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I have joined Ravelry.com and – wow!  It is so much fun, so fascinating, such a
cool way to connect with other knitters (and crocheters).  Sarah and I thought it would be a good idea
to join because knitting is a big part of our lives – and we thought it would
be good for us to be in touch with what other knitters are doing, thinking
about, etc.

But I had underestimated the impact that entering a knitting
community would have on my emotions.  I
kind of wanted to cry.  It was like the
first time I went to Stitches West – there were all these knitters and they
were knitting and talking about knitting and learning about knitting.  Actually, it is like every time I go to Stitches or Madrona (the fiber arts in Tacoma). 

I am blessed to have a daughter who knits – and trebly
blessed that we design and work together. 
And I have a good friend who knits. 
But otherwise, I have to rely on books, magazines, and blogs for my
connection to other knitters.  There are
knitting groups at our local yarn shop – which we keep saying we should look
into.  But now that I am not tied down to
my kids’ activities (school, ballet, sports, etc.), I am kind of exploring a
not-so-scheduled life.   I have several
weekly and monthly commitments – and that is enough for now.   As a
result, I have been suffering a bit from “vocation isolation.”

Here I was – blasting away at my knitting, projects piled
around me, a couple of actual commissioned pieces going, some design projects
that have me pretty excited, contemplating a major writing project about
knitting and design, blogging energetically about it all….And starting to feel
like maybe it is all kind of irrelevant. 

With the news filled with the economy, politics, the
environment, international relations, health issues, social issues…well,
designing the Magical Levitating Warty Bobble began to seem kind of pale and
insignificant.   Like I was devoting a
lot of my life to a little private game of sticks and string and mathematics.  And that maybe I, too,  was a little pale and insignificant. 

And then there was Ravelry.com.  Something like 200,000 other human beings
blasting away at their knitting – with passion and a sense of adventure and mad
skills and fortitude and humor. 
Wow! 

Maybe Olympic athletes feel this way at swim meets or skiing
competitions – after all the hours spent alone in the pool or on the
slopes.  Maybe they wonder what
difference a 100^th of a second means – and then they are out there
with flags waving and people cheering them on. 

Well, anyhow, that’s how I feel.  And I am pretty proud of my Magical
Levitating Warty Bobble and maybe the world is
a better place because there are hats and sweaters and little wooly animals
— cabled or intarsia-ed or bobbled or simply gartered into existence by people
who think outside the box and push the envelope, people who tinker and figure
and investigate, people who venture and envision and invest themselves in their work.

Art matters.  Artists
and Artisans matter.  Thank you,
Ravelry-ers, I had almost forgotten.