talking back to a knitting blog

[firecat]

Knitting Daily has had a new theme since the beginning of the year—Be a Fearless Knitter. I don't like this, and I was ignoring it and hoping it would go away, but after the third blog post on the subject, I talked back.

I really don't like this "fearless/fearful knitting" theme.

I feel like people, and women especially, pile too many "shoulds" on ourselves and spend too much of our lives feeling guilty and unworthy.

I gather that "Be a fearless knitter" is intended to end that. But I think it reinforces guilt. To me, "Be a fearless knitter" says "It's not good enough for you to enjoy a hobby. You have to turn it into a self-improvement project. You have to be constantly vigilant that you have goals that are challenging enough, and that you are working hard enough toward your goals." "Be a fearless knitter" is yet another way of telling myself I'm not doing "enough".

Affirmations work, but affirmations need to be stated in a positive manner. The word "fearless" focuses the mind on fear and is negative.

Let's say "I am a joyful knitter," "I love to knit," "I love to learn new knitting techniques," "I love to try new projects."

This is not intended to disparage people who find the theme useful.

Comments

[lorres.livejournal.com]

What a great comment!

I don't read the blog, but I went and read the post to which you linked. I agree with you that knitters should allow themselves to feel what they like regarding the knitting that they're doing. I'm glad you added your thoughts to the entry.

I get bewildered over people who assume that knitting is relaxing, for instance. For me, knitting is always a challenge and it's about the furthest thing from relaxing that there is. Sometimes I'm really happy with what I do and sometimes I fail utterly to do what I set out to do. [But after more than forty years, I'm still drawn to it.]

[firecat]

Thanks!

Knitting is relaxing for me in two ways.

One, physical actions are repetitive in a way that is soothing.

Two, the voices in my head that are always saying "You ought to be doing something other than this" sometimes shut up when I am knitting. The only times they shut up are when I am doing certain artistic things (but unfortunately not creative writing), exercising, or sleeping.

It's challenging and frustrating too, but the way I feel about challenges when the voices shut up is different from the way I feel about them when the voices are clamoring.