This article from Psychology Today, titled "Excessive Knitting and Addiction" (2017) presents several inter-related aspects of the "sociology of knitting" from various academic papers.
Thoughts range from happy and supportive (therapeutic benefits, contributing productively to society, coping with stress, and positive addiction), to chilling (a possible "dark side of knitting" with true addiction).
Concepts of 'fabriculture' or craft culture are introduced, along with the craftivist movement & craftivism.
The article explores why knitting in public can make some some people feel uneasy and lead to denigration of the knitter(s).
Who knew..?!
Thoughts range from happy and supportive (therapeutic benefits, contributing productively to society, coping with stress, and positive addiction), to chilling (a possible "dark side of knitting" with true addiction).
Concepts of 'fabriculture' or craft culture are introduced, along with the craftivist movement & craftivism.
The article explores why knitting in public can make some some people feel uneasy and lead to denigration of the knitter(s).
... women who knit in public (such as during a lecture or a conference) are often castigated and/or ridiculed for their behaviour.
They even cited Sigmund Freud in relation to why knitting in public causes discomfort for onlookers:
They even cited Sigmund Freud in relation to why knitting in public causes discomfort for onlookers:
Freud institutionalized a concept denoting the jarring and disorienting effect of being spatially out of phase: unheimlich. The queasiness of the unheimlich occurs also when interiors become exteriorized (especially the home, as it also means unhomely).
Knitting in public turns the interiority of the domestic outward, exposing that which exists within enclosures, through invisibility and through unpaid labor: the production of home life.
Knitting in public also inevitably makes this question of space an explicitly gendered one. One commentator observes that knitting in public today is analogous to the outcry against breast-feeding in public twenty years ago (Higgins 2005). Both acts rip open the enclosure of the domestic space to public consumption. Both acts are also intensely productive and have generally contributed to women’s heretofore invisible and unpaid labor.
But could such an innocuous activity as knitting have such social ramifications? How disruptive can fabriculture be when crafting women are more in the public eye than ever before? Many of us may know that Julia Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow, Madonna, and other celebs knit.
Knitting in public turns the interiority of the domestic outward, exposing that which exists within enclosures, through invisibility and through unpaid labor: the production of home life.
Knitting in public also inevitably makes this question of space an explicitly gendered one. One commentator observes that knitting in public today is analogous to the outcry against breast-feeding in public twenty years ago (Higgins 2005). Both acts rip open the enclosure of the domestic space to public consumption. Both acts are also intensely productive and have generally contributed to women’s heretofore invisible and unpaid labor.
But could such an innocuous activity as knitting have such social ramifications? How disruptive can fabriculture be when crafting women are more in the public eye than ever before? Many of us may know that Julia Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow, Madonna, and other celebs knit.
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