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Are You a Writer Who Knits or a Knitter Who Writes?

Are You a Writer Who Knits or a Knitter Who Writes?

Learning to knit in the past few years, I’ve now got a great collection of knitting blogs in my feed reader. While I’m reading the blogs to learn more about knitting, I’m learning a lot about everything else, including blogging.

In Lamb and Frog’s Knittus Interruptus post, Amber wrote:

Yes, yes, I know. A lot of politics, precious little knitting. What can I say?

Lorelle says “Blog your passion.”

Brenda says “Start as you mean to go on.”

That’s not to say that politics is my (only) passion and that I mean to go on ranting about politics forever. But, as I said in the book review, I’m addicted to democracy. I love this country and the ideas and ideals upon which it was founded. And, after much introspection, I have decided that I am a writer who knits…not a knitter who writes. I can live without knitting…heck, I might even be able to manage living without knitting and crochet. A lifelong ban on those two addictions hobbies would leave me more time for gardening (or as I & the rest of the working class call it…yardwork) and baking. I cannot, however, live without putting what is racing around my head down on ‘paper’…

Do you feel that way?

Are you a writer who knits or a knitter who writes? A doctor who blogs or a blogging doctor? Or maybe you’re a writer who blogs, not a blogger who writes. Even more confusing, eh?

In 2007, Wil Wheaton, actor, author, and blogger, finally came to terms with whether he worked best as an actor or writer or actor-slash-writer. This was magnified when he got a part in the television series Numb3rs as a comic book creator and bad guy. Wrestling with the two sides of his work life, he admits:

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…yeah, I know. Weird, isn’t it? For the rest of this week, I’m a working actor. Don’t tell anyone, but I’ll be thinking of myself as a writer the entire time, and not just because it serves the character.

Many of us lead two or more distinctly different lives, but when we come to our blogs, who are we? Amber got it right, as did Wil.

The true definition of what you do, especially with your blog, is defined by your need to “get it down on paper” and share it with others. Your blog is a form of virtual paper, and the need to share our thoughts with the public is what blogging is all about. It’s the difference that makes or breaks a blogger over the long haul.

It doesn’t matter how many lives we have or labels we or others give us. If we choose to blog, we have a writer’s instinctive desire to “put it down on paper” and share it with others. That puts the blogger or writer in our job description – and our life.

View Comments (12)
  • Oh my God! You quoted me! I’m so freaked out. Sorry, but it’s like being quoted by the Yarn Harlot (a knitting rock star for you non-knitting readers).

    Thanks for reading (and let me know if you’re on ravelry).

  • I’m a comic book reader who blogs. I’m also a Chaplain, who has a blog. I think if the blogger part came first, I would be neglecting what is truly important. It would be getting a quick, cheap fix over something that I truly value.

  • Lorelle,

    What if you can’t knit? I can crochet with the best of them… can turn a straight piece of yarn (or fabric scraps thank to my great-grandmother) into works of art… but not by knitting.

    Is the same true for blogging? Are we, in our infinite short-sightedness, excluding alternate forms of publication by admitting bloggers to a secret club? What about alternative forms of knowing? Are they not viable in the community of bloggers?

    Education is struggling with this concept at the higher levels. What qualifies knowledge to be complete and whole and valid? How is it displayed? How is it rejected?

    Western societies are hog-tied to the idea of a formally written dissertation complete with the standard 5 chapters. But what is a dissertation if not an expression and showcasing of knowledge sought and learned? Are other methods valid? I sure hope so… we’ll see how the Ed. community picks up on this in the next few years as words become open and knowledge becomes free of boundaries.

    Until then, I hope that bloggers and knitters alike can make way for the crocheters among us… just as education must make way for the fearful among the ranks… it’s all an interwoven blanket of communal wisdom after-all.

    HM

  • @chaplainandrews:

    This isn’t about right or wrong in choosing your labels or even having those labels put upon you. It’s about deciding for yourself what is MOST important in your life and what defines you, for your personal sanity. Many people struggle with their labels, but you are right. We can’t neglect what is truly important – and that is deciding for ourselves how we define ourselves.

    However, readers can spot insincerity and fake blogging. If you aren’t being honest with yourself via your blog, we notice. And we leave.

  • @Maston:

    As long as you are “exposing yourself” to your art, and others, who cares what labels are put upon you. Oh, that’s right. YOU care.

    The issue is choosing what you want to be, and how you want to define yourself by others rules and regulations. What fascinates me is how some people get stuck in the process of choosing and don’t move forward. Watching them decide for themselves how to define themselves gets them off the fence and onto the next thought.

    However, I’ve long held the believe that not everyone should blog, which is the real point of the post. Everyone should find their own passion, and if they choose to share it with the world, they better learn how how to technically share it well, but if you are a writer, write. If you are a knitter, knit. If you can do both, do it both. But if you aren’t a writer and you write, and you aren’t a knitter and you knit, who is hurt with the effort?

    Be yourself, whatever the label. And find passion in the doing not the labeling.

  • I recently realized how much I enjoy writing. So even though I’m not a “writer” by trade, I consider myself fortunate to have a job that’s about 75% writing and editing. And then I get to go home and write for pleasure. It’s pretty sweet.

  • Writers need to understand teh craft of writing. That’s why as a writer, I follow advice from professioanl writers:

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