Knit-O-Matic News

Knitting is the new chocolate.... the beginnings of aa kniotomtic manifesto

a local TV news personality told me in casual conversation that when his wife took up knitting he thought it meant the end of his sex life, that his wife was 'getting old'. silly man! wait till he finds out what a couple of children do his wife's libido. ;-) but seriously, what is with "enlightened", inteligent, educated, sensitive men who are threatened by knitting? I haven't been able to pin down the rationale yet, but i'm experiencing more & more of it. my own best friend refused to stay in the store during a knitting lesson. the most liberal voice of canadian public television associates itt with the work kind of kitsch, the un-ironic kind. and a local academic, well, he'll visit his wife in the store, but he won't sit down or stay longer than five minutes. perhaps it is the threat of femininity to the macho ego? when my father visits the store he sits down in the sitting area & leafs through the fashion magazines. when asked if he wants to knit, he snorts an unspoken negative. maybe it is something akin to a latent homophobia or racism: i won't go into my father's reaction when my 15 year old brother insisted on learing how to knit (following his big sister's lead). knitophobia?

i don't get it, because in my view, knitting is SEXY! i can't, in all consicience say that knitting is the new sex, because sex transcends time and will never be replaced, but maybe a little knitting after sex could make coitus that much more satisfying. or what about knitting as a comforting activity for the premenstrual, it calms the savage female. so maybe knitting is the next best thing to sex. i don't think any guy would complain about aa well fittted sweater.

moreover, knitting is BEAUTIFUL! it is an extension of personal expression and tacit communication, a manifestation of the human soul singing to itself. craft is creative, but knitting is also ART, and art is a way of living (so says Rilke). I'll have to investigate craftphobia later, the bauhaus felt it was integral to art and design, so sometthing must have happened along the way.

but i digress, chocolate. sometimes chocolate gets a bad rap, it's fatening. sometimes it's lauded, it has serotonin. but it doesn't matter because chocolate is amazing, nobody regrets its invention, although sometimes it's taken for granted.