5KCBWDAY6 - Views of Others, Views of Yourself

Day Six (Saturday 17th May): Views Of Others, Views Of Yourself.

(Here are some picks from our wandering in Bridgnorth, to avoid an overly text-heavy post.)

Before making my own blog, I spent a lot of time looking through the gorgeous blogs of Alison Brookbanks, Severien, and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (among many others).

They are each very skilled knitters and designers, with their own unique voice and world. Alison's photos and design sensibility is moody and minimal which appeals to me. Severien's projects are gorgeous, and her writing voice is simple and friendly. Her posts feel like letters to a good friend!  Stephanie's writing style helped me understand that it's okay to not have a perfectly curated and monitored personality for people to take interest in you or appreciate what you have to do! The good she does(with the help of her generous readers!) through her craft and other pursuits, shows how much you can help from wherever you are and can do. Having wonderful knitters and bloggers, helped me out of lurking to just go on and share what I love.

I began knitting a relatively short time ago, and remember pretty clearly the kinds of reactions to it I received. Some were surprised. “You? Knitting?!” (I don’t come off as the type to take up what people would expect to be a delicate, feminine hobby I guess). But the general opinion’s been positive and at least a little bit supportive. :]

It wasn’t until I began selling at craft shows that I got some negative responses to what I do, and it’s usually when they find how much it would cost them to own one of my knits. I’ve had people slam them down on the table like it’s on fire when they hear how much they cost (thankfully yarn doesn't shatter), some straight up laugh in my face, some even politely telling me that they don’t see why this  6-foot-long scarf should cost any more than about $15 because it cost about as much at H&M. I owe it to a lack of understanding of the amount of work and care that goes into these pieces, even if those words really bite. I do what I can to let people know about what goes into making my work, but when all is said and done, Bapsicrafts isn’t for everyone. So I try to let the comments roll off my back, and appreciate the world to me that’s made from the people who happily made my knits a part of their lives. :]

Those who are a little closer to me (read: put up with my knitting while outside or in class) have been super wonderful and supportive of me as a knitter. My mom shelled out a quite a bit of money on these enormous skeins of Red Heart when I was 13 and only dabbling, I’d guess she’s secretly glad that one of the hobbies I suddenly took interest in when I was younger is showing up as a part of my life as a young adult. She and my dad seemed very impressed when I showed off my first finished sweater (which I still have to photograph and make a proper post about!)

Jason for one has been a great supporter of my work too. He tells me that his Christopher hat got compliments often and when asked where he bought it, he’d proudly say that his girlfriend handmade it! He almost never leaves the house without it on, which really makes my heart swell to know!

I think it helps a ton to share what all goes into the craft of knitting. He was very receptive and patient when I ranted about the MILES of yarn I had to frog one night, or my daily gushing about wool socks. He happily held still for measurements, and got to see a yarn he picked out be very steadily and carefully transformed into gloves or socks or a hat. And he was about as upset as I was to find a now cat-sized hat come out of a dryer it shouldn’t have been in in the first place.

An understanding non-knitter is the best kind of person I can knit for and know. I think there’s no better feedback than that moment you catch someone dear to you remembering to set a hand-wash-only piece aside so no accidents happen, or beam when someone says a nice thing about their gloves :]

This post is part of Eskimimi Makes' 5th Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week. To find posts by other participating bloggers, simply google 5KCBWDAY6 and explore away!