Witty knitter

Shouting in the dark

I'm not sure who you are, Variegated who commented on a recent post. I've checked your blog but it's pretty anonymous - I gather you live in NSW and are a Guild member - and your Rav presence doesn't give much information either. Which is entirely your privilege, but it makes it hard to engage in conversation with you. I'd like to know more about TKGA and why you've joined and what the benefits are. I've read your blog entry, and I have a few comments.

The Guild Consitution, as I understand it (and I'm not an expert in state law but I have discussed this with people who are) doesn't meet the present requirements of state law and needs reforming, so it will be best if this is done with the new law in mind. I know that the committee has the ability to make changes to procedure that are requested by members, but for their own reasons they never do, preferring to believe that any changes called for, such as widening the ways that we can pay money to the guild and widening access to the Achievement Certificates, are not in the interests of the whole guild. There is a strongly expressed prejudice against anything that is to be found on the internet, and anyone who has taken the time to train in any profession, among a frightening number of the members who were at the SGM. Writing this makes it look ridiculous, and it is, but it's very real. Also, the guild has no mission statement, no formal committee structure, no disputes process, and no policy on pretty much anything that people expect from a voluntary organisation these days.

Speial General Meetings are not an ideal way to make changes; they are very expensive and they disenfranchise voters outside Sydney - I understand that state law doesn't presently allow for absentee or postal voting. The SGM last weekend shouldn't have been necessary - it was called only because there was a mistake with the sending out of papers for the AGM.

I hope this clears up a few things. Feel free to continue the conversation.

Another milestone

I finished a two-year knitting project just before we left, for my daughter, and it fits her. I'd almost given up blogging it, as it seemed to be the Never Ending Projoevt.

But it did end, and it did fit (even better after she'd moved the buttons), and she liked it. And here's the proof.

Finally - pics from New Zealand

Sorry this has taken me a week. It's been a busy one.

I've published the photos on my camera in this new photo album. I'll add the ones on Sandra's camera later and post here when I've done it.

I've now uploaded Sandra's pictures and they are interleaved with mine, arranged by date.

Socks and the politics of knitting

All of my knitting projects are moving along slowly. The Special General Meeting of the Knitters Guild of NSW yesterday was a good opportunity to work on socks, and I've now got quite a good way into my Blue Coffee socks (remember the Blue Chocolate ones?) The yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome, colour Java. Isn't it lovely? And the tight twist makes it perfect for one of the gansey patterns from Wendy Johnson's new book on toeup socks. Wendy's free generic toeup sock pattern is the only one I've ever used, with the modification of the Sherman Heel and toe, and although Wendy uses two circs and has added a few choices for the heels and toes, I've simply put the gansey texture into my old favourite pattern. I love this book of Wendy's; it has many patterns for socks that are interesting without being too tricky to concentrate on - I knit socks when I'm tired and don't want to concentrate on what I'm knitting.  However, Wendy knits her socks so tightly that I've had to modify the patterns, as they'd be too big for my foot at my preferred tension. I simply put a few less stitches in the sole of the sock, so that the pattern comes a little further down the sides of the foot. I like them firm in the foot and looser in the leg, so above the ankle I just follow her pattern.

It's difficult to explain what happened at the SGM, but writing it out here will help me to get my head aroun the issues. The reason for the meeting was to try to regularise the status of over 300 objects that has accumulated at the guild rooms over nearly 30 years, and which is usually referred to as 'the collection' or 'the archives'. They comprise knitted things, crocheted things, a few other hand-made objects, some artefacts such as old needles etc, and some vintage patterns. A few of the original members control access to these objects, which have not been categorised or curated in any way that a museum specialist would consider meaningful. No-one has any idea of their value (although many members who have not seen them are of the opinion that they must be 'priceless'), and they are not stored safely. There were many fears raised at the meeting, such as

• if it is discovered to exist, the whole collection could be suddenly whisked away to The Powerhouse (state museum of social history)
• if it is discovered to exist, it could become the target of thieves (especially if pictures of objects were uploaded to 'the computer')
• the only way to find out exactly what is in it and establish its social significance would be to spend a lot of the Guild's money on 'an expert' (I haven't heard the word 'academic' used as a swear-word by quite such a pleasant-looking women before!)
• this (mythical) need to spend money will have to be met by a tax on members
• if it is discovered to in fact be priceless and needing preserving, it will mean that it can't be handled, and thus can't used for teaching or exhibited by the guild (yes, we'll risk destroying it rather than discover if it might be worthy of preserving)

The voices of reason pointed out that all we were there to do was to pass an amendment to the constitution that would enable the executive to formulate a policy as to how to deal with the collection. They could then put forward a plan to list the purposes that parts of the collection might be put to, such as exhibition, education, preservation, and then maybe apply for a grant to get the objects analysed into the categories agreed to and properly organised, and formulate a future policy for what would be collected and how it would be used and stored. Local councils and the State Government are very keen to help with this kind of project.

In other words, the meeting wasn't really about the collection, but about how we needed to deal consitutionally with the fact that we seem to have one. A legal opinion sought and given by a member of the executive was ignored, the opinions of two people employed in museum work and one historian were ignored, while lots of passion was expended in telling stories about things that have happened since 1988, suspicions were subtly raised that it was really all about people wanting to spend "the members' money" curating the objects, the truly ignorant kept derailing the discussion with completely irrelevant points, and the vote was lost 15 votes to 28.

It was a really fascinating insight into the fear that so many older women have of 'experts', 'government', 'the internet' and many other things that I interact with in my daily life. They are simply not interested in the way that knitting guilds in other countries - or indeed other craft guilds in NSW - operate. They want everything to stay exactly as it has been for many years, or to change only at the pace that they are comfortable with and can control. The saddest thing is that they think they are represent knitting in NSW, whereas of course they are only a tiny minority of knitters, who have taken the time to incorporate and organise.

In time, of course, these issues will be resolved. The guild's constitution doesn't comply with present state law, and a law change later this year which mean a new constitution is needed or the guild will cease to be able to operate. In the course of this process many of the present constitutional lacunae will be closed and the guild will then begin to operate in a much more modern, accountable, transparent fashion. Or, it will die and be replaced with a properly-functioning organisation. The actual outcome is in the hands of the members, and after yesterday I think it is quite likely we will need to found a new guild.

More sad news

This morning Susan in Hong Kong messaged me to tell me that Witt Pratt has died suddenly in West Virginia. Witt was an early friend from the Gay and Lesbian Knitlist. He was a kind and generous man - I have two rare early Starmore books in my library which were a spontaneous gift from him. I never met him face to face, but we often fantasised about the dinner table we would collect if I ever made it back to the Northeast of the US. You can read an obituary here, which links to an interview about his love affair with yarn and sticks, and there's a lovely photo archive here. Rest in peace, Witt. You will be much missed by both your online and face-to-face friends, and of course most by your partner Gary.

Later: There are more tributes online now: here, and here.

One million women

There is a new campaign: to get one million Australian women to each reduce their personal carbon emissions by one tonne in a year. The website is here, but there's almost no information that would assist women who would like more information (you have to join to get that), and of course it completely excludes women who don't have access to the internet. All you can read is a list of women who've already joined, the biographies of the two women whose idea this was, and a list of partners, which includes an institute at my University, several governments, an impressive list of some big companies and major environmental groups.

I know this is important, and I know that we should all get involved, but I'd really like a campaign that gives each of us real information about how we can achieve this goal of cutting emissions rather than a touchy-feely website with celebrity endorsements and an organisation that we have to join to learn more.

And, mostly,  I completely agree with Johanna Garnett, a letter-writer to the Herald this morning, when she screams: "Oh my God! Don't women do enough of everything already?"

Blogging blahs?

I think I've finally hit them, after more than five years.

I could have reviewed the Sydney Theare production of When the Rain Stops Falling, a marvellous circularly-plotted play we saw a couple of days before we left. I could tell you how it drew us in and intrigued us and was sad and had lots to say about abandonment and love and forgiveness. But you can read about that elsewhere, or listen about it if you prefer.

I could have written something excoriating about bunning. But I didn't. A culture in which the men think it's OK to share women as sexual partners (will-she nill-she) and the girls who seem to think it's A Good Thing to have consensual sex with footballers, despite the known risks, is completely beyond me.

I could tell you about what idiots we were not to get our new phones enabled with global roaming before we went to NZ, so we had a low-tech week. It's surprisingly stress-free, being without phone, internet or text connection, once you get used to it. We did have a laptop and checked email once or twice a day - when we could get access, but we hardly missed the internet in all its glory. But that's boring, and so last week.

I could tell you that knitting is consuming me at the moment - I would just love not to have to go out to work, but instead to sit, peaceably, in my living room, listening to music or podcasts or audiobooks, feeling fibre moving smoothly through my fingers and watching garments slowly grow. But there's no point-  instead I struggle out of the door to work each day, and grab a few minutes of knitting at lunchtime or on the bus.

Hmmm, maybe the damn has broken. Maybe now you'll get pictures from New Zealand. We shall see.

Gloves! packing!

Sandra's gloves are finished, and just as well. The temperatures in New Zealand will be about 10C less then the ones we've been having here. Winter woollies are being packed.

Catch up when I can, dudes.

Some days I feel really smart

In the last few days, there seems to have been an avalanche of human error chez witty knitter. Are you sitting comfortably? Good; I'll begin.

Last week the fitter arrived to install our new blinds. We had ordered blinds that pull from the bottom up; he brought with him blinds, made exactly to the size of our window, that pulled from the top down. We kept them for the weekend and decided that we could live with them, as there are advantages to both systems. But where did that mistake occur? We've got the invoice, on which is written 'bottom-up'. His order sheet said 'standard', which apparently means top-down.

Yesterday Daniel tried to use the telephone banking system, and discovered that when he opened his account a couple of months ago someone had mis-recorded the date of birth he provided from his passport. He couldn't use the system, because he couldn't prove he was who he said he was - that's the basic test, apparently, and he couldn't pass it and get them to use other bits of information to further check his identity. As he was ringing them to try and sort out another human error that had caused another mistake in his account this was really frustrating. He was also turned away from the P.O. yesterday, because they said that a parcel for me isn't there, despite him having the card the postman has left to say it is there. (Apparently the assertiveness gene doesn't always get passed on.)

Yesterday, also, Sandra put the car in for the second time to trace a fix a fault that had the warning system beeping intermittently and irritatingly often to advise of a fault with seat belts or airbags. This time they assured her they'd fixed it. (That'll be $400, thank you, and no apology for the 1.5 hours and $50 cab fares caused by having to put it in for service a second time.) She came to pick me up, and we then discovered that the stem thing that the passenger clicks their seatbelt into was missing. Nothing there, under or behind the seat, zero, nada. I rode in the back like the queen. She refused to take the car back again, so they had to send someone out to her. Armed with spanners and screwdrivers he discovered the seatbelt fitting had been jammed under the centre console. He can't figure out how they managed to do that, as the console is fitted very tightly. No further charge.

Today at lunchtime I received an email that was sent to all students telling us we could log in to our new student email accounts at Microsoft Mail, with a new email address and our usual university-wide password. It didn't work, so put it aside to deal with later. About half an hour later another email was sent, this time with a personalised email address and a new randomly generated password. Using this I have since been able to log in (having been forced to accept the Microsoft terms of service), and have so far discovered that the instructions for forwarding mail (the only thing I care about) don't work.

Is Mercury retrograde or something? Some of these things are minor, but they've all added up to lost time, wasted money, stress and angst. If I ruled the world...

Not whingeing (yet)

Here's the back of Daniel's jumper. I'm about 1/3 of the way up the armhole section. The first picture shows the colours best; the second one gives some idea of progress and the third one shows the textured stitch details.

We're off to New Zealand for a week for my daughter Lizzie's graduation next Saturday and, as Lyn has written, the hardest thing can be figuring out what knitting to take. Sandra has gone so far as to start a new project for the trip: Ailsa's Rain stole in the most divine shade of deep red Zephyrspun. (Sorry, that second link is to Ravelry - I can't find one on the open knitternet.)

I am in awe of her lace knitting - mine is uneven and I find following the patterns difficult and stressful, rather than relaxing and calming. We've decided that she does lace, and I do colour. Seems like a fair kind of basis for a partnership to me.