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July 15, 2004
Why We Knit
So, I was looking around the web for song lyrics that mention knitting (I feel certain that I know some that I just can't call to mind), and I found an oldish blog entry on frizzylogic, a blog I've seen linked on several of the blogs I read. The title of the entry was "Knitting, poetry and genital inferiority", so of course I had to click on it! I loved the part about Anna Freud knitting as she psychoanalyzed patients.
I was vexed, however, to read (upon clicking through to Silas Wesley's article, Why Anna Knitted) that good old Sigmund felt that Anna knitted, "to hide her genital inferiority". Zowie.
I found Wesley's piece interesting, though I can't vouch for his theories about "mind-awareness", since I didn't read any of his other writing. The main point in this article that caught my attention was his observation that if Sigmund Freud wondered why his daughter knitted, well, he could just have asked her.
Imagine that! And imagine if contemporary journalists could learn the same lesson! Instead of speculating that we knit "because it's hip" or "to be like/to not be like grandma" or "to challenge the dominant paradigm", reporters writing articles about the "new yoga" just asked knitters, "Why do you knit?"
That would be most excellent. Since that might take a while, perhaps I'll turn my thoughts towards designing something to look like the kuba cloth picture I also found on that frizzylogic entry -- the strong diagonals sure do look like Fair Isle to me!
Posted by Rose at July 15, 2004 10:13 PM
Comments
Yeah, and with Sigmund's genital superiority, he smoked and took cocaine and got jaw cancer rather than producing lovely items of knitted material!
Posted by: Polly at July 16, 2004 12:08 PM
I'd like it if some of these knitting trend article authors would move on and find a new buzz knitter beyond Julia Roberts, personally. I have nothing against her, but the unoriginal and redundant mainstream statements about knitting (or anything, really) have had a tendency to wear my patience thin. More research, less stock phrases and filler!
Posted by: Mercedes at July 17, 2004 11:46 PM