#knitting meta

[ascientistknits]

Because he has never been officially charged and convicted, I am treated like I am blowing everything out of proportion.

Second letter down. May this awful woman find her path forever strewn with Lego and her shoes mysteriously missing.

(Via Nicole Cliffe)

[kippuchan]

Borrowed some more knitting n yarn books from the library today bc I had an hour to kill near a branch I’ve not been to before. Nice library! Love your library!

But can I just say that while I love the whole “make clothes that actually fit your body” that is an articulated benefit, or selling point, in knitting, saying that while reinforcing sizing and having a relatively normal set of sizes for patterns and patterns of a single size that “fit most average adults” is just,,, very tiring. I cannot make any of the patterns in this book without considerable extra maths and adaptation (this book also markets itself as beginner friendly- this is not expected). Extra ironic considering it’s a book called “the joy of missing out (JOMO) knitting”, promoting the idea that we can find joy in missing out (e.g. staying at home cozy n crafting), which I don’t disagree with. But I very much am missing out, as a fat person, on every single pattern in this book. This does not bring me joy.

“Knitting is knowing you’re not missing out of your body shape is not the norm”. Cool, this is lip service. It’s not my kinds of patterns (lots of chunky wool knits) but it still kind of hurt. This book did not come home with me.

Other book is “6000+ pullover possibilities” which is a nifty reference guide on combining features of jumpers to customise style, pattern, and fit. I think it’ll be quite neat to have for a bit- ive probably seen better versions of this kind of book though, more suited to my style.

My quibble with this one is it tells me to “forget about my store bought clothing size”. And then it provides info for a range of sizes, and to their credit it’s XS-4X, which is a decent range and i’m just on the cusp of the 4X being my size. Bur like,,,, you’re talking about how customisable things are, forget size labels, ans then you use the tradition xs, s, m, l, x, 2x, 3x, 4X size labling! Why not just use A, B, C, D etc for sizing, or just actual measurements? Grrrrrr. It’s a small thing but it grinds my gears.

Final quibble is, I kid you not, two whole comments referencing Quasimodo, which at least to me, come across as disparaging towards disability and really insensitive to anyone who does have a different body and wants to dress it, let alone stylishly. That shit is hard, and people don’t respect the extra effort that goes in to finding or making, or altering, accessible clothing. Often to more strict needs like avoiding certain fibres, avoiding seams or rough clothing, needin to be easy to care for, etc.

This book councils that, when choosing an armhole construction technique and sleeve type, they have to be compatible: makes sense. The author writes “ raglan sleeves will not fit neatly into a straight arm hole, trust me, not even if you’re knitting a garment for Quasimodo”. I get what you’re going for here but maybe don’t use Quasimodo, and by extension deformity and disfigurement, as the example for how bad your knit will turn out of you deviate from this rule. You could just say something like “inferior fit. High advise against it”. Further down she writes “always be certain to choose a sleeve with the same arm hole construction icon as your front and back. Quasimodo has enough sweaters.” The two back to back are just ugh.

Idk it just comes across as really naff and off-putting to me. I know when I get into garnment knitting beyond the small things that I already do like socks and shawls, I’ll be up against lots of sizing fit issues and needing to make modification, which is fine. It is good. This is part of the skill of knitting, to modify fit, and I have transferable skills with sewing and stuff like that.

And I do get that this is not a book that is teaching you how to master fitting- I have several other books for that- but it just didn’t feel great to use this kind of framing and language when ostensibly it’s an inclusive pattern book that’s supposed to give you lots of freedom to fit your body. And published fairly recently in 2017!!!!

Idk maybe there’s some stuff out there which discusses fit issues for disability related stuff -I know of some historical costumes, for example, who have scoliosis and they have briefly mentioned how finished garments don’t fit on their dress forms any more because they are tailored to their bodies- but it would be cool if this could be more of a discussion, considering how many disabled people are in the sewing and knitting and crafting spaces. I feel like the fatphobia and the sizing related discussion is happening in the knitting community- not always super successfully- but yeah. Don’t get me wrong, I’m excited to dive into this book and see what I can learn from it but it was just a bit of a tiring experience. I already discount most garment related pattern books because I just know sizing won’t be a thing that will work for me.

(And then I got a reference guide on yarn fibres (ooooh) and a book on sashiko mending. We stan the library craft section)