Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Waiting Room Knitting

Sometimes things happen in the strangest ways. I had a doctor appointment this afternoon and decided to take my sock along in case the wait was long. As it happened, I got to knit about one round before my name was called. When I went into the doctor's office for the consultation part of the visit, she noticed my knitting and said that she used to knit. She's from Switzerland and said that she had to learn to knit before she started school and that they knit in school. Before we finished the visit, she said that I had inspired her to start knitting again! Imagine that...lil ole me and my little sock inspiring someone to knit. When I go back next year, I'll have to ask her if she did start knitting again.

There is an interesting post by Renee on knitting and feminism or rather, anti-feminism. The majority of the comments indicated that we (and the "we" includes both men and women) knit because we like it, not because we're trying to make a statement about our gender. How true. Everything I do I do because it interests me, or challenges me, or educates me. Some of those things can be considered traditional female roles or activities. Some can't. And interestingly, most things that are now considered to be a woman's domain, like knitting, used to be dominated by men and strictly regulated by guilds. I think there is a section in the Vogue Book of Knitting (I might have the title wrong) that discusses that.

Well, I would say that I'm going to go knit on the sock (I've got about 2 inches to go before the toe), but I'm on day 2 of a migraine and am going to go to bed instead.

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