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| Here is one I made earlier |
Ravelry is a site for people who love knitting, or crochet, or both and I've found a whole host of fellow crocheters as well as learning more about how to crochet than I have in the past thirty odd years.
What's odd to me is how I seem to end up in the more marginalised section of whatever I love. Crochet is looked down on by a lot of knitters, who are in the majority. And in the same way, I've always loved reading but my favourite genre sci fi is even now often regarded as inferior and many people only seem to relate it to films. It was worse in the 60s: a girl reading sci fi! You could see by the covers the books were meant for men!
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| I've no idea when this is from |
Being a woman, and older, and into computer games isn't entirely mainstream either. I don't do any of these things because I like to be in a minority; they just come naturally!
Are there any things that you do that put you outside the mainstream?
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| My work in progress |
25 COMMENTS:
Hi, I've just found your blog via A Novice Novelist. I heard those same trumpets when I found Ravelry a couple of years ago. ADDICTIVE. Was looking for crotchet patterns and now love knitting too.
I also crochet. My mother used to crochet, but since I'm left-handed (another thing that puts me outside the mainstream) she didn't know how to teach me. I figured it out on my own through books. I'm currently making a steam train for my son.
I recently found a mystery series that features crochet. The first book is called Hooked on Murder. In it, there's some of the knitters-looking-down-on-crochet attitude you mentioned.
Hi Debbie! I think it was crochet patterns that took me to Ravelry too. I'm fairyhedgehogg over there if you want to look me up!
Sandra, my nearly-daughter-in-law is left-handed and I've been trying to work out how to teach her to crochet. It's so much easier when you can sit side by side, but at least there are videos online now.
I'm going to look for Hooked on Murder - it sounds interesting. Books and crochet, what could be better? Well, maybe add in some red wine and dark chocolate!
How do you make a steam train using crochet?
Being a woman, and older, and into computer games isn't entirely mainstream either.
Hah, but it will be if we keep it up!
Hmm, we had to learn to crochet at school in Germany. I used to make really boring scarves and the occasional doily. It could be fun to try to actually work to a pattern.
Sylvia, learning things at school can put you off for life. It's where I learnt to knit a dishcloth, with frequent unravellings and redoings. I've still not recovered from the trauma yet!
I know how to knit, but I can't do more than a few rows before my fingers lock solid so progress is too slow and painful for me to get into it.
Amateur radio is still a minority interest - although there are over 60,000 of us licensed amateurs in the UK now... my wife Babs is a minority within that minority as men by far outnumber women (by about 20-1) as a lot of amateurs come from a forces background.
Women, you can do better than that... get off your bums and learn how to operate a radio! It's great fun.
The airwaves are plenty big enough for us all to enjoy and it's cool talking to people from all over the world - most international traffic is in English - and even more so if you've learned how to build your own radio and that's what you're using.
You'll beat a lot of the men in any contests you take part in too, as female voices are clearer and easier to make out under difficult conditions... you can make contacts us men can't.
73 M0GDU
I've always liked sci fi & fantasy too - definitely puts me in the minority in my family and circle of friends and acquaintances. :)
I've always played computer games, it's just how it is.... I think the mainstream is probably a concept put together by advertisers... everyone, thankfully, has a quirk.
Sx
Richard, I didn't realise that Babs was into amateur radio too. Now that really is a minority interest! I can see the attraction of talking to people all over the world - I get some of that through blogs and Twitter but I can guess the radio feels much more immediate. I have the feeling that it helps to be an insomniac because reception is better at the time of night when I'm usually asleep. (Have I got that right?)
Jemi, I wonder why sci fi is still seen as a minority interest when there are so many great sci fi films out there but somehow it is.
Scarlet, maybe things are changing on the computer games front! I hope so. Advertisers certainly have a lot to answer for (and you make them answer for it so beautifully on your blog!)
fairyhedgehog!! That's a gorgeous blanket!! Wow!!!
I do remember being able to crochet a doily and being able to knit square patches when I used to do needlework at school! I loved both and am horrified that knitters are being all snooty about the art of crochet!!! I clicked on the link but I need to join the site first!!! Hmmm not if these snooty knitters exist though - LOL!!!
It's great being in a minority!!! Shows you have a wild and independent streak!! Yay for you!!!
Now please get better!! :-)
Take care
x
Thanks, Kitty! I like the idea of having a wild and independent streak!
The knitters on Ravelry are all lovely people, or the ones I've met so far are.
I'm already feeling much better than I was, thank goodness.
I gave up knitting when I tried to knit a square - just a square - and my niece said, "That's pretty good . . . for a beginner." : )
Ah, another great book cover. Where do you find them?
John Carstairs, Space Detective, interestingly wears geeky specs. Is this to show that he is a scientist as well as a man of action? I think that girl was very silly to wander within grabbing range of that alien plant thing.
Sudden thought - is John Carstairs, Space Detective, rushing straight past her to rescue another, more appealing blonde? I think we should be told.
stacy, family can be so cruel!
Lexi, I've no idea where I found it, I just googled a lot!
I love your take on the picture. I'd like to think that there's a heroine standing just out of camera shot ready to rescue John Carstairs when he gets into trouble but that really is wishful thinking.
FH, different band work better at different times of the day, so there's always something working well - generally higher frequencies work best during the day and lower ones at night... although sunspot activity can affect that quite dramatically.
Babs did the first-level exam so she'd understand what the heck I was talking about, and so she could use radio gear in an emergency - she's not active otherwise.
I did the whole lot, right up to the highest level available, so I'm allowed to do things even the BBC aren't.
On a completely random note, because that's the sort of chap I am, a totally unrelated link to a recipe:
http://professorunwin.blogspot.com/2011/01/lemonly-chickers-recipale.html
I'll leave it to you to explain that to any of your friends outside the UK... ;-)
Everything, really. Talking to people is hard for me, especially in a large gathering.
I don't crochet though. World, will you accept me now?
Richard, good for Babs! That's more of an interest than I've taken in Neil's tennis. (Federer? Who's Federer?)
I didn't know that about the different wavelengths, so thanks for clearing that up. Oh, and I don't think I need to explain the link. It's perfectly clear to anyone!
David, anyone who is on the internet and doesn't have a speck of weirdness in them isn't normal. So you're more than accepted in here - you're extremely welcome. (I don't think I can speak for the whole world; my plans for domination aren't that far advanced yet.)
PS @ Richard, I meant to say that I'm impressed with the "more than the BBC" qualifications!
We could be soul sisters, you and I. Now, I can't crochet for anything, but my mom made some beautiful stuff. But I like 'loser' teams, read books that aren't 'girly', watch 'guy' movies, etc. That's okay, too. I don't like being like everyone else. I like being different. I don't like diamonds and shoes, either :P
Individuality is a rare thing these days, be proud!
Words Crafter - soul sisters sounds good! I like that. You're right that it's great to be different but I have to admit that I would like shoes if only my feet weren't so wide!
What a scandal! I knit, I *can't* crochet! It's too hard! They are probably jealous. What a bunch of stinky-poo-brains. I hope their knitting needles become possessed with the spirit of a monster like the one on the cover of that book. Mwa ha ha ha ha.
I'm not weird. I would rather spend my weekend playing sanitized AD&D (the youngest player is 8. She prefers to make friends with the monsters, not kill them...) or wandering through the forest with my little nature guides clutched in my hands in search of new birds, flowers and 'shrooms than go to a cocktail party full of high powered but incredibly boring diplomats and politicians who are too diplomatic and political to say anything real. Mushrooms never lie! And they never beat around the bush, because the bushes might beat back! I'm as normal and mainstream as it gets.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go rub the mistletoe left over from mid-winter up against a tree; I'm trying to get it to take root.
PS: hi, Prickles! Haven't been around much; I'm a terrible blogger! :)
Hi M(R)p, you're a great blogger, just not a very frequent one!
I love your version of normality. So much more fun than the er... normal one. Hope you have fun with your mushrooms and mistletoe. I wonder why you need so much mistletoe.
As for crochet - for me it's easier than knitting, although I'm just finding out how very much I don't know! I have wonderful ideas for things to make that are well beyond my powers. At the moment I'm going back to a basic easy-crochet square because my nearly-daughter-in-law wants me to make her something.
I hope we'll see more of you around now but quality over quantity any day, eh?
Thanks Prickles.
Good luck with the crochet. I just keep cranking out socks and waiting for my kids' feet to grow into them :)
M(R)p: I've finished a lap blanket and made a couple of hats - no three now if you count the one that was for practice. Hats are cool because you don't have to make two the same!
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