Author: Betsy

connecting you, yarn and the urban.

| Betsy

Thanks to my new friends over at Massive Knit, I was recently informed of an upcoming event in NYC, as well as a new blog dedicated to the memory of the inspiring Jane Jacobs. Not only will this event help connect individuals, but it will also unite people with the park and their urban spaces.


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This is a brilliant idea, as it works with knitting at different levels- because more than just a method of creating, knitting (and crafting) is a way of connecting more than yarn, it grounds us to a moment, to others, to places. And I realize that I could be saying the same things about quilting, embroidery, needlepoint, crochet, or any of the other myriad crafts that allow the process to be as satisfying as the product.

It is this dual joy that allows the handmade to not only thrive, but to nourish as well.

In case you’re wondering what happened to the comments, evil spambots were having their evil ways and screwing things up, so they are currently disabled. If you have any comments or anything else to say, you can find my contact information here.

public transportation, summer reading.

| Betsy

Public transportation is a joy to me (when I manage to get up early enough to catch the bus to work) as not only does it allow me the luxury of traveling and knitting but we’re also lucky enough to have a free local bus system! There’s something lovely about industrial/institutional design that grabs me. Around here, the interior of buses are either blue or orange, in those blocky clunky colors of my 70s childhood.

One of my current challenges is to get myself out of the habit of looking at my hands as I knit, so I’m back to taking my knitting with me wherever I go again. Usually I’m such in a rush that I don’t have time to enjoy just sitting and knitting- I’m always working on a project with a deadline or fighting off sleep! While selling zines this past weekend at a local craft fair, I was reminded of how much I enjoy knitting simple squares for afghans or scarves in public and the dialogue it never fails to envelop me in. I hope I never stop adoring the conversations with children, the elderly and everyone in between that occur when I bring out my craftwork, as it is one of craft’s most magical qualities.

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As work slows down for the summer here at the university, that means a bit more time for online reading. (Unlike the bus, the coffeeshop or the bars, I can’t knit at my desk!)

Recently, I have been enamoured by the likes of:

Craft Culture (esp. this by Tanya Harrod)
Collective
Craftresearch.blogspot
Graffiti Archaeology
MAKE zine
Radical Craft Conference (so sad I wasn’t there!)
Studio Incite

Not to mention daydreaming about the knitting images here.

And for more on the definition of craftivism, here’s a link to a recent piece I wrote for Knitchicks.

re:defining.

| Betsy

Below is a response to a post earlier in the week that I thought was so beautiful that it warranted a post of its own.

Sometimes people ask me what craftivism means. Sometimes I don’t know quite what to say. Or know how it’s related to me.

But craftivism is more than just a way to express your politics and views, it’s about finding a way to better your life and that of others through creative endeavors. Because I believe that everything we make with our hands has power. Just what that power is, is your own decision.

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I’ve just discovered this site and it chimes so many bells with me. In my younger days I went on protest marches and rallies and carried banners and chanted chants. Now I have three young kids and I don’t seem to do that stuff anymore. It’s not that I no longer care about the same things – believe me, having kids has made me care even more. But nowadays I am more likely to make a sturdy shopping bag out of all the plastic carrier bags in the cupboard cut into strips and knit together, or crochet an afghan out of lots of leftover yarn from my late mother’s stash and give it to my father as a Christmas gift. Things like that. Currently I am braiding a rag rug out of all my old maternity dresses (boy does that ever provide closure!)

What would have happened if I *hadn’t* gone on all those protest marches back then? Nothing much. Everyone else would still have showed up – 30,000 people minus me is still lots of people. But if I hadn’t made that afghan for my dad, I never would have got to see the glistening in his eyes on Christmas day, and the tears in my own eyes when I visit him and see it folded over the arm of his favourite chair, obviously much used.

I never had a name for this before, or for the quilts I made for my kids which I tuck round them extra tight every time I hear another mother’s son or daughter has been killed by a suicide bomb, or the cookies we bake together from scratch because I want them to understand where food comes from (and also they taste good), or all the things I repair around the home not because I can’t afford to replace them but because … because … well just because I *prefer* to. And now I do have a name for it. Craftivism. Thank you.

on fear.

| Betsy

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The theme for last week’s Whiplash competition over at Whipup was “no fear.”

Looking at the entries this morning, I was reminded how often I personally feel fear and always think that it is an emotion I am going through alone. The entries were all gorgeous and striking, the antidote to anti-fear, if you will.

Browsing through them made me wonder why we feel that fear should be something we are ashamed of or bewildered by or trapped in. Because we are all scared that what we do will bring about a negative response or that we aren’t enough to some degree or that we will never reach our potential or never find love or that we are too old to become truly good at something or a million other things that we could choose from the ether.

Because knowing that I am not alone in my myriad fears makes them seem less powerful. More like shadows behind the hedge instead of monsters. Knowing that these fears are normal makes me less timid and more curious. Realizing that they are not just my own wakes me to the fact that everytime we listen to fear we are reconstructing walls born from our own fallacies about this thing called life.

Perhaps by beginning to release this well of fear within us, we will be okay with our best efforts instead of constantly doubting what could have been.

new shoes.

| Betsy

shoes

Although these shoes are from a discount-chain-shoestore that shall remain anonymous, I am currently loving them.

Unfortunately, everything I purchase is not guaranteed to be produced ethically. Even though I will go out of my way to buy items that were made with ethics in mind, I still use some items that are made without them on anyone’s conscience. This choice, however, continues to weigh heavily on my own conscience, as I strive to make the best decisions with my tiny budget.

And I know that I am not alone.

What can we do to combat this polarity?

Buying your entire wardrobe from independent crafters/businesses is not possible if your budget won’t allow for the extra cost. But, then again, going to T*rget and buying items with an increasing number of countries tags on them (Made in Vietnam, Made in Laos, Made in Bulgaria, Made in Peru, Made in India and it continues…) troubles me in a different sort of way.

I’ve been trying to come up with a solution regarding this frustration, but in discussing it with friends, see a similar type of frustration on their faces as well.

How can we afford to pay people what they are worth when we are not being paid what we are worth ourselves?