Friday, February 01, 2008

Mutual Admiration Society

Can you believe that Shoeless Val has created a medal inspired by my 100% knit-from-stash, Drive-Thru experience? Behold:


Please feel bestow this award upon yourself & share in the knitting-from-stash triumph, if you are so inclined. Thanks Val, you made my day!

This brings me to another topic. Did any of you see the Frontline episode about kids growing up online? It made the point that the generation gap has never before been this wide as parents have no idea at all what Facebook is and how kids are using it, to give you one example. I am sure as bloggers we are more aware than most, but we can all admit that the web is full of peril. The Curmudgeon and I spend a lot of time being suspicious of the notion of an Internet community. His latest motto is that "The Internet is Taco Bell for the intellect". We are constantly fretting over the role of technology in the dumbing-down of our nation's youth--you know, amusing ourselves to death with our gadgets and supposed mastery of technological skill when all we're really doing is ripping songs off Limewire and all that. (Well, he does most of the expounding, I'm the one with the iPhone, remember? So I really don't have a leg to stand on there being a permanent adolescent and all, but I play along). We worry about our kids becoming more adept at conducting virtual relationships that flesh-and-blood ones. Tween Thing told me that pro-anorexia websites are all the rage with the girls at her school. Ugh. Let's face it, on the web at any given moment you are a click away from some really negative shit...

But then there are bright spots. How about all of these Make My Day awards going round? The spirit in which these posts are written makes you realize that we knitbloggers are involved in a mutual admiration society, and I mean that with no snark at all. We truly support and admire one another's creative endeavors, and it is an unexpected outcome of Internet life for me. Thanks to VĂ©ronique, James, Tiennie, Jodi, Weezalana, Peaknits and Courtney--you all make MY day. Have a look at my blogroll if you are looking for new reads--I truly read and love them all and can't choose just 10. Please don't think I'm a wiener for not specifying which ones!
Snowboarder's Hat from Kathy Kreation's pattern in Ligonier, PA.
Yesterday I whipped up an ear flap hat that heralds two firsts for me: making an i-cord and taking the time to finally learn to properly crochet an edge around something & having it not make the garment look worse. Can you believe it? I'm not a total wench after all...

The Specs:
Pattern: Everyone's Favorite Snowboarder's Hat
Yarn: 2 skeins Nashua Handknits Painted Forest (foliage) and .35 skein of Lamb's Pride Bulky (oregano)
Needles: Size 15
Snowboarder's Hat from Kathy Kreation's pattern in Ligonier, PA.
I got this pattern at Kathy's Kreations in Ligonier, a shop that I seem to be seeing a lot of recently. It was written by a shop employee and teacher, Tracy Earhart. This is a hat that I would never normally be attracted to, but given my renewed fondness for off-the-grid/hippy culture, I thought I'd give it a shot. And who can say no to size 15 needles?

22 comments:

Kim said...

Dude, great hat! I completely agree that the knit blog community is a huge happy bright spot full of kind supportive wildly creative and hilarious people. I'm agonizing over how to pick just ten. Impossible!

Sarah said...

If you're a weenie, then I'm a weenie, too!

Love the hat. I'd love to whip up something that fast, but would you believe most of the needles I own are a size 3 or smaller?

Katy said...

My kids are 4 and 7 and we are just heading into the Internet age for the oldest--oy. I have such a love/hate relationship with technology and computers! Those pro-anorexia sites just terrify me, as does all the porn and other crap out there. But I do think there are positives to the Internet, too (except for my addiction, of course.).

Anonymous said...

Happily, my now-18-yo son likes to show me his MySpace page since he created it a couple-three years ago. I haven't seen my 23-yo son's Facebook page, but he is old enough to take care of himself. Whew.

Janet said...

Crappers, I'm only 26 and I feel like technology is already getting the best of me. And I'm totally locking my kids in a computer-less closet (when I have 'em).

Or maybe by then someone will have created an "internet nanny" to block out all non-knitting related content?

Also, I love the hat! I might have to send my mom to Kathy's to pick that up for me...

Anonymous said...

The look on her face is so priceless. I'm going to be giggling about that all day. And looking at my kid, wondering just when I'll see that face for the first time. I already get the eye rolls and exasperated "Mooommm" (I suppose it's cause she learned from my bad example).

Cute hat! Great award! Here's to knitting through our stashes and staying web saavy enough to help protect our kidlets!

weezalana said...

Eye duhnt thiynk the internetts mayking mi duhmmer..

Very cute hat! She's supposed to look exasperated by you. Inside, she loves it. ;)

Veronique said...

Wiener!
Love Tween Thing's facial expression.

nova said...

I am a weiner too. And I heart the hat. Good stuff.

Amy said...

The whole internet-gap thing makes me want to stick my head in the sand. All I can do is hope that I raise Jacob and future-kids with enough sense to weed out the bad sites like I used to weed out bad people.

(And I love the expression on her face in that hat picture!! Reminds me of my own old days...)

Anonymous said...

The award is priceless!

Looks like a typical Tween if you ask me. The hat does look great though... even on that "face". LOL

Sonya said...

She really does have that look of disdain down pat, doesn't she? Great hat, BTW.

Anonymous said...

"The Internet is Taco Bell for the intellect"

LOVE IT!

Make a run for for the firewall!

Jennie said...

You make my day! I love your posts. :)

Angela said...

That episode is waiting for me on TiVo. I have a friend whose 10- and 12-year-olds hardly spend any time online. They make up for it with tons of craptastic television, just like many of us did in the "old days" before the internet. (I wonder if watching hours of television is better or worse than hours on the computer. Given the huge scope of programming, cable television is a very different world than when there were three VHF stations and two UHF stations and they aired three episodes of The Brady Bunch in a row!)

When I was in high school, we had Commodore 64. I turned it on once and realized that it didn't actually do anything, so it was back to General Hospital for me. Those were also the days when a mobile phone meant putting a 6' cord on the one hanging on the kitchen wall...

Knittymuggins said...

Love the award! Thanks for sharing :) The hat looks fantastic too! Have a great weekend....

knittymuggins

Anonymous said...

The technology gap terrifies me. I mean, I wrote my college papers* on a typewriter, for the love of the Stone Age! I can't begin to get my head around how things have changed.

*always at the very last minute. OK, some things NEVER change.

schrodinger said...

The whole tech thing is really scary to me - no matter how hard I try to keep up, I feel ancient and totally out of touch.

KeanaLee said...

Love it, & Iloove things you can knit with size 15 needles, such a plus!

Yarnhog said...

I've concluded that, like it or not, the internet is an integral part of modern society, and not knowing how to use it makes a person as functionally-illiterate as not being able to read or do simple math. My kids (7 and 10) both got laptops with wireless internet access for Christmas. They are only allowed to use them in the family room with a parent in the room. I keep them on a pretty tight leash; they don't have email accounts and aren't allowed to visit social sites like MySpace or Facebook. As scary as it is, just like with sex, drugs, or driving, a parent is better off telling his or her kids the truth than letting someone else feed them lies.

Anonymous said...

You know I totally think you deserve the award!

Fantastic hat!

Elspeth said...

I saw that episode too, but the parents there also seemed really clueless. Even more disturbing to me was the Frontline episode about kids on medication. That was truly scary to me.