I've noticed (though forgotten where, in my aimless blog-browsing) that some people have had as surprisingly strong a reaction against the Mason-Dixon Knitting book as many people have had a strong reaction for it (as evidenced by the very active Knit-A-Long, see button at left). I find this really interesting.
I recognize the problems or gripes some people see with the book - as far as patterns go, there's a washcloth pattern that's been available free for eons on the Suger & Cream ball band, and log-cabining is an incredibly simple technique that has likewise been around for donkey's years. And a lot of the book is just sort of gabbing (much like the blog, also available for free), but not really coherent stories or jokes, like the Harlot's books. So some people wonder, reasonably enough, why are people paying hardcover prices for a book that doesn't seem to have much in it that you aren't doing or couldn't do for yourself?
As somebody who really loves the book, and now the blog (which I only discovered through the book), and has been making quite a few of the patterns and plans to make more, I feel like making a stab at explaining my personal response to it (not claiming to speak for others). This is really because I'm trying to figure it out myself. I'm so interested in the hugeness of knitting culture right now and how the whole phenomenon has developed, and I think the reactions this book gets are an interesting window into the culture.
I see the book not as either a pattern book, or a book about knitting that's meant for reading, like the Yarn Harlot's books, KnitLit or For the Love of Knitting, or America Knits. I think it's something different - not just something in-between, but something of its own. I think the M-D book offers an attitude about knitting, principally, and a lot of practical and immediately gratifying ways to go and play out that attitude right now. I also think it offers a really interesting bridge between what I'll call the New Knitting-as-Yoga culture or image, and the old Red-Heart-Knitting-for-Grandmas-and-Diehard-Crafters culture. Now, in naming two types of "cultures" relating to knitting, I'm not trying to say that every knitter falls into one or the other, or even on a scale between them. I think these are two ways knitting is marketed, mainly, and any particular knitter might be more or less attracted (or repelled) by either culture, or image, at any given moment.
Here's an example: me. I have been knitting long enough to remember the days when only Red Heart and Kitchen Cotton could be found at my local "LYS" (which was actually a sewing store). And we all still see what used to be the only kinds of patterns easily available every time we pick up an issue of Knitter's or similar magazines (Interweave Knits and Rebecca being the only regulalry available new-style print knitting magazines, bizarrely enough!). Then, light-years away from all that in look, style, and marketing, there's the new stuff. The fancy new LYS's popping up everywhere, filled with luscious built-in wooden shelves of natural fibers in every hue, tint and shade. The gorgeous new books coming out almost daily, filled with projects so breathtaking that you tear up when you look at them (and then really cry when you realize the recommended yarn required would add up to hundreds of dollars). As a student, I absolutely can't afford to indulge in yarn and projects at the level being marketed to me, and which act on my senses like chocolate-mousse cake or a bottle of $200 champagne. Yet, my senses rebel at the idea of making yet another hideous, unwearable sweater out of 100% acrylic that feels and looks like plastic. Also, since I'm supposed to be writing a dissertation right now, I really can't afford either the time or the mental energy to embark on the really ambitious and magnificently complex patterns that call to me, and to my ever-improving skills. (I know some people flourish and find renewed energy in challenging themselves this way, but I'm not one of them. In my enthusiasm for an especially challenging project, I get over-tired, make mistakes, get frustrated, stubbornly refuse to stop, make worse mistakes, etc....in no time, I not only haven't finished my knitting project, but I'm in no fit state to work on anything that requires even more concentration!)
This is where Ann and Kay at Mason-Dixon step in. None of the patterns in their book, I grant you, are terribly complicated, most not at all, and none of them require luxurious yarns, or very much yarn at all. Many of the patterns could easily be figured out or acquired for free by any late-beginning or intermediate knitter with internet access or a library card. What the book does is inspire and demonstrate an attitude toward patterns and materials that are not difficult or expensive, but which can yield results that you can really be proud of. Most of the patterns call directly for kitchen-cotton yarn, or can be made out of it. The most expensive yarn required in the book is 100% linen, which can be found far from high-end. Several projects make good, pleasing use of scrap fibers. The two biggest pattern features in the book, log cabins and mitered squares, can be made out of anything (and are great stash-busters). And this is the most essential point: once you've started thinking this way, once you've developed the attitude, it's only the beginning. Just looking at the blogs and the M-D KAL will tell you that the basic techniques and ideas discussed in the book have already blossomed in a million directions. This is knitting as it should be; as it is with Elizabeth Zimmermann's books or something like Leigh Radford's AlterKnits: the idea is to provide starting points, ideas and inspiration, rather than projects (with their implied beginnings, ends, and "right ways"). The starting points in M-D are much less intimidating than those in AlterKnits, and more obviously up-to-date than the stuff photographed in EZ's books (though of course EZ is timeless!).
It's knitting for when you're tired, maybe, or stressed, or short of time or space, and for those who are, shall we say, not necessarily about to turn professional artist, but not yet dead to the world of creativity, either (that would be me I'm describing). I can see why this type of thing might be dull or even annoying to those who have long been pursuing their creative muse on a higher plane, or who find relaxation in knitting only when challenged, or who revel more than anything else in using only the best materials and/or most fussy or inventive techniques. But that's not all of us, at least not all of the time.
In other words, using patterns, techniques, and even yarns from the Bad Old (but affordable) Days, Ann and Kay have beautifully photographed and narrated a bunch of fun, up-to-date, and satisfying projects that are pleasing to a young, urban eye (and most other kinds of eyes, too), totally afforable, and totally doable for people who have many other things on their minds. It liberates the poor, over-stressed knitter from the confines of the old boring-colored warshcloths and obvious uses for kitchen cotton, providing FOs that are cute, useful, and impressive, without asking too much of an investment in time, money, or difficult decision-making (even I can afford to buy a few extra colors to experiment with if we're talking about Peaches-n-Cream!).
So, sure, if I'd thought about it for a bit I could have thought of Absorba the bathmat all by myself. And if it had occured to me to buy Kitchen Cotton (despite the bad associations I'd had with it from my youth, and that first long-unfinished plain blue dishcloth), it might also have occured to me to buy it in a swank, interesting, new colorway, instead of automatically drifting toward the same colors I'd been taught to knit with when I was 7. And there are lots of days when I'm in a creative mood and I think of things all on my own that are just as cool. But there are a lot of other days when I'm thinking about other things, or not able to think, and when I'm desperately in need of knitting therapy that I can afford (in every sense). Mason-Dixon fulfills this need for me very nicely -- which I only realized when it occured to me that I've knit more patterns from that book than from any other knitting publication I've ever bought. And whereas I alter almost every other pattern I use, I've been blindly, and happily, knitting M-D objects pretty much exactly as told, or at least until I ran out of yarn. I and my family have loved and used everything I've made; even the World's Ugliest Dishcloth (see below) is pleasing in its own way, and that's saying a lot.
It's not the only knitting book in the world, and thank god for that. I still worship Elisabeth Lavold's book on Viking Knitting, and one of these days I really am going to make a sweater from it (especially if I can get the yarn from KnitPicks). I love all my knitting books for different reasons. Elizabeth Zimmermann may be my daily meat-n-potatoes, Lavold or Norsk Strikkedesign may be the decadent dessert that I only occasionally allow myself to contemplate. The Yarn Harlot, no question, is the salt that makes *everything* tasty. And I suppose Mason-Dixon is like the bread: I need some everyday, for filler between other, more complicated courses, for the comfy, full, down-home feeling it gives me. Crucially, what they've made is neither the heavy, impossible-to-digest "health" bread that was offered in my youth, nor today's fluffy, insubstantial pastry with the fancy marketing. It's like the good, soft, dense, mixed-grain bread you buy at the corner market, eat everyday, and mostly take for granted.
I guess this exercise has helped me to figure out why I like warshcloths so much all of a sudden. I wonder what you all think, though - feel free to leave a comment! I'm really glad those of you who commented already like my Absorba, and are thinking about making one too! It was so much fun, and the FO is so pleasing, that I'm now feeling energized enough to tackle the Lovely Sweaters That Don't Want to Felt and the already-described Gauge Disaster Sweater. Happy knitting!
Oh, and since this is a post without knitting pictures, here's a random picture:
Will show and tell you all about my gorgeous cache of semi-feltable sweaters tomorrow.
PS: Grumperina posted a really interesting analysis of the new Knit-Picks Options line of needles on her blog. Forget my dream of a Boye Needlemaster set - I'm now saving for a complete line of the new needles, despite the problem Grumperina has very impressively proven (and which I think will be an advantage for me). See the really interesting discussion going on in the comments section. Do you like your needles light, or heavy? How big are your hands? Is there any connection?? I'm dying to know.
33 comments:
Brilliant analysis. I think you are right on here. The comparison with EZ is great. At the time, EZ broke the rules without breaking the bank--and like MD, she PLAYED. She took her knitting seriously, but she also was like a kid in an candy store with a grin on her face. MD is the same way. That playful breaking of rules (instead of the serious avant-garde breaking of rules) is SO appealing. Thanks for the essay!
great analysis. i've been knitting with sugar n cream for years. i've crocheted blankets and knitted pillows with it because the colors available are vast and the yarn is cheap and easy care (and gets softer with time). i knit a log cabin blanket and a mitered square blankets months before seeing them in MDK so it didn't teach me anything i didn't already know. but the key here is that the book (and the blog) is filled with beautiful photographs and wonderful stories that inspire me. that make me want to fill my home with warm cuddly knits that i get to enjoy every day, not just when i wear them. all of the projects in that book are jumping points for other ideas.
Very interesting post. I have been surprised by the two blogs I came across that was slamming all the MD knitting going on.
Yes, the patterns in the book are not complex but for me that is the joy in it. I can buy extremely affordable yarn and play with a pattern and let my creative side run free. I'm not going to do that with $15+ skein yarn. The patterns also brought into my life simplicity and calmness when I very much needed at the time. As a relatively new knitter of 2+ years, I was introduced to Log Cabin and ball band knitting from this book. Guess the addage of what is old becomes new again is true for me. There is great beauty in their simple patterns. The log cabin design reminded me of Frank Lloyd Wright's stained glass designs or for that matter, even his house Fallingwaters. Clean lines with an occasional curve.
I agree - great analysis! I haven't come across a blog slamming MDK and the thought wouldn't have even crossed my mind had I not seen it here. I can see your (their) points about the simplicity and easy availability of some of the projects, but come on -- the champagne-bubble curtain? Simple, yes, but no one else thought of it (at least no one else who wrote it up in a book). And just the idea of taking linen yarn and making hand towels...brilliant in its simplicity. I love the MDK "attitude" as you put it, and I find myself going back time and again not only for patterns but just to re-read favorite passages. Totally different from Yarn Harlot (another fave of mine), but no less inspirational.
I couldn't have said it better.
It's not only the expense, it's that so many knitted things are obtrusive in their look-at-me striving to be striking. Part of the lowkey charm of the patterns in MDK is that with simple fibers and subtle color combinations, I can create things that are both usable and not likely to knock me down with preciousness. I don't want to be visually assaulted by my bathmat; I want to be coddled by the way it feels and I want it to gracefully assume a comfortable role in the visual background of the room, looking as though it's always been there.
So too making these things as gifts is actually improved by their being fiscally low key. I have some casual friends for whom I'd like to make a baby gift, but for whom a whole fancy knitted baby sweater is awkwardly out of scale with our friendship. Sitting down with a little cotton yarn and making a throw-in-the-washer kimono is exactly right for this situation, enough to show I'm thinking about them but not an embarrassingly weighty social obligation they will be challenged to reciprocate.
The first time I looked at this book I paged through it carefully and decided I didn't need to buy it because there weren't that many things I couldn't figure out on my own. Not having been able to get it out of my mind, I ordered it two weeks later and several people who have seen it at knitting nights have gone on to order it. The subtlety of it grows on you.
Very good analysis of MD -- I think I like the book for all the reasons you stated, but particularly the problem with making a simple shell that ends up costing $$$ (yikes!).
So, I'll finish up here. I need to go bind-off another warshrag. *L*
Kate, your post was so thoughtful and articulated exactly why it is that I don't feel cheated out of $20 as a result of buying MDK. You can create a beautiful item or garment from affordable yarns, and Kay and Ann demonstrate that effectively in their book. If you have not been reading Cara's posts on Log Cabin Knitting, you should. She has really found a fount of inspiration and creativity in this very simple pattern.
I would love to have an Absorba bathmat, but I am afraid that knitting with three strands of 100% cotton on big needles will be a little uncomfortable. How did you find the knitting?
Everything you said was just right.
It's "comfort food" in a knitting book way.
It's like the Plain Old Potato Salad that's brought to the barbeque and everyone loves it and wants the recipe, yet it's just "what mom used to make" with four simple ingredients. Nothing gourmet about it.
Sometimes it's just the motivation you need, that other people are enjoying something so much. It's contagious!
By the way, I'm on my nineteenth warshcloth!
What a great post! I learned to knit by having my Grandma teach me the "Grandma's Favorite" dishcloth pattern so I have a "soft spot" for simple cotton knitting. I've made lots of simple baby blankets based on that pattern & they always have rave reviews.
Thanks for articulating what I've been fumbling about on my blog trying to say...lovely, evocative analysis. I've linked you and bow to your brilliance...have you thought about changing your dissertation topic (I kid, Kate, I kid).
You are right on!
I can tell your dissertation is going to be just as fabulous.
Keep up the great work.
Happy knitting!
I am the sort of person who tends not be confident in her ability to adapt other people's ideas. So, when I learned to cook, for years I stuck rigidly to recipes (even measuring out a quarter teaspoon of a spice, for example). Over time I've learned enough to relax and will now trust my eye, or change an ingredient. I've even invented the odd dish myself.
With knitting, I'm at the early stage and need the comfort of the recipe - the pattern. I don't even really like to substitute a yarn, although expense and access make this necessary quite regularly.
In addition, I knit pretty much in isolation - my mother isn't a knitter and no friends who live nearby knit either. So the internet knitting community has been of great help to me.
This is, of course, how I found Mason-Dixon. I too have knitted several items from the book and I love the results and the attitude. Someone like me really needs to be told some of this stuff - that it is OK to mess around with the pattern/yarn/design; to just have fun.
As with many things in life, what is right for one isn't right for another, but I do wish that people would just agree to disagree, rather than starting conflict over something.
And that feels like a parable for our times!
I want to say, OH! NO! How could anyone slam such a wonderful book, but I'm not at all surprised that someone would. Opinions. A**holes. You know how that works. To each his own.
Here's what I say: today, the book is rated at about number 1100 in the amazon ratings. Yesterday, it was at 786. I'm not charting the daily ratings--it just says that today.
That's a darn good rating on a huge, international website, isn't it?
To my untrained, newish knitter eye, there aren't a lot of gorgeous knitting books out there and this one fits the bill for me. There are books full of gorgeous things to knit, but not all of them are as lushly photographed and edited and designed and that's worth every penny of the price.
I am new to much of the knitting in the book and have learned a lot, but even if I wasn't, I would appreciate the story of a friendship borne online (and the friendships that greq from theirs) that flows through the pages.
Don't like it? Don't buy it. But be careful before you knock it. I think the authors are onto something and I think that something is worth celebrating. There's room in the knitting book biz for zillions of good books.
Great essay. (I was unaware of strong sentiment against MDK, but I suppose it was to be expected.) I hadn't given the phenomenon as much thought, but I think you're right. It reminds me of people's irrational fear of Homespun (which, btw, I embrace). Thanks for the insight.
Echoing others comments, I heartily agree. As a fellow graduate student money and time are precious- it seems I do the most knitting when I have reading to do or a paper to write. But something else about the MD book opened a new world of knitting to me.
I taught myself to knit as a child. Mom knew how to knit and purl but didn't have in interest in it. I spent hours figuring out increasing and decreasing on my own, making up patterns and ripping them out before I ever read a pattern without anyone to share my successes or failures with.
Even as an adult knitter, I rarely brought my knitting out of my apartment and seldom showed projects to anyone. I let people assume that the afghans strewn about my apartment were made by my grandmother. And I never felt really comfortable at the one knitting group of a friend I occasionally went to.
But then I bought the MD book and suddenly found the community. It changed my knitting life to feel comfortable knitting in public, sharing and posting projects, and knowing that others out there are doing the same. I always thought of knitting as something to do when no one else was around, and that my inclinations were unforgivably geeky. Being a part of the community has made me a happier, braver knitter. It has made me more comfortable with myself as a knitter and as a person. And that is definitely worth 20 bucks!
a VERY good analysis and interesting commentary. I started out knitting as all of the LYS were springing up so I began with Rowan etc. I certainly do enjoy the more high end yarns, the complicated patterns etc. but MD offered to me a way to create an heirloom, the reason I got into knitting in the first place. My grandmother was a knitter and when she passed away I clung to the acrylic knitted afgans and still do remembering her and the love she put into each stitch. MD offers up that passing on of an afgan, a simple hand towel or warshcloth and something that our family's will look at lovingly and know we created without great expense in time, money or brain cells.
I agree with what so many of you have said - I don't usually buy knitting books, but happened upon a book signing in Nashville (so mine's autographed). I wasn't terribly taken with the ball band warshrag I made, but am making a square garter stitch with moss stitch border (face) washcloth out of the leftover, and have a linen moss grid hand towel and a cotton hand towel (the latter using the BGBC pattern) on the needles, and have bought some completely wild yarn for a Nina shawl (obviously most expensive project yet) - the hand towels are so much easier to pick up for a short period of knitting than the more complicated shawls I have in the works. (And - as a quilter, but not a very traditional one, something based on the Moderne blankets will have to happen sooner or later.) I do find myself picking it up for some of the comments, and thinking ...knitted curtains, hum.
I couldn't agree more! When I'm deep in a project that requires lots of focus, taking a break to whip up a ballband washcloth relaxes me and gives me a sense of accomplishment. Also, it's really nice to be able to play around with color and not break the bank. It's amazing how creativity flows quite well when you're only given a starting point. From there, it's up to you to decide what to do and where to go with the idea. Somehow, the projects in the book remind me of all of the things I loved about my grandmothers. They were depression era ladies who could whip up stuff from what seemed to be nothing. Life was hard but simple things combined with some ingenuity could bring happiness and contentment. I always find myself smiling and mulling over fond memories of them when I knit stuff like this.
Excellent commentary.
When I first leafed through MD, I said, I need this book. Sometimes I knit sweaters and sometimes I knit socks; sometimes I knit with "nice" wool (and I like knitpicks too) but this knitting with kitchen cotton is "fun" too.
I look at the MD book, like ez's books as a jumping off point. See my blog for my ball-band-kimono.
Jeri
I like the idea of MDK being as much about "attitude" as the patterns. They really are encouraging people to make things up and fudge around with stuff, on the blog, in the book, and in person. I remember my mother calling knit patterns knitting "recipes," which to me connotes a lot more flexibility, like it's a template to base your own work on, not a rigid absolute set of instructions. And they do give you permission - indeed, encourage you - to make silly little useful things for people and have the glow of knitterly pride.
I think they also strike a chord with the usability of their knit items. They're really designed to be cherished AND washed. Plus, they're designed as household useful objects. Lots of knitters are attracted to the craft partly by the interesting yarn available, but there are so many colors and patterns that I would really enjoy as a blanket but wouldn't wear as clothing.
As far as knitted items go, it's also unique and uniquely satisfying in other ways. For one thing, they're making a lot of blankets, which one doesn't see much of in other pattern books (especially in such clean, modern, attractive designs), though a lot of people seem to want to make them. The other household items are also useful and attractive and not too precious to be used. Also, so much of their large scale knitting, like the blankets, is done in components, so you have the continual satisfaction of completing something, and of seeing the pattern grow and develop.
And as you said, it's about attitude. They're having so damn much FUN, and they think this knitting stuff is so NEAT-O and geez-look-what-you-can-do-too!
Very interesting perspective - some things I had not thought of or had thought of in passing - but you articulated it so well - lots to think about that I think is pertinent to the bigger picture of knitting and its popularity. Thanks for your input.
i enjoyed reading your post about your feelings on the M-DK book-- what gets me all wound up, creatively speaking, is how people use their skills to build community. and the internet has opened up so many wonderful doors for this, and there are so many ways that things are crossing over, and going in some wonderful directions, and leading to real-life meet-ups. hooray! but the internet is such a petri dish for negative comment & un-constructive criticism, and that can fester and grow exponentially. i think that side of it is, well, awful. i was thinking of Ann & Kay when i recently read a bio. of Julia Child: experimentation, and sharing, and fun. (good food, and good knits) i think that anybody who is out there, putting their own designs & words out for the community at large to share, deserves better than cheap criticism. deserves to be invited to lunch/tea and a chat, actually. it's the epistolary form of their blog that draws me in, and i think they're both great writers. voilà for my 2 cents'!
Thank you for this. I have heard so much about this book, but never was sure if it would appeal to me. I am a very back and forth knitter--I use all sorts of yarn, and just find comfort in the simplest ones when there's too much stress everywhere else!
Amen Sista...
One thing you pointed out that really did strike a cord with me was the not having to think to hard about the patterns.
I just got home from taking my eldest DD to the airport for a 5:30 AM flight, on about 3 hours of sleep thanks to my four year old dd who is ready to tackle the day with gusto. Downing my ?? cup of tea and all I want to do is chill out and knit. Perfect time for a dishcloth don't ya think?
Exactly! Your essay says everything. Thank you from a die-hard warsrag knitter!
Oh, and I found you through Affiknitty Laura...
I've said on my blog what MDK has done for me and my knitting - changed my whole way of thinking about my knitting. I'm also very fortunate to have Kay nearby to fill my head with all kinds of inspiration. The best thing I can say about knitting is that there are so many options and opportunities, if you can't find something you love, then maybe you should find a new hobby.
Thank you for your post.
Nice post about the Mason Dixon book. You know, I like to think of it as "comfort knitting".
Onto knitting a Lavold sweater, Webs currently has silky wool as a closeout-- and at $4ish for 200yds, it's a much better deal than any DK purchase at knitpicks! The yarn is fantastic-- and even though it's not marketed this way, it's machine washable. (I throw my sweater knit from silky wool into the wash on gentle/cool water).
Wow, that makes so much sense. I was trying to figure out why I liked it so much for the same reason. My mom picked it up at an LYS and told me later that "it seemed like there was a lot of writing," meaning there were not a lot of patterns. And no, there are not a lot of patterns, but oh, they are so much fun to knit. Especially when I'm feeling exhausted or can't afford a lot of yarn, especially nice stuff. Kitchen cotton is just the right yarn for kitchen projects, after all, and it doesn't break the bank. And it's just the right combination of relaxing and yet not just straight garter/stockinette stitch. :-) Thanks for this great post. I'm adding you to my RSS feed reader, now. :-)
This comment comes long after you originally posted, but I love what you say here! MDK was the first "knitting" book I bought, because I loved the colors and the projects looked attainable. The whole aesthetic...use the handknits really appealed to me and appeals still!
I don't remember how I wound up on your blog looking at your comments about M-D. But I can say - dis M-D??? Snap! I luv knitting - been knitting about 2 years now. When sewing, I always have to follow a pattern. Don't know why, just do. Same with knitting. M-D showed me how casual I can be with knitting and still do a good job and see an end product that I like and I can USE! Nice photography makes those warshrags look pretty cute. Yeah, some day I'd like to do some eye-crossing Nordic knitting. But I don't have time for that right now. So M-D knitting is perfect. The North and the South, together at last.
knitting is really wonderful, i love to spend my time snitting gloves, dress, or wherever i can do. I really love it because i feel relax when i am doing this activity.That is why i liked this blog very much. I think i reached what i was looking for.
__________________________________________
related with your sexual life,buy viagra and you´ll find what you are looking for too.I suggest you.
I consider this blog very interesting, most of all because i would like to lean kniting, i think is a good activity that i can practice in my free time. In fact now i will have a lot of free time for me, because i will get a house throw costa rica homes for sale and i really liked the style that i chose.
Post a Comment