botflymother

Siërra R., "Botfly Mother "Inhaling The Sodium Vapors""

@botflymother

"she got it in her"

the spirit is weak. woe be the spirit. the body is weaker still. Siërra R
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Firbozz
@Firbozz

"Knitting for Anarchists", by Anna Zilboorg

Originally published in 2002, this book wants to teach you how to knit without telling you how to knit. It also opens with this paragraph:

Most anarchists are gentle people. They see that government is a major source of violence in the world since governments get into wars, and that wars make people do monstrous things that they would otherwise never do. So they want to get rid of government. They see that the greatest source of oppression is greed and ownership of the sources of wealth, so they want the means of production owned by those who do the producing. They yearn to see the organizations of society grow from shared interests and mutual benefits–a constant coming together and moving apart so that no firm structure becomes established that could become oppressive. It's straightforward idealistic stuff.

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in reply to @Firbozz's post:

annabelle-lee
@annabelle-lee

I like how this approach encourages experimentation as like a key part of making things, as opposed to the following a recipe way of making crafts that really deadens them & is almost an industrial project except that you, a human, have agreed to carry it out. It is making me wonder how this interacts with the idea of mastering a craft or art form that might have centuries of built up traditions and in following them you are becoming part of a larger human project.

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bazelgeuse-apologist
@bazelgeuse-apologist

I wouldn't say that following a pattern/recipe deadens the craft! I definitely agree with the ideas presented in the book and consider experimentation something that's valuable and often overlooked, but that doesn't make a craft created by following a recipe any less meaningful, you know?

I have a number of brain issues that make experimenting hard for me in the context of crochet, and have only managed to get back into it by picking specific patterns with specific directions to follow to the letter. I was pretty hard on myself for this at first, like "what makes this any better than something store-bought and mass-produced if I don't apply Creativity to it," but I came to realize that the enjoyment I get out of the process itself is no less valuable. And the finished craft is no less meaningful to the person I've given it to - they don't care that I followed a pattern for it when they know that I saw this pattern, thought of them specifically, and labored for hours to make it real.

I do want to get to a place where I can wildly improvise like when I first got started, but in order to keep crochet from turning into yet another obligation, yet another job that I have to do "right," I have to learn how to value everything I make - including the more formulaic things.

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annabelle-lee
@annabelle-lee

I think its a really interesting thing to think about! Like I know I have a personal bias towards art that is messy/imperfect as opposed to very properly done. Say like, a gee's bend quilt vs the sort of quilt that wins at a state fair. But if you are trying to giving both the same amount of attention maybe the by-the-books quilt becomes like a meditative piece where the intent is that the hand of the artist is invisible (real contemporary art style stuff).

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effika
@effika

The "understand the concepts before using the tools and choosing materials" approach is one I wish more instructional documents would take.

I am an intuitive knitter because I have decades of knowledge stored up on every aspect of it and can adapt and change on the fly based on current conditions and what's available (or what I did when not paying attention while knitting in the dark). I felt so lost when I started garment sewing because everybody wanted to give me steps to complete a task, not concepts that would help me understand the steps and tools better. (Once I found the people who like to talk about repair sewing machines and fabricating textiles and drafting patterns I suddenly got so much better at sewing!)

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IkomaTanomori
@IkomaTanomori

As a Wobbly and believer in anarchy as a verb, I love this book, even though I personally have no intention to knit. I think the core tenet displayed, of treating the student as an equal human with as much of more potential and right than the author credits theirself with to innovate and fully understand, is fundamental to so much of life.

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