Today is the day I piss someone off
Knit-alongs. I don’t do them. I rarely participate in them. I have a hard enough time actually finishing what I start without the added pressure of a knit-along. Another reason is that there is a part of me that rebels against making something that All The Cool Kids Are Making. (I know it’s not just the cool kids, don’t get your panties in a wad. Yet.) Now don’t get me wrong. I really do think that knit-alongs can be good. There’s the support if you’re stuck on the pattern, and it’s neat to see the different yarn choices and how they effect the finished object. They just aren’t for me. I swear some bug must’ve crawled up my ass the day I joined The Amazing Lace. It’s really out of character for me to do that. In my defense, everybody isn’t knitting the exact same thing. To see the Icarus Shawl-along start up almost pissed me off. I wanted to make that shawl, but now I can’t because I’m rebelling. Idiocy at it’s finest, right here folks. No cover charge, see it for free. What will I come up with tomorrow?
So anyway, here comes the part where someone is sure to get pissed. Mason Dixon Knitting, the book. I’ve browsed the book in the store and I didn’t buy it or make any plans to. The authors are wonderful writers, it’s nothing personal against them. But am I the only one who finds it ironic that people scoffed at the cheap cotton yarn that you can get at practically every discount and/or craft store, swore they wouldn’t use anything they knit on a countertop or dirty dish, are now buying this stuff up in bulk to make the Mason Dixon dishcloths? The same pattern that has been available for free on the web for who knows how long. The same pattern that is on the ballband of the cotton yarn. The same fugly pattern that no one would touch with a ten foot knitting pole until it was published in a book by popular blog authors. I don’t have anything against dishcloths, I’ve made several. I have one on the needles now truth be told, but it’s not that pattern. It just amazes me the way people will knit something (or buy a book, but I won’t talk about that author because she will hunt you down and publish your info) just because it’s from a popular blog author or because it’s What All The Cool Kids Are Making/Reading.
Now that I’ve offended everyone that ever joined a knit-along or knit a MD dishcloth, I’m gonna go have some quality time with yarn.
June 6th, 2006 at 10:25 am
I do more knitalongs than you do, but my eagerness to do so has eroded as time goes by. I will go a step further and say that the trend toward starting up a new blog for every KAL is starting to rub me the wrong way. (and yes I was guilty of it once myself) I love Ann and Kay, but I didn’t go loopy for that book, either. The photography was beautiful but the projects seemed so…..recycled. The dishcloths, yes, but also the log cabin blankets, which the Tiny Diva published a few years ago and everyone rolled their eyes at then. I made 2 back then and I’m cured of them now. There’s something about the way it’s become a status symbol to knit cotton dishcloths now that I just feel put off by. So you didn’t piss me off, it’s good to know I’m not alone here.
June 6th, 2006 at 10:37 am
I’m not much of a joiner either. I joined The Amazing Lace because any excuse to knit lace is a good excuse.
The first time I looked through M-D Knitting, I was kinda like you — nothin’ special here ‘cep some purty pictures. But I looked at it again and decided there are a few things there I could make. So I asked for it for an anniversary present. 
In most KALs the signal-to-noise ratio is very low. So there’s not even much useful info to be gotten from them.
June 6th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
I really pick and choose my knit-alongs now. If there’s a blog attached to it, I think really hard about joining it, no matter how fab the pattern or concept is.
I’m not gah=gah over the books either. Don’t own either of Harlots, nor Wendy’s nor Mason-Dixon, though I admire all 4 writers greatly and their prosepctive blogs.
I just don’t get the hype, you know?
June 6th, 2006 at 5:36 pm
Pfft. The only knitalongs I’ve joined, I haven’t really participated in anyway. Half the time I don’t even realise that there is a knitalong until someone point it out to me. That may just be because of my natural flakiness.
June 9th, 2006 at 9:37 pm
i was cracking up at your post! i actually have made said ballband washcloths and am giving them as gifts but theres a lot of truth to what you say and i’m reluctant to get caught up in the knitalong craze too. instead i just keep finding interesting things to knit and currently have 5 projects on the needles! thanks for your comment on my blog!