Sunday, May 13, 2007

IGNORANCE

Some very nice ladies I know on a knitting list have got rather miffed. These ladies are expert machine knitters. They joined another knitting list and were met with unfriendly attitudes to say the least.

Why?

Due to the fact they machine knitted and therefore were neither talented nor fit to be on the list they chose to join!

This attitude is still common. It is most unfortunate. It is an attitude based upon ignorance and intolerance. Not to mention immaturity. This attitude is rarely displayed by a machine knitter to a hand knitter, possibly because machine knitters are also hand knitters.

Hand Knitting and Machine Knitting are two DIFFERENT crafts.

One is not the slow version of the other.

To be done well, both require talent and skill.

Both require to be thought out in advance. Both need to be swatched for. Both need to be finished.

One can do by machine what cannot be done by hand. One can do by hand that which cannot be done my machine. One can even use both skills in the making of one garment.

For some the prejudice is as simple as 'using a machine' yet these same people would not hesitate to use a sewing machine and are not of the opinion that the great designers of clothing should be sitting there with a needle and thread making their Haute Couture clothing without a sewing machine in sight.

This prejudice is both ignorant and stupid. it makes the holder of the opinion look daft.

There are fantastic talents to be found in both crafts. Each ought to be admired and held up for us all to aspire too. Each can be learned from and each are already a source of education and inspiration to those of us who take our art seriously and who glean our muse from wherever we find it.

We ought not to be dismissing a craft with such disdain when we will be the ones who are detracted from as a result.



5 comments:

Anonymous said...

BRAVO! Yes, indeed! Keep up the good work!

Snobbish crafters pop up in nearly all the crafting traditions, and need to be put into their place. Thank you for doing it so diplomatically!

Anonymous said...

I find that machine knitting is more difficult than hand knitting. When I want an easier time of it, I hand knit, though it takes longer. I'm less apt to make mistakes. Machine knitting is more of a challenge and takes more thinking through.

As for your poo post, I share your pain.
J.Woods, Western North Carolina

Ang said...

Well done that man!
I hate being called a cheat because I use a machine from time to time!

Those socks look good even though they don't look like the pic. Love that heel too.

BarbaraME said...

Hi Colin - I enjoy your blog and reading through it. I read with interest the machine knitters vs. the hand knitters. What is it with folks to want to create an "us vs. them" environment? Dunno?! My two kids are deaf. they have done very, very well in school (they are in a public school, mainstreamed) and yet I still get "oh, you don't sign with them". *sigh* No... the signers vs. the oralists can be pretty ugly - I try very hard to not "go there". I am sorry they were not welcomed...

I really like how the Hummer sock turned out but you're right - it doesn't look anything like the picture. You do good work!

Barbara in NH

FuguesStateKnits said...

Colin, I could not agree with you more! Good Lord, I WISH I could learn how to machine knit. It's the design and getting the interesting bits to look right that takes the soul of an artist, IMHO.
Take care and BTW I love your more recent posts - all too true.
Your happy "hostage" (just kidding)
Joan