Subversive Knitting

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Subversive Knitting

I love the idea of subversive knitting, knitting to "subvert the dominant paradigm," as one of my favorite bumper stickers says. I can hear some of you asking, "What the heck does that mean?"

The dominant paradigm is the popular mode of thinking, and to me that can be summed up in one word: consumerism – the idea that my main purpose in life is to be a consumer, to buy things, to put my money into the economy, to fill someone else's pocket.

My computer’s thesaurus gives these synonyms for subversive:

• Dissident
• Rebellious
• Revolutionary
• Insubordinate
• Seditious

I suppose these are considered negative traits by many people, but I don’t see them that way. I see rebellion against consumerism as a high road to generosity and personal satisfaction. Making things turns us into producers instead of consumers.

As every knitter knows, making something from scratch is immensely satisfying.

And making something to give away is the ultimate in generosity.

Earlier this year, I read "Knitting Socks for the Revolution" by Sigrid Arnott in For the Love of Knitting. Sigrid is an addicted sock knitter. She loves her hand-knitted socks so much, that she mends socks. One day she casually mentioned this while standing on line at the fabric store and shocked everyone out of their own socks. "Why would you mend socks," they asked, "when you can get five pairs for less than five dollars at Wal-Mart?" Sigrid explained that she only mends the socks she's knitted herself. This caused even more derision. Why on earth would anyone knit socks these days? It can take weeks to knit a fine pair of socks, and time is money. Or is it? Making socks by hand takes so much time, it reduces your hourly worth to pennies. But the results cannot be bought.

If you've never tried on a pair of hand-knitted wool socks, you are missing a comfort that cannot be explained in words. Sigrid claims that by ignoring the availability of cheap socks, she is being revolutionary. By making things ourselves, whether simple socks, cabled sweaters, felted bags, or fair-isle hats, we are opting out of capitalism. Although most of us buy our yarn (my mother spins most of hers!), we support privately-owned local yarn shops instead of multinational retail giants. And if we join a local stitch-n-bitch group, we build community instead of disappearing into anonymity.

Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice and this coming Sunday will be Christmas and the first day of Hanukkah. I recently read Handknit Holidays by Melanie Falick and Betty Christiansen. The book is full of gorgeous patterns for gifts, holiday decorations, garments, and accessories for year-round holiday knitting. While the book includes patterns for many different holiday traditions, one refreshing theme throughout its pages is the idea of celebrating the Winter Solstice as a way to focus on family and friends instead of frantic commercialism. This was my favorite part of the book.

For the past several years, I have been sending home-made gifts to my family and friends. From jams and pickles canned from garden produce, to hand-knit chenille towels and hand-made, herb-scented soaps, I have been trying to spend time during the year thinking about my loved ones as I create special gifts that come from my heart instead of from the nearest discount store. I found enough wonderful gift-knitting ideas in Handknit Holidays to last at least a decade.

I have celebrated Christmas for my whole life, but this year the hostility of the religious right toward anyone who says "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons Greetings" instead of "Merry Christmas" has totally killed the Christmas spirit for me. What once was a cheerful greeting has been co-opted as the war-cry of extremists. Instead of spreading peace and joy in this season, too many people are spreading anger as they try to force everyone else to celebrate their version of the Christian winter holiday. This is something that touches all of us, including knitters. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Yarn Harlot extraordinaire, has even received hate mail and death threats for supporting an international winter concert held at her children's school on her knitting blog.

With all of this hostility heaped on top of the already distasteful commercialism, I have lost all interest in celebrating Christmas. This year I'm skipping the holidays completely, but I think in the future I will enjoy the solstice and celebrate the cycles of the seasons with my loved ones.

Although the holiday season is almost over for this year, I hope you will consider making some of your own gifts next year. Whether we celebrate Kwanza, Hanukkah, or Christmas, or choose to abandon the more commercial holidays and enjoy the season by celebrating the Winter Solstice,

let's spread peace and joy through the works of our hands.