Rockin Girl Blogger
Yesterday I learned that Maia of Maia Spins has tagged me as a Rockin’ Girl Blogger.
I’m really flattered, because I love Maia’s blog. She spins and knits and knits to spin and we get to see it all – plus lovelies and goodies from the garden and maybe a furry friend and a bit of real life tossed in for good measure. Her sock design tutorials make me wish I had a design process even remotely as well thought out and put-together. I always want to just sit down with Maia over a cuppa java and pick her brain.
And I know that I’m now supposed to pick five other rockin’ girl bloggers. And I’m going to totally wimp out on that. Because how can I possibly pick only 5 (or 7 or 10 or 50) out of all of the wonderful blogs that I read every day? I’m terrible at making that kind of decision. I often can’t even choose between yarns (thus my stash size)!
So… my head is bloody, but unbowed. Since Maia’s reward to me came at the end of such a sucky week (my previous post only scratched the surface), I think I will reserve my 5 picks and bestow them at times when a rockin’ girl is having a not-very-fun time of it and maybe needs a bit of a boost. So stay tuned.
Not much knitting this week, due to previously mentioned suck-ness. I finished one repeat on the dragon skin, snake scale, whatever-they-want-to-be-named socks. And I’m ready to start knitting away on the fish part of the Great Green Glob. Progress is being made in tiny increments.
There’s an interesting discussion on Ravelry (get in line for an invitation if you haven’t already!) right now about use of the term Muggles to refer to non-knitters. There are those who don’t see any harm in it, and others who find it offensive and demeaning.
I’ve use the term a time or two, in what I hope came across as a rather fond way. There are people to understand the love of fiber and there are people who just don’t. I don’t think that makes me better or them less, it’s just a different point of view. There are many people who think whacking away at tiny little balls with big sticks while strolling around on a very big lawn is just the best thing since sliced bread. I, however, do not see the attraction. Before I get a lot of nasty emails from golfers, I say if that’s your passion, go for it. Just don’t ask me to whack along with you. Would I be offended if a group of golfers referred to non-golfers as muggles. I don’t think so. I’m pretty secure in my non-golf-ness. I’m also pretty certain that if I picked up golf equipment and asked for a little help (not going to really happen, OK?), my former non-golfing status would be quickly forgotten and I’d be right in with the golfing crowd (except maybe the exclusive clubs, but I digress).
As humans, we have a tendency to split the world up into me and not-me, like-me and not-like-me. So… knitter and… what? Non-knitter? Person-who-doesn’t-get-knitting? Person-who-doesn’t-like-fiber? Non-fiber-enthusiast? Non-pointy-stick-wielder? Muggle? We will always find some term refer to other. That’s not to say that knitters as a whole are not an inclusive group. If a person-who-doesn’t-knit picked up pointy sticks and some string, most knitters would be happy to help them learn. I see this happen all the time in the LYS.
Some people also object to the label muggle simply because it originated in the Harry Potter books as a term for people who don’t do magic and don’t even realize magic exists.
What do you think, gentle reader? How do you refer to not-like-me?
