Knitting & Social Media - Reflections 2

This post is one in a series of posts extending the talk I gave at Glasgow University as part of the Handknitted Textiles & the Economies of Craft in Scotland workshop series.

Social media and knitting are closely connected.

Knitting blogs gave young knitters a space to talk about their craft and enabled them to interact with each other. Ravelry is now the mothership for all online knitters nowadays: we interact in groups, we search the pattern and yarn databases, we amend database entries, we add photos of our knitting, we marvel at others' creations, and we connect.  I use Twitter much more than Ravelry these days, though. Twitter allows me to schedule things, ask/answer questions, meet interesting people, and laugh/cry - and do all these things with ruthless efficiency and a great signal-to-noise ratio.

The trouble with having a visible social media profile is that you need to perform yourself in public.

Despite my online presence, I am an introvert. I find social interaction draining and difficult. I am much more articulate when I type than when I speak. I find a roomful of strangers quite daunting. As you can imagine, working throughout Wool Week has been simultaneously incredibly inspiring and immensely draining.

Social media is a fabulous way of branding yourself. I am not a natural marketeer and I find the "B" word a mite upsetting in some respects - but I view social media in two ways: it is a great tool for connecting with people and it's a way of telling the story of your work.

But I am tired of Karie Bookish. Let me qualify that: I am tired of performing Karie Bookish. She is me and I am her, but I am exhausted. I love knitters and I love talking about knitting (even if I have a complex relationship with the practice) but I get so very tired of myself. After fifty minutes of working my bit of Wool Week, I wanted nothing more than escape and find a sequestered place far away from all social interaction. But how could I do that when I am essentially my own brand? I can see I will need to find a strategy for coping in the future, as I am due to work more big events and I don't want to end up as burned out as I was Sunday afternoon.

(Strategies on a postcard, please).

When you are are so visibly your own brand, social media come with added responsibilities too. I have seen dozens of businesses crash and burn through ill-considered use of social media: bitching about customers, admitting to fraud, blowing off responsibilities or just coming across as very unpleasant individuals. Sometimes ignorant use of social media is worse than no use of social media: if you only tweet adverts for yourself and refrain from interaction, people will unfollow you. There is a reason why it is called social media. I tend to recommend that you set up anonymous accounts on social media sites in order to learn the relevant etiquette if you are completely new to this way of communicating - that way you do not have to worry about potential faux pas affecting your business.

Despite the many pitfalls, social media are important components in making knitting flourish. It has allowed charismatic, enthusiastic people to 'spread the gospel' of knitting not being a time-capsule craft. The new channels provide a way of interacting with other people who share your interest across the globe. Knitting is a craft that is very much alive and kicking - and thanks to social media you can find and interact with people who share your passion.

Addendum: I met a lot of fantastic people this past week - many of whom I had only met online prior to Wool Week. I was lucky enough to have a stall next to Helen of Ripplescraft at The Lighthouse - I can only recommend having Helen as your stall neighbour: she kept me sane and caffeinated. Fellow designer Joyuna and I had coffee in the middle of Glasgow on a sleepy Sunday morning - she's just made the front cover of Interweave's Jane Austen Knits 2012! And I met with book artist Josie Moore following Friday's Glasgow University workshop. I took great pleasure in discussing William Morris over cream tea - I needed that.

Knitting as Identity? - Reflections 1

The next few posts will be extending the talk I gave at Glasgow University as part of the Handknitted Textiles & the Economies of Craft in Scotland workshop series. I was working at the Public Day event at Glasgow's The Lighthouse Design Centre when I was approached by a journalist from STV. Among her many questions, she wondered how Scotland influences me as a knitter and as a knitting designer. It was an obvious question to ask given the context, but I had to think about my response because the twin questions of identity and heritage hang over what I do.

I do not think I would be working in a creative industry and specifically as a designer-in-progress if I did not live in Scotland. Glasgow has been good to me in the sense that I feel very supported and inspired by the artists and creatives working here - and crucially I have been welcomed by them and given opportunities to do stuff that I do not think I would have been given in my erstwhile hometown of Copenhagen. Copenhagen plays host to many artists and creatives, but theirs is a closed circle by comparison.

So, geography plays an important part but it is not my only concern.

Trevor Pitt stopped by Glasgow to exhibit his The Knitting Salon, an art installation exploring the role of class, gender, community and urbanity through knitting. He gave an enthusiastic talk Friday about his own background, what informs him as an artist and what makes him so interested in wool as a medium. I was particularly interested in his working class background and how this influences his work.

I think my own background has a lot to do with how I approach knitting as a practice and why I am not always easy around knitting-as-practice. I wish I could twirl around with my hands in the air and shout about how much I love knitting - like so many of my readers do - but I have a complex relationship with knitting.

I am a working class kid myself. I grew up in rural Denmark with a family who worked as day labourers, farm hands, cleaners, and unskilled construction workers (if employed). They obsessed over pop culture and football - but they were also the local eccentrics. My family may have been huge (and hugely complicated) but it also shared a pervasive sense of self-expression and creative exploration that was at odds with its working-class status. We never had any money, but we had paintings on the walls and sculptures in the garden. I was kept in a steady supply of handmade garments and knitted jumpers. I was very young when I realised I could do stuff and make things.

For me, doing stuff meant moving away from rural Denmark and getting myself an education. Knitting is an uneasy practice for me because it is something which is directly connected to my working class roots. I worked so hard to get away and now I am back where I started more than thirty years ago: sticks and string in my hands making things.

So, knitting as identity-making?

For me, identifying myself as a knitter is more than "just" being affiliated with a collective of (mostly) women who use a traditional handicraft to connect with others via knitting groups and social media*. For me, it is acknowledging and finally admitting to kinship with previous generations and my complex family history. It is uncovering family roots and exploring what defines me as a human being. Can I ever make peace with knitting-as-practice?

Obvious questions to ask: Am I really at liberty to define and create myself and my own identity (I would have said YES not so long ago whilst arguing that the concept of a stable identity flies in the face of everything philosophers have had to say over the last 100 years). Or are we caught up in a matrix not of our own doing? Pre-determinism seems like such a dinosaur and yet here I am knitting away..

What is it about the practice of knitting that is so tangled up with identity, I wonder?

* I'll be writing more about knitting and social media in a later post.

Wool Week Post-Script

We are coming to the end of Wool Week and I am exhausted. I have been talking knitting, sheep, heritage, yarn, textiles, farmers, design and history for so long that I am hoarse and my body hurts. I do not know what else I can say that I have not already said. So many words. So many kind, interesting people. Alas, we have also reached the conclusion of the series of workshops on Textiles and the Economies of Craft in Scotland organised by the University of Glasgow. I gave a talk yesterday about the knitting industry and the resurgence of interest in hand-knitting. The Q & A was really interesting and I personally took a lot away from the other talks too.

Over the next few days I will be posting a short series of blog scribblings about knitting, textiles, material culture and social media.

Hopefully you will find them interesting too.

That awkward moment..

.. when the media decides to call you an expert .

(thank you Alison for the commemorative photo)

10,328

I was going to write a long post about being strapped into a rollercoaster of woah and longing for days of meh. I had it all worked out in my head, but once I had written it down, my brilliant metaphors seemed significantly less brilliant and more .. belaboured. And as we all know that belaboured prose is one of the cardinal sins, I will quietly forget that blog post I composed in my head this morning over breakfast. Life is rushing past me at the moment and I find it difficult to catch my breath. I remember that feeling from my university days when I found a rich seam of information to mine and just lost myself in the library. It is so tempting to just step into that slipstream of excitement, fascination and intense, hard work - but these days I have some very good reasons as to why I cannot quite allow myself this. Back at university I would end up with ulcers - these days my body has other acute reactions that I should very much like to avoid (not that I am very good at avoiding them - as I am typing this, I have a very distinct headache brewing). It is just difficult to remember to say no to exciting opportunities - especially when I am having so much fun.

A fellow freelance knitting person recommended Asana to me the other day and it has already given me so much. It is a time and task management tool that is geared towards small teams, but works really well for this one-woman venture too. I have slotted in all my to-do tasks and I can already see where things are potentially clashing and how I can push one task into another time slot.So useful: I might even end up with some spare time on hands at some point!

I have already begun plotting what I would like to do with potential spare time: I'd like to whip up a few sewing projects, I'd like to finish my Acer cardigan in time for winter, I'd like to see some friends, and I'd like to read some proper books. My partner gave me a Kindle for our anniversary and while I have been using it a lot for nefarious knitting purposes, I have also devoured a lot of bad regency romances (which in itself is a sure sign of me being stressed).

(What? You think me plotting activities for my spare time is a sign of impending doom? I think you might be right. Ahem.)

Forthcoming:

+ if you have signed up to the Karie Bookish Knits/Old Maiden Aunt yarn club, the yarn parcels are under way and the first pattern will land in your inbox this Friday around noon UK time. This means I can finally blog about a Finished Object - that very thought thrills me no end!

+ I will be part of the "Reviving Woollen Traditions" Public Study Day at Glasgow's The Lighthouse Design Centre on October 18. This Public Study Day forms part of a Glasgow University research project and although the day is open to the public, I believe the organisers still would like you to sign up. It looks ace and I am looking forward to meeting a lot of online friends who are also participating.

Finally: 10,328? Ah. The number of stitches I knitted on Sunday. In laceweight. Doing lace. My wrists and shoulders are still aching.

at midnight.. and beyond

I am writing about "at midnight.." at the eleventh hour and the irony is not lost on me.

"at midnight.." is the name of the Old Maiden Aunt/Karie Bookish collaboration I may have mentioned before. It is a three months yarn club still open for sign-ups but at time of writing there are only a few spaces still left. It is my own fault for not mentioning it here before now - I have been so busy with work and life that blogging just did not happened.

"at midnight.." is inspired by the mood and era of the Sherlock Holmes novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Both Lilith and I are avid readers - and we both happen to love classic British mystery novels. I set out to design three accessories that drew upon late Victoriana but would still be very wearable today - and I ended up with three designs are that very feminine, elegant and subtle. The picture above shows you some of the props I have gathered for the photo shoot we are having later this month: it is going to be lavish, sumptuous and mysterious. I am really looking forward to hearing what people think - I have had a blast designing for this club and Lilith has come up with some really beautiful, decadent colours.

".. a Victorian heroine trapped in an Edinburgh close at the turn of midnight whilst footsteps come ever closer.." was one of the many small clues we sent back and forth between us. Yes, we had a lot of fun plotting this one!

If you are unlucky enough not to get into the yarn club, the patterns will be made available in an e-book in 2013. I originally thought I'd reknit the patterns in commercial yarn, but as I am really running short on knitting time these days I am not so sure I'll be able to do that.

Phew.

I did find time to design and knit a one-off shawl this summer, but I forgot to take any photos before I gifted it. Ironic, huh?

My darling friend, Paula, had a big birthday this past week. I started plotting her birthday present earlier this year and spent ages searching the net for the perfect yarn. I wanted something semi-solid, something blue-grey-purple and I wanted it to be British.

Juno Fibre arts came up trumps with their amazing "Belle" 4ply which is a mix of alpaca and BFL. The colourway was called "Breathe" - a subtle pastel mix of pale blues and purples with an undertone of grey. I really like working with the yarn - though I should warn you about it shedding - and it was really fun to work with a colourway so different to my usual tastes. Sometimes it's good to push your boundaries!

I just cannot believe I did not remember to take a photo - I shall have to show you later. I will say one thing: working on this shawl back in May/June certainly paved the way for some of my designs coming your way later this year. I learned a lot about going outside my comfort zone and trying out something new.

What's next? Well, I am currently knitting something using a very popular yarn - a design which you will get to see in print(!) early next year.. again in a colourway completely outside my comfort zone. I am also trying to knit a few rows on my Bute cardigan here and there - and then I am also working away on my Doggerland collection when I find time to breathe. I need more hours in the day.

Or sample knitters.

Hmmm.