WOYWW 508

Still organizing the house. My current crafty space is me camping on the sofa. My current knitting project, the Dracenfels shawl in its project bag. Camping because

Gertrude is totally freaked out by the noises upstairs. She's great with fireworks and thunderstorms, but not prolonged wind. Nope. Not one bit.

Head over to Julia's Stamping Ground more crafty peeks : D.

WOYWW 506

Dreaming of beachy days. The project bag is from Mothy.and.the.Squid who also dyes yarns fabulously. The shawl (Drachenfels by Melanie Berg) is chock full of blissful garter stitch, but lacey stuff is in the next on the list. This was supposed to be my first full sized shawl, but I succumbed to the siren song of all that is WestKnits, and made one totally out of my depth. I am a slow and persistent knitter lol. Also I am reorganizing the entire house, so there is chaos except here in my knitting bag and a few spindles.

About last week, when I said I'm learning to sit in my discomfort, I should have been more specific. I'm learning to just listen to things like other people's anger and pain even though it makes me uncomfortable. I do it so they know they are heard. I was raised with the expectation that people, especially women should make people feel better by saying things like, "it'll be better" or offering "solutions" which can make the people speaking feel shut off and unheard. Just wanting to be clear, I'm not wearing a hair shirt or anything.

Head over to Julia's Stamping Ground for more crafty peeks.

WOYWW 505

Not a lot has been happening at my desk lately, mostly I have been knitting. And surprisingly, I have become a monogamous knitter lol. I finished knitting Briochelicious (but I still have to weave in the ends and block it), then I started a shawl that was above my paygrade, and could not figure out a bit, and since I love the yarn so much (from Wing and a Prayer Farm) I unraveled it and will try again after I gain a bit more lace / keeping count experience. Now I am knitting Drachenfels which has lots and lots of wonderful garter stitch. So the bag has some things that need to be put away, there is also my handy dandy woodburner, some Distress Oxide Inks, Tim Holtz Ideology Roses ready for their project, etc.

Also, there have been some very important conversations on Instagram in the yarn/fiber/knitting/crochet community about the importance of representation and inclusion. It all started when someone wrote a very uninformed post about going to India, and "othered" the shit out of it and the people who live there. When she was called out, she did not take accountability and apologize at first. Her initial response was to become defensive and paint herself as the "victim". People of Color wrote about all the times they have been ignored or worse while participating in yarn stores and other fiber places. Then came the "can't we all knit together" posts and videos or worse the "I am a white supremacist who does stuff with yarn but I'm really vague about so I'll add links to racist videos but still not say the word 'race' ". Even today a prominent knitting supply company asked people to talk about their crafty problems, and then blocked and deleted the comment of a person who said racism in the knitting world.

The book White Fragility (available as real books and digitally) breaks down why these discussions are so hard for so many people. It is a really good read. And there is a workbook by Layla F. Saad called #meandwhitesupremacy which is chock full of good information.

I've learned to sit in my discomfort more comfortably if that makes sense. The biggest roadblock for me to overcome was getting over the "but *I* am not racist" to understanding there is a system of white supremacy in place which is more insidious than burning crosses on lawns. It is all about stifling all discussion that doesn't prop it up. For the sake of brevity, I'll just say we as crafters need to be on the right side of this. We are more likely to twist our ankles when we sweep things under the rug : ). There is room for everyone. We can grow from discomfort. It is a great opportunity, I hope it is not wasted.

For more peeks into crafty spaces, head over to Julia's Stamping Ground.