Asshats abound. You can find them anywhere. The typical asshat will have his head so far up his ass that he is eating his own appendix. That is the mark of a true asshat.
Allow me to explain.
The Anti-Craft is my favorite above all favorites of online crafting zines. I admit I’m kind of biased becuase they have a forum, and I spend almost every hour of every day, logged into that forum. We’re a true community, filled with support for each other in endeavors other than crafting, although a significant amount of time is spent talkign about any kind of craft you can imagine. I myself haunt the sewing, knitting, wordsmithing, and Haute Cuisine sections of the forum, as well as the general chat areas.
But nonetheless, we’re all one big online family, unlike SOME forums that are big and impersonal. I have two “adopted” sisters, an online mom..Not to mention the crazy perverted couple that lives next door and the crazy child hating person that lives across the street.
But all of this is brought together by the lovely women (and men) who make up the Anti-Craft editorial & creative staff, and the knitters, crocheters, and cook-ers (yes.) who submit to the magazine, giving it the content that we crave.
You have to understand, this is something I love and Care about. The Anti-craft (and the AC community) is my dearest friend(s) right now.
One other thing you have to know, is that I really enjoy knitting, cooking, and sewing. Even though I’m a..Subversive? Anti-Mainstream? Certainly not definitively “Punk” or “Goth”. But I don’t like pink fru-fru shit. I like bats and skulls and crossbones..I have ties to the punk and goth community. But I still enjoy these crafty skills. Just becuase I want to wear black pants with chains all over them does not mean I have to pay 50 dollars for them.
So when someone like Steven Wells attacks something that I know and love and enjoy, and basically calls me (and loads of other people I know) something I’m not, that’s when I get ANGRY.
I’m talking about two articles that Steven Wells has written.
1) The Rise and Fall of Adolf Knitler
2) Punk Knitting: Has Youth Culture Gone Mad?
Read those, then come back to me.
Read them?
Don’t you feel like you need a shower?
Seriously, It’s people like this that make me afraid to step out my front door without a handgun, a heavy stick, or more apropriatly, two very sharp and pointy sticks. And string. Lots of string.
From my point of view, Steven Wells is either jealous of out talents. Have you seen some of the stuff that people can crank out? I’ll admit, I cringe when i see a fun fur scarf made on a knitty noddy (ew.), or one more damned thing made with homespun. I laugh with the rest of them at G-DAWFUL mistakes like the ones fouind at What not to Knit and You Knit What?!
“Then there’s Anticraft, subtitled “Knitting, beading and stitching for the slightly sinister.” One can only assume they’re using “slightly” here to mean “not at all.” And that “anti” is a misspelling of “auntie.” “
Okay, I’m not going to go into detail here, but seriously. What about Craftster? I don’t see him hootin’ and Hollerin’ about how “Anti” it is, and it’s older than Anti-Craft! “No Tea Cosies without Irony!” is their slogan. Snarkiness abounds at Craftster, and their projects are no less “Subvervise” than what you find at the AC.
Also, I take personal offense to being called a Knit Nazi. Knit Nazis, IMHO, are the stuck up bitches who say “YOU HAVE TO USE THE RECCOMNDED YARN. AND IT HAS TO BE SILK/WOOL/BAMBOO. OMG.” They Heil the makers of Cascade, Noro, and Rowan yarns. NOT that I don’t like them, they are nice yarns, but way to expensive for someone cheap like me.
Here’s what it boils down to, Mr. Wells:
Punk is, at it’s heart, a DIY culture. Seat falling out of your pants? Hold it in place with a net of safety pins. Cold hands, need to use your fingers? Chop up an old pair of gloves. Want a skirt but all you have is an old pair of pants? Cut the seat and crotch, add some pretty/awesome fabric, and make a skirt. Don’t have the 25 dollars for that “Ramones” hat? Knit one! Yarn & sticks are by far cheaper, and you can make it look how the hell ever you want.
Seriously, I think he’s the type of person who hangs out Hot Topic becuase it’s “Punk.”
The Ramones shake their middle finger at you, Mr Wells. And I’m sure Joey’s Mom knitted him plenty of sweaters with the Anarchy symbol on them.
