Women’s Studies 375
17 April 2008
Crafting Gender on the Internet
A new phenomenon is sweeping the blogosphere: knitblogs. More and more people are blogging about their knitting and crochet projects and they are garnering more and more readers. This increase is facilitated, in part, by an increase in the number of knitters. Knitting is increasingly popular, especially among young people. There are (finally) patterns designed to appeal to younger people’s sense of style and a wide variety of yarns to make them in. Numerous crafting communities have also contributed to the popularity of knitting among young people. Craftster.org, livejournal.com and ravelry.com are all home to thriving communities of knitters and other crafters. Since I learned to knit last summer, I have spent a lot of time at each community and have spent lots of time knitting in public. The variety of comments this activity seems to warrant have surprised me and I wondered whether other knitters experienced similar things. I created a questionnaire[1] about knitting in public and posted it on a variety of knitting and crocheting communities. The response was overwhelming! Over one hundred and fifty people filled out the survey and many had interesting and profound comments. The data from this study were analyzed and compared to my own experience. Smaller groups within the data were also examined.
Livejournal.com is a network of journals. One can create a journal and/or create a community to post about just about anything. A variety of communities have been created around crafting. I posted my survey in two of these: homespun helpers and 20s knitters. Homespun helpers was created to bring people together to donate handcrafted items to charity. Items can be donated to any charity and all sorts of crafts count towards the group goal: four thousand items by the end of 2008. Last year the group donated 3,201 items to various charities across the globe. 20s knitters is a place for young knitters to discuss yarn, patterns, knitblogs or anything related to knitting. Using this community to collect data may have skewed my data younger, but I really was interested in young people’s experiences with knitting in public.
Ravelry.com is a
new community that is truly revolutionizing the way people find information
about knitting, crocheting and spinning. It is driven by user input and allows
one to search through other people’s finished projects. You can see what yarn
they used, whether the pattern was easy to follow, how the finished object fit and
whatever changes they made to the pattern. You can also search by yarn and get
ideas for how to use that lovely skein that was just calling your name. In
addition to places to show of your latest creation or yarn acquisition, there
are also groups and forums on ravelry. Groups can be created for just about any
common interest: location, field, political party or affiliation, fans of a
film or actor. I posted my survey in three groups on ravelry: Knoxville
Ravelers, Queer Revelry and This is What a Feminist Knits Like. Knoxville
Ravelers is place for crafters from
One hundred and
fifty-five people responded to the survey. They came from all across the
Each category is rather similar to the group as a whole but there are some slight differences. The age difference among the groups does not seem to be significant. However, people of color reported knitting in public much more frequently than any other small group or the big group. This group also had the highest average value for how non-knitters respond to knitting in public. These values could be correlated, but rough analysis of the data seems to suggest that it is not. The scatter is very wide and the r2 value or correlation coefficient is very low. The sub-group with the lowest average response to knitting in public was those with lots of tattoos. The response to men was slightly higher, but neither is that different from the overall average. However, many knitters wrote that people responded very strangely to them knitting in public. It seems that the adverse reaction to knitting in public is relatively rare overall. However, these reactions often make the most interesting stories. The disconnect that sometimes exists between the numerical value for response to knitting in public and verbal response to the same question may reflect this phenomenon.
I knit in public
almost every day and people seem to know me as “that girl who knits all the
time.” My classmates ask me about my projects, sometimes even when I’m not
knitting. When knitting around campus, people I don’t know also comment. For
this project, I tried to keep some consistence in the project, but I finished
things too quickly to always be working on the same thing. However, almost
every project was made in the round with double pointed needles. Double pointed
needles stick out in all directions and seem very intimidating to non-knitters
(and many knitters!). I worked on a series of child sized mittens, baby socks
and socks for adults. I tried once to knit in public off campus, but no one
responded at all. I mostly knit in the library (on the couches on the first
floor) and the
During this experiment, I only got responses while knitting and wearing tie-dye. There are a couple of possible explanations for this. People could be responding to the mismatch between their ideas of a person who wears tie-dye and a person who knits. It could also just mean that I wear a lot of tie-dye! The most common question was some variation on “What are you knitting?” Interestingly, people also ask this question when I am not knitting but crocheting. Then I get to explain the difference between the two crafts. One sock project garnered more responses than any other. I used a brightly colored sock yarn with blues, yellows and greens. It really stands out and people seem to notice it. The most common comment while working on this project was about the lovely colors of the yarn.
Several knitters
in my survey noted that socks seem to garner lots of comments. They are
frequently made on double pointed needles, which looks much harder than it is.
Also, sock yarns are often very beautiful and brightly colored. However, socks
may be overrepresented in projects worked on in public. They are very portable
and often can be done without a pattern. Also, you can never have too many
hand-knit socks! The following story about knitting socks in public was told by
a female video game designer from
I think my favorite experience of this nature was when I was working on a pair of jaywalkers in a crazy ass bright orange/purple colorway, and a middle age man approached me and asked me what I was working on. I said a pair of socks, and he asked if they were for a child. I said no, they were for a friend my age. He said, well, you sure couldn’t buy those in a store. That made me happy because even lots of knitters don’t see the appeal in knitting socks, and that guy got it.
This story shows both the power for color to attract attention from non-knitters and some of the reasons that young people choose to knit. In this age of mass production, people yearn to wear unique items. Even if two knitters use the same pattern and same yarn, their finished objects will be different. Patterns can be altered very easily and yarns substituted, making knitted items even more unique.
Many knitters
wrote that one of the main reasons they continue to knit is the “unique
factor.” We want to deck ourselves and our friends and family with something
that no one else has. Because hand crafts also take much longer than picking
something up at the store, we are showing how highly we value these
relationships. One respondent from
Backlash against the stereotype of knitters is very strong among those who responded to my survey. Some people revel in defying the stereotype and many are extremely frustrated when others try to put them in boxes. Lots and lots of female knitters wrote that non-knitters ask them about whether they are knitting for kids and whether they have kids. A young woman from Lisle, IL wrote:
I don't know if it is because I knit or not, but you would not believe the number of questions I get at work about having a baby. It is as if people assume that because I knit (which I do on lunch or in the event of a power outage, not during my regular workday) and can do "domestic" things I must be ready to have babies RIGHT NOW.
Another knitter in Port Orchard, WA wrote, “But really, people tend to assume I'm making baby blankets or baby booties or baby hats most of the time, not realizing I'm making shoulder bags and armwarmers with skulls and crossbones.”
I can echo this type of experience. Last week, I was working on a baby sock before class started and one of my classmates, after learning it was a baby sock, asked if I was having a baby. I said, “Hell, no!” Another student made a comment that took the conversation in a completely different direction, but it would have been interesting to see how he responded to my reaction. While waiting for a film to start at Hodges Library, I was knitting a baby sock and a friend of a friend asked about my project. This led to a question about whether it’s for my baby. When I replied that I’m never going to have kids, he said “Never say never.” I replied, “Never, ever.” He left it at that, but I wonder what prompted him to ask in the first place. I really don’t understand why people feel the need to question my reproductive choices. I wonder if other knitters get more comments about whether they are having kids from men or women.
Since knitting is
primarily viewed as a feminine activity, knitters are often expected to be
girly-girls. Non-knitters expect us to love babies and want lots of them. Women
who defy the expectation to want kids often catch a lot of flack, but it seems
to be even worse for women who knit. The feminization of knitting is probably
the main reason that male knitters sometimes get strange reactions from other
knitters and the public at large. A male knitter fro
As with just about everything, hindsight seems to be 20-20. The questions could have been better and posting the survey in more places would have gotten more responses. The age brackets for the survey were rather wide. This could have contributed to the skew towards young people. The question about local yarn stores seemed to confuse a lot of people. I wanted to know how people are received when they go into a yarn store for the first time. I have read stories of people being received very poorly by yarn store owners and employees. Men, young people, and folks with tattoos or “weird” hair are sometimes not received well. I was really overwhelmed by the number of responses I got but would have liked to hear from more men. If there had been more time, I would have posted the survey in more groups and also at craftster.org. Also, I could have created a survey that would compile the data for me. There are a variety of sites that provide this service for free and I actually took a survey about knitting and ravelry that was automated. At the same time, I’m not sure that these sites would allow me to subdivide the data to my choosing.
Despite some improvements that could be made in the design of the survey, I think this project was very successful overall. I learned a lot about my online knitting communities. Even though we are so different in many aspects of our lives, we are all knitters and can do really amazing things when we come together. Less than two hundred people came together to donate over three thousand hand rafted items to charity in 2007. When the Yarn Harlot (a popular knitblogger and author) asked people to donate to Doctors Without Boarders, over four hundred thousand dollars was raised. Ravelry users donated over thirty thousand dollars to pay back Jess and Casey, who created the site. (Let me note here that they paid for servers and the domain name out of their own pockets and Casey did most of the coding himself!) One hundred and fifty-five strangers took time out of their days to fill out a survey to help me with a class assignment. This project reaffirmed my faith in the value of knitting and the goodness of knitters.
Knitting Research Survey
Hi! I’m a student at the
Thanks for your time!
- Gender
- Age: under 18, 18-30, 31-45, 46-60, over 60
- Location:
city, state or province, country e.g.
- Field: e.g. Biology
- Occupation: e.g. College Student
- Race:
- Do you have any visible tattoos and/or piercings? If yes, please elaborate.
- How often do you knit in public(KIP)?
1(less than once a month) 2 (once a month) 3 (2-3 times per month) 4(once a week) 5 (several times a week)
- Where do you KIP? (list all that apply)
Public transportation, school, work, restaurants and bars, coffee shops, yarn stores, other(please elaborate)
- Do strangers approach you, while KIPing, to discuss knitting?
- How do strangers seem to feel about your knitting/KIPing?
1(very negatively) 2(somewhat negatively) 3(neutral) 4(somewhat positively) 5(very positively)
- How do strangers seem to feel about your knitting/KIPing? (open response)
- When going to a new local yarn store, what kinds of reactions do you get?
- Additional comments
Charts and Tables:
Table 1: Average responses
|
Category |
Age* |
Frequency# |
Response^ |
|
All |
2.341935 |
3.916129 |
4.033333 |
|
International
(non US) |
2.357143 |
3.964286 |
3.903846 |
|
Male
Dominated Fields |
2.307692 |
3.480769 |
4.25 |
|
People
of Color |
2.2 |
4.333333 |
4.433333 |
|
Men |
2.272727 |
3.909091 |
3.909091 |
|
Tattooed |
2.210526 |
3.815789 |
3.875 |
* 1=under 18, 2=18-30, 3=31-45, 4=46-60, 5=over 60
# 1=less than once a month, 2=once a month, 3=2-3 times per month, 4=once a week, 5=several times a week
^ 1=very negatively, 2=somewhat negatively, 3=neutral, 4=somewhat positively, 5=very positively
Chart 2: Frequency vs Reaction (Everyone)
