Eggs-hausted.

I love my job. I love my job. I love my job...

I'm linking to Laurie so often I'm starting to feel like a blogstalker (I'm in Florida and too busy to travel, no need for a restraining order). But I'm on a roll and apparently determined to get myself court-martialed and kicked out of the Knitblog World. But fuck any of you people who make someone think they have to explain their knitting choices.

First of all, and this is directed to you, Laurie, if you are designing your own projects, even if they are "just" hats and scarves, you are not a "beginner knitter" or even an "advanced beginner" or any other stupid label knitter. There are people making money selling books with patterns that aren't as interesting as the things you pull out of your own head.

I understand where Laurie is coming from. I've been on the receiving end of irritating "there there" comments, on my own blog, when I say I'm working on a flat scarf or a shawl or some other "Oooh, soft, pretty!" restful project, like "It's okay, Catherine, someday you'll gwow up and be a weel knitter like the big kids!" Kindly go fuck yourself.

And I would like it very much if people like Laurie, who took to knitting and jumped to creating her own whimsical projects right out of the gate, because she is genuinely artsy and it shows in her work, didn't have to explain themselves to people who never color outside the lines and worry about whether they are knitting "correctly." They need to get a grip, a life, and shut the fuck up when they feel tempted to judge anyone. Not necessarily in that order.

Laurie is creative for a living, and when you're creative for a living, especially in a corporate environment, you tend to come home somewhat depleted (depleted = "run over by a truck") and totally uninterested in taking on a "challenge." My job requires that I shift gears constantly all day long, coming up with answers to questions and creative solutions to bizarre and complicated fucked-up issues. Every time I am overwhelmed by my job and ready to run out screaming, I remember reading drivel on KR about people "anxious" to "challenge themselves" with knitting. I truly cannot imagine a life in which a "challenge" actually means knitting. Where they worry if they are "knitting hard enough." Or "measure up" as knitters. God.

Unless you are making money off it, nobody in the non-knitting world really gives a crap that you knit, and then only a very small portion do. They may nod politely and feign interest, like I do when some guy I meet goes on and on about golf. But they don't really give a shit, and quit kidding yourself that knitting, or playing golf every free minute, is cool enough to be something to aspire to as a lifetime achievement. It's a hobby. You're not going to grow up to be Elizabeth Zimmerman or Tiger Woods. Quit taking it so seriously.

And even if you are making money off it, some of you ought to realize that you are riding a trend and good for you, take the money and run is my motto too. A blog I read occasionally linked to a fiction book about knitting, and I followed the link and read an excerpt, and "lame" would be the kindest thing that came to mind. (Okay, I'm nasty, my actual thought was that at this moment in time, you can wrap a dog turd in yarn and get it published.) This, too, shall pass. All of this crazy shit about knitting will pass, like disco and the macarena, and macrame or paint by numbers will make a comeback with those who have too much time on their hands.

And then people who are genuinely creative and enjoy playing with yarn will be able to do so in peace, and not have to explain themselves. And what a beautiful world it will be.