It's wonderful to see the world of fiber arts explode the way it has over the last decade, but conversations I've had with people recently have made me fume.

There are still many who see knitting, crocheting, needle point, etc. as domestic tasks. Something to be done as a chore, as tradition, but never as a form of real art.

While I understand that art is very subjective, I don't see why it can't be accepted among the orbit of other arty things. I don't understand the resistance to seeing an intricately knitted pair of socks as (at the very least) functional art.

Why?

Why can we call a dress made of bright colored condoms art (it was made, with a host of other dresses, to bring attention to the AIDS epidemic), but if you create something through a "domestic art" technique, something with a clear message, something truly beautiful and vibrant, it won't be given the same amount of respect as a shapeless sculpture made of used coffee filters (I passed such a sculpture in Pasadena and had an art-student friend tell me how great it was).

Knitting and other such fiber art forms can be a subject of art, but never the respective means to create art.

Why?

How can this not be creative? Or this not complex? How can this, this, or this not be anything but art! It's beautiful, powerful, there's meaning to it all and I am moved. Is that not what art basically is? It's meant to move the masses and relive the artist of creative stress and replace it with accomplishment. Not caring so much that people approve or not, but that a message has been sent. And what does it matter, what importance is there to the means of which we get the creative "note"?

If babies were ever good for anything, they're good for this:



Basic Baby Bootie
Art Yarn Superwash Merino
Pattern #17 by Theresa Gaffey

Bless their chubby little cheeks for giving me an excuse to knit these wretched things.

Campfire Socks in progress:



Muwah!

Thank you, Judy Becker

Since living in Pasadena has made me poor, all new yarn purchases (as sparce as they shall be) for future knit projects will be sock yarn. Thus, my last purchase of the year:

Koigu and Regina

But as all knitters tend to do; I have a nice stock pile of yarn to keep me going for about a year. With what I have now, I can make lots of socks, scarves, and baby clothes for baby showers.

Still, it doesn't help that a new yarn store has emerged in S. Pasadena: Abuelita's Knitting & Needlepoint.

It's small, but what they lack in size they make up for it in fabulous customer service and monthly events (yarn swaps, wine & cheese thursdays, knit meetings, etc.). It certainly worth a look and it's always great to welcome the new gals on the block of yarn stores.