of mine is when certain knitters insist that there is only one way to do things (such as cast on, purl, hold the needles, etc.). It usually means that these people only know one way of doing things and therefore believe that it is the only way. These people of limited scope do nothing to encourage beginners. Often, they’ve been doing things their way for years and years, so they feel justified to run around telling others that they’re doing things wrong.

For example, I was once teaching a student how to knit. A math teacher (who’d learned how to knit in Eastern Europe in the 1950s) saw the girl working on a garter swatch during lunch and undid everything. “You’re supposed to slip the first stitch, why are you knitting the first stitch? To hold the yarn in the right hand—how bizarre! That’s not how to knit.” Of course, she offered no help, only criticism. She only succeeded in confusing and frustrating the girl and making my job more difficult. I wanted to knock her down and step on her neck.

Since then, whenever I teach anyone how to knit, I always tell them, “There are a dozen ways to do this. I’m teaching you one way to do it. You may come across someone who does it differently. Your way is not wrong, it’s just different. As you become more experienced you will learn different methods. Try to learn as many as you can so you’ll have more options to choose from.”

As deBolsillo said in her knitting podcast:

“Una de las grandes verdades del tejido es que el tejer es una cuestión cultural. Se hace de diferentes maneras en diferentes sitios. No hay una manera correcta de hacer las cosas. Simplemente hay un resultado correcto. Pero a ese resultado se puede llegar de muchas maneras. Se teje en muchísimos lugares del mundo. En cada lugar se teje de una manera.”

Translation: “One of knitting’s great truths is that knitting is a cultural thing. It is done differently in different places. There is no correct way to do things. There is simply a correct result. One can arrive at that result by many different ways. People knit in many parts of the world. In each place they knit a certain way.”

If you understand Spanish, I especially recommend the first two episodes of her podcast.

P.S. Check out knittinghelp.com, an excellent resource, and proof that there are a multitude of ways to approach certain tasks (for example, they demonstrate 14 ways to cast on--seven English and seven Continental).

Rants, a Healthy Outlet for the Opinionated

One of the many reasons I had to start a blog is because, as mentioned in the second post, I’m an opinionated person. I don’t expect you to agree with me, but I must feel like I’m being heard. That was a great source of strife and misunderstanding between Herr Sowieso (an ex-boyfriend) and me. He thought I was trying to convince him when all I really wanted was to make my opinions known so he could have a more accurate picture of who I was. Not only that, among his other flaws, he was lazy—not academically or careerwise—he was interpersonally lazy. He preferred to learn a tiny bit about people and then promptly put them in box. Since I defy categorization, that was another source of contention between us. He’s out of my life now, and good thing too, because I dislike who I was becoming when we were together. Anyway, this post is not about him. If I ever get in the mood I can tell you more about him some other time. Back to the subject at hand…

As an opinionated person I have 101 rants roiling inside me on any given day. My friends have heard their fair share of them. The problem is that sometimes I forget whom I’ve already told what and repeat myself. I figure that if I write down my rants it will quiet the roiling and I won’t feel the need to voice them because they will be ‘out there’ already. We’ll see if it that works.

Christmas Season Faves and Rants

My favorite things I like Christmas lights. They put me in a good mood. I’m talking about a few strings of lights tastefully placed on a house or shrubbery. I do not mean those gaudy monstrosities (complete with plastic light-up Santa Claus & reindeer suspended on the roof) that quadruple the electricity bill and cause traffic jams from all the gawkers.

I like Christmas music. It makes me happy. I listen to it all year. ‘Joy to the World’ sounds good to me whether it’s in a classical setting, a jazz arrangement, gospel rendition, instrumental interpretation, et cetera.

One of my earliest memories is being about five years old and singing ‘Venid Pastorcillos’ (Away in a Manger) for the children at an orphanage.

Rants I hate the crowds at stores. I hate the stressed-out state people whip themselves into trying to have a perfect Christmas. They are the same ones who get frustrated because happiness cannot be purchased with a credit card. Christmas should be about spending time with family and counting your blessings, not trying to impress people with expensive gifts they do not need and you cannot afford. Fewer people would dread the holiday if it were approached differently.

The Carol of the Drum has got to be one of the most unrealistic songs ever. What woman in her right mind would allow some dirty street urchin to come and bang a drum in the presence of her newborn baby? I can’t possibly be the only person to have ever thought of that. Were I Mary I’d be like, “You want to do what?? No, I’m trying to get Jesus to fall asleep. Thanks anyway. You’re making the animals nervous. Don’t be startin’ no stampede. Run along.” And if he insisted I would be forced to throw a dried goat turd at him or let loose some colorful language. Must have been a childless hermit (male, of course) who wrote that gem.

While we’re on the subject of music, Jingle Bells, Let it Snow, Frosty the Snowman, Sleigh Ride and Winter Wonderland should be sung from December until March because they are winter songs. Not one of them mentions Christmas sacred (Christ’s birth) or secular (Santa Claus). Don’t believe me? Check out the lyrics. They should not be restricted to just the first 25 days of December.

Ooo, two rants in one day! For whatever it’s worth, these Christmas rants have been rolling around in my head for quite some time. They didn’t just pop up today because I’m cold and crampy.

Oh, and for Papi, Toad, SnowBaby84 and all those weirdos--I mean, people who prefer cold weather, winter officially begins tomorrow at 1:08 in the morning. Happy winter!

Things that make me go “Hmm…”

Things that make you go “Hmm…” What’s up with everyone being so concerned about the news that Britney Spears' 16-year-old sister is pregnant? Why do people care? It’s all over the media. I even saw two news anchors having a serious (!) debate about “what example this will set for young girls who see her as a role model.” What? They’re acting as if this is the first teenager ever to get pregnant. Are they completely ignorant of the fact that approximately 750,000 teenagers get pregnant in the United States every year? It also makes me wonder: are people upset that she was sexually active or that her sexual activity resulted in pregnancy? Would they have preferred if she’d just had an abortion and acted like nothing had happened? Either way, why does it matter to them?

Let’s rewind three years. Remember when Beyonce’s 17-year-old sister had a shotgun wedding (and subsequently gave birth to a ‘full-grown preemie’)? Aside from the gossip columns covering the story, nobody was concerned about what message this would send to her millions of fans. No great debates took place on television about the moral example this was setting for young girls. Both of these siblings are equally famous. What’s going on here?

And another thing, what ever happened to parents being their children’s role models and instilling in them the values they want them to have instead of waiting for some dysfunctional celebrity to show the way?