Here’s another one of my posting backlogs. At this rate I’ll run through the stash in no time, and I’ll have to gasp write again. Wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Anyway, enjoy!
Here’s a little but of a knitting commentary. I finished this sweater that turned out really awesome. The body is mostly black, with some gray on the yoke and the top of the sleeves, and the sleeves, and top of the shoulders are this ecru color I call sheep. It has steaks and this chest cut which is really nice. It’s all wool. I blocked it out well but I think I need to block it again, because it grew so much during the blocking and I want it to shrink up a little. It was a weird blocking experience.
I would totally write and post the pattern here, but I think I ‘m going to bum a digital camera off of someone and write up a pattern for knitty, it’ll be good. In the mean time I’m maing another version of this sweater with a 50/50 hemp/wool blend that I had. It’s that light worsted/heavy DK weight yarn that I more or less have to knit at 5 stitches to the inch. I had been thinking about making a 5×3 ribbed sweater but the gauge wasn‚Äôt going to work out, and I must say that I really like making sweaters like these, and I really like wearing them as well.
I’m still really turned off of shawls. I’m also way over those fashion scarves that are really fuzzy. I have so much good shawl yarn, so I’m a little disappointed with not having any interest in doing shawl knitting, but that’s ok. I’m good with that.
I have a paper/presentation about knitting as feminist activism, which is going to be fun to do, I just have to sit down for a few hours and write that up.
Many knitters I communicate with are rushing to get their Christmas knitting done. I’m not down with the idea of knitting a slew of quick gifts. I mean on the one hand I like the idea of making versus buying gifts, but the very uniform frilly scarves, I tend to think are more about the object and less about the act of knitting. But that‚Äôs just me. I made my self two filly scarves, and I’m done with that now. Anyway, I’m avoiding other things with this post now, so I’m going to stop and move on to more worthwhile tasks. Cheers!
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tagged: knitting
Why.
A few days ago, someone asked me, “what do you study in women’s and gender studies classes?” It’s an interesting question for me. I mean I could have just said, “how patriarchy and systems of oppression oppress people,” (or some variant) but that makes it all about oppression and victimization, and I think that’s unproductive and not helpful.
So I said, “gender studies is about locating our thoughts about the roles associated with gender and sex in a historical and cultural context.” I really like this definition. I’d also add other contexts now, like literary, and psychological, but in any case, I think that sums it up pretty well.
I’ve said that I want to write about WWOTB for a while, and I guess the above is as good of an introduction as any. I’ve been talking to people, both here at Beloit, and online through my vast network of people and I’ve learned a few things, and then want to make a few things clear.
First of all I don’t think anything has changed since I did CollectiveArts. The kinds of response that I’ve gotten this time around have materialized (or not) in the same way that they did the last time around. Only here, I’m not looking for a (semi) professional contributor base, which thankfully nixes the money question (good), but I still haven’t gotten any actual writing turned in yet (bad.) Having said that, my experiences in approaching people and asking them for contributions have given me a lot of information. Some are interesting simply for what they are and others are interesting in an affirming way. A lot of guys are like, “Wow, that’s really awesome I wish I had found something like that.”
I had a discussion with my feminisms professor today, and I think I want to start calling it the Young Gay Identity Project, rather than the Affinity Story project. Because… I think that captures what I’m trying to do better. I want to put together a collection of stories by young gay-identified men-identified folks that creates a fairly realistic portrait of this identity. I want to reach two groups of people with this collection: young gay men who aren’t out, or don’t know any or many other gay men and I want these boys and men to know that there are others like them out there, also I want everyone else to read the book and to find that young guys can and are gay, that the struggle of young gay men is not trivial, but also not the only struggle that young gay men think about, that young gay men can be pro-sex without being pegged (oy) as over-sexed/slutty, and that there’s more to the experience than the coming out narrative.
So there. If anyone out there wants to contribute contact me. Otherwise stay tuned for more developments. The current status is that I’m waiting for a critical mass of submissions, which will go through a fast revision cycle, and then I’ll perfect my little packet, and mail it out to publishers.
Cheers.
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tagged: academia
I got this yarn for some awesome scarves, that I’ve wanted for a long time. It’s kind of a pain to knit with (it’s over-spun and it’s not set, so I have to take out some part of the twist every two or three rows.) But they’re 13 stitches across and look really awesome. One’s a gift, for sure, the other’s I think I can totally sell for fifty bucks, which will cover the expenses, and allow me to (a) recoup losses and not feel guilty, (b) buy yarn enough for a sweater and another scarf, or (c) buy enough for three or four more scarves.
I’ve been making a sweater with this hemp and wool blend, and I’m at the underarm point, and I’m realizing that I’m probably going to run out of yarn, if I get the body and the sleeves done, which I kind of doubt at this point, I’m not going to have enough for the trim I’m fairly convinced. sigh I’m hoping to finish the body this week (shouldn’t be hard, the yoke always goes fast, in part because I’m going to be decreasing like mad for the neck and chest cut, and there are a lot of mile markers, as opposed to the body which is 17 inches of Kansas (to blend metaphors). Safe to say, it’s too close for comfort.
So I’m trudging along on this one. My semester is wrapping up, but I have been doing a fair amount of TealArt writing (as a way of beating back a icky writer’s block.) I haven’t been posting because we’re don’t a slow server move which I have a distinct feeling is going to end sometime around christmas day. (I’m going to give my gifts out on the solstice, or as I finish making them.) Anyway. There’s more to come.
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tagged: knitting