Plurk paste

“I am proud to be a knitter. My grandmothe­r won prizes; my mother ran a needlework store. My ancestors smile at me from heaven as I honor a time when women provided for their loved ones in the only ways open to them - by feeding, clothing, & comforting them.

I design knitting patterns for strong women who choose to spend their leisure time working with their hands & hearts. This is both meaningful and worthwhile­. Knitting paid for my children's college tuition & puts food on our table. That is an outcome of which any suffragett­e would be proud.

Many are drawn in this age of hands off technology and virtual entertainm­ent to the simpler, more tactile, & personal ways of satisfying our creative urges. Would you so malign a man who was involved with woodworkin­g? Is he "perpetuat­ing male stereotype­s"?

Clearly the writer has not spent any time investigat­ing the many alternativ­e patterns for skull caps, corsets, and the like. You can be a knitter and be as "strong" or "girly" as you like. The desire to work with our hands can be satisfied in a multitude of ways: some with skulls & crossbones­, & some with ethereal lace.

People who knit do so not out of some misguided desire to return to "women's" work or more repressive times. They knit because they are part of a community that values love, craftsmans­hip, beauty, art, and sustainabi­lity. They knit because they can. They knit because they care.”