IGNORANCE

Some very nice ladies I know on a knitting list have got rather miffed. These ladies are expert machine knitters. They joined another knitting list and were met with unfriendly attitudes to say the least.

Why?

Due to the fact they machine knitted and therefore were neither talented nor fit to be on the list they chose to join!

This attitude is still common. It is most unfortunate. It is an attitude based upon ignorance and intolerance. Not to mention immaturity. This attitude is rarely displayed by a machine knitter to a hand knitter, possibly because machine knitters are also hand knitters.

Hand Knitting and Machine Knitting are two DIFFERENT crafts.

One is not the slow version of the other.

To be done well, both require talent and skill.

Both require to be thought out in advance. Both need to be swatched for. Both need to be finished.

One can do by machine what cannot be done by hand. One can do by hand that which cannot be done my machine. One can even use both skills in the making of one garment.

For some the prejudice is as simple as 'using a machine' yet these same people would not hesitate to use a sewing machine and are not of the opinion that the great designers of clothing should be sitting there with a needle and thread making their Haute Couture clothing without a sewing machine in sight.

This prejudice is both ignorant and stupid. it makes the holder of the opinion look daft.

There are fantastic talents to be found in both crafts. Each ought to be admired and held up for us all to aspire too. Each can be learned from and each are already a source of education and inspiration to those of us who take our art seriously and who glean our muse from wherever we find it.

We ought not to be dismissing a craft with such disdain when we will be the ones who are detracted from as a result.