Author: Betsy

your thoughts needed…

| Betsy

it’s good to exercise your creativity.

i’m currently writing (not to mention fretting over) my dissertation, which is about knitting and its current resurgence. now that knitting is no longer something we have to do (in order to clothe ourselves and loved ones), why are we doing it?

if you have a minute, please consider the questions below. it would help me in my research a great deal and is relatively painless, i promise. and yes, despite what it may seem, i am way over 12 years old.

1. how did you learn to knit? how old were you then and old are you now?

2. knitting = nesting? is your knitting a way of getting back to simpler times?

3. in regards to the current resurgence in knitting, when do you think it started and why?

4. do you have a crafty group that you meet with? how often? why do you dig it?

5. where do you go online to discuss/learn/share your craftiness? how do these sites inspire you in ways that real life conversations don’t?

6. is there a subversive element to knitting? a punk rock element? or simply a DIY smugness?

7. why do you knit?

8. what other crafty things do you do besides knitting?

9. the future of knitting- is there one or are we just kidding ourselves?

10. do you prefer to knit alone or with other people? why?

11. true or false: can craft save us all? (elaboration here would be nice, but not necessary.)

if there’s anything else you would like to add on this topic, feel free. if you could send your answers to betsy@craftivism.com, i would be grateful.

thanks again for helping me with this research. and for making craft rock.

x
betsy

p.s. i’m sorry if you see this more than once. it’s my intention to get a wide variety of answers, not to annoy your every step on the web. feel free to pass this on to anyone else you think might be interested.

you took the words right out of my mouth…

| Betsy

sometimes i come across things that i wish i could tattoo on myself or cross stitch onto a sampler or atleast remember to write onto a post-it that i put in my wallet.

this is one of those things, from women and craft (virago, 1987), by Faith Gillespie:

“Our turning to craftwork is a refusal. We may not all see ourselves this way, but we are working from a position of dissent. And that is a political position.”

rock.

small things…

| Betsy

recently someone i think is rad sent me an email. part of the text was:

I can’t figure out how an entire year could have gone by, and yet so little changed.

it made me stop and think about just what has happened in the past year. how would i describe it?

what follows, is my response in part:
ok, i’ve been thinking about this statement. and it inspired me to make a list of things that have happened to me in the past year, which in turn, made me realize that this has been a year of location change, but mainly a year of beautiful small changes, the highlights: learning to make salsa, teaching people new knitting stitches, laughing til i cried more times than vice versa, falling in love with countless strangers on the subways and sidewalks, trying to take flight off a sand dune on the southeast english coast using the wind and a coat, taking kids to the zoo, feeling my heart feel like it was going to burst with love as my friends children blow me kisses, learning to wear red lipstick, drinking cups of tea on a canalboat on the river, giving ridiculous on-air radio interviews about punk rock and knitting, dancing in my livingroom til daybreak, walking on the banks of the thames alone…

and that kind of sums up my life at the moment, i think.

reveling in the quiet smallness, and how out of it can become joy.*

which is in the spirit of this whole kooky thing called craftivism, taking pleasure in the tiny things that when looked back upon make a whole wealth of goodness.

*sometimes i get worried that i am becoming a hippie. i wonder if i can counteract this by turning up my old minor threat albums til the walls shake?

thinking inside the box…

| Betsy

sorry i’ve been a bit slow on updating but i’m in the midst of a trip back to the states and researching my dissertation on knitting, activism and community. if you have anything that you think might help my research, i’d be greatly appreciative to know about it!

i’ve been spending the past few days in the house that i grew up in. going through old boxes of books, clothes and well, junk, that i’ve been separating into ‘keep’ and ‘charity’ piles. they’ve completely taken over my childhood room. memories of eighth grade crushes and my first forays into activism stashed in with photographs of bad hair mistakes and people whose name is on the tip of my tongue lost in memory.

going through all of these things, it becomes apparent that although we change over time, it’s always the result of myriad tiny choices and thought processes and never truly overnight. there’s always a clear trail that we left in our wake that elucidates every step.

while it’s been fun going down memory lane, it was time to get rid of some of the things i haven’t used in, oh, a decade and a half. so i filled a somewhat large box of stuff for an orphanage that my cousin is working with africa. and i dare say, it was one the most fun things i did all vacation.

packing old toys and little things that used to occupy my time for tiny children oceans away. while i often donate things i’ve made to others as well as my time, i had forgotten that sometimes you have to delve into the past in order to help make the future a little bit brighter.

*i apologize for being so regrettably emo, and will resume with more ideas and sites to visit once i get a handle on the stack of sociology theory books. and for those who may be skeptical of its existence, i found pure proof in the non-dairy pudding that emo has been around for decades, i know, i have the hand-written notes passed to me in bio class in 1987 to prove it.*

i dig punk the most.

| Betsy

ever since the seeming dark days of high school, i have not-so-secretly loved the spinanes. at 18 i thought rebecca gates was a nothing but a genius when she sang, “did you give up punk for lent?”

i thought about this on the tube this afternoon while reading the new issue of punk planet. about how i got an email from a dear friend recently saying how glad she was that i was stickin’ to my ‘punk rock guns’ and ideals.

walking around london, there is nothing but evidence that the ‘spirit of ’77’ is alive and well.

but that’s not what my punk is all about.

it’s about teaching and learning and growing and rocking and making and creating and laughing and loving and well, being.

it’s not about the dick hebdigian notion about the clothes you wear, the vinyl you buy (either in wardrobe or music or both) or whether or not you consider anarchy politically viable. sometimes i think that’s forgotten about.

some of the best punks i know don’t own anything put out by lookout! or know who henry rollins is (in either career). why? because at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. it’s not about credentials. some of the punkest moments i’ve ever experienced were without a tattoo or grommet in sight.

as i’ve gotten older (29 on july 11!), i’ve finally begun to realize that it’s not about what you’ve done or who you’ve met, it’s about what your ultimate ideals are. i’ve seen many sparks lit in the teens, only to be extinquished by 21, but i’ve also been privileged enough to have been a part of awakenings that happened in people twice that age.

each time you make something with your own two hands or purchase something that was produced ethically or make choices that don’t weigh heavy on your heart you are creating your own mini-punk rock revolution.

by daring to follow your own dreams and passions you are shaking up the world just a wee bit, creating teeny tiny revolutionary ripples for the rest of us to add to. and i think that’s pretty neat, even though it has nothing to do with how many 7″s you own or whether or not you think that jawbreaker sounded better pre-blake’s operation.

for the record, i still think that rebecca gates is a genius. because ‘punk’ has little to do with a dresscode or a rulebook. it’s all about all those little idiosyncrasies that make you you and living your life the freest and bestest way you know how.

now go pat yourself on the back for being the punk rock revolutionary that you are. go on, you deserve it.
x