A couple of weeks ago a couple of the lists I'm on went dark. What I mean is, they stopped sending mail for a few days. I, being unconnected in any other way with any of these people, had no real idea of course.
Knit Design list on Yahoo: well, it's not a high-traffic list, so they do occasionally have days go by with no new posts. Except that this was the list owner being annoyed about an on-going conversation about whether it was appropriate for someone to use names when talking about slow/late/non-payment of design fees.
KBTH: sending no mails for an entire weekend was just eerie. And this followed on the heels of, a couple of months ago, a KBTH splinter-list I joined (knit mafia) just disappearing one day. In that case, I sent an e-mail to someone I knew was on the list, by finding her e-mail on another list, and she was kind enough to respond and say that the list had been shut down by the owner and restarted under a different name. I never got an invite to join that list, but the knitting content was generally light and most of the talk was about marshmallow peeps and stuff, so I figured I was okay without it, and while my perverse nature means I'm fascinated by the meltdown that happened, really it's none of my business who doesn't get along with whom, and so I let it go. If they don't have the sense to recognize my quiet genius, that's their problem (i.e., they didn't invite me to join).
But it made me think about something. I have no real, non-virtual knitting community. I think that has got to change.
So I went to Knitter's Frolic. I wasn't planning to buy anything, except maybe two skeins each of various lots of KPPPM, or some aran yarn if it was ludicrously cheap, so I was afraid to go because I might get lured into buying something I don't need. But I was good. I only came home with three books:
"Unexpected Knitting" by Debbie New
"Here be Wyverns" by Nancy Spies
"Cable Knitting Handbook" by Annie Maloney
The first two were on my "must have" list. The third was on my "sort-of must have" list.
I didn't talk to anyone, and hardly anyone talked to me. If I'm trying to build a knitting community for myself, I'm going to have to come up with a plan.
Oh, and then next after that, I'm going to have to find myself a writing community. I always envied my friend Erin's writing group.
And then after that, I have to find a better music community. Maybe I need to join a Bulgarian women's choir, or a celtic ceilidh band or hang out in jazz bars or something. Or I could sit writing and knitting in a jazz bar and wait for my community to find me.
Knit Design list on Yahoo: well, it's not a high-traffic list, so they do occasionally have days go by with no new posts. Except that this was the list owner being annoyed about an on-going conversation about whether it was appropriate for someone to use names when talking about slow/late/non-payment of design fees.
KBTH: sending no mails for an entire weekend was just eerie. And this followed on the heels of, a couple of months ago, a KBTH splinter-list I joined (knit mafia) just disappearing one day. In that case, I sent an e-mail to someone I knew was on the list, by finding her e-mail on another list, and she was kind enough to respond and say that the list had been shut down by the owner and restarted under a different name. I never got an invite to join that list, but the knitting content was generally light and most of the talk was about marshmallow peeps and stuff, so I figured I was okay without it, and while my perverse nature means I'm fascinated by the meltdown that happened, really it's none of my business who doesn't get along with whom, and so I let it go. If they don't have the sense to recognize my quiet genius, that's their problem (i.e., they didn't invite me to join).
But it made me think about something. I have no real, non-virtual knitting community. I think that has got to change.
So I went to Knitter's Frolic. I wasn't planning to buy anything, except maybe two skeins each of various lots of KPPPM, or some aran yarn if it was ludicrously cheap, so I was afraid to go because I might get lured into buying something I don't need. But I was good. I only came home with three books:
"Unexpected Knitting" by Debbie New
"Here be Wyverns" by Nancy Spies
"Cable Knitting Handbook" by Annie Maloney
The first two were on my "must have" list. The third was on my "sort-of must have" list.
I didn't talk to anyone, and hardly anyone talked to me. If I'm trying to build a knitting community for myself, I'm going to have to come up with a plan.
Oh, and then next after that, I'm going to have to find myself a writing community. I always envied my friend Erin's writing group.
And then after that, I have to find a better music community. Maybe I need to join a Bulgarian women's choir, or a celtic ceilidh band or hang out in jazz bars or something. Or I could sit writing and knitting in a jazz bar and wait for my community to find me.