Readers and writers blog

Talk about a rush.

I was sitting here in our quiet, little-attended website when an entry I had written two weeks ago drew public notice from its subject, Franklin Habit. Suddenly our comment count tripled and our site’s hit statistics quadrupled.

Franklin, of course, is a knitter-blogger extraordinaire whose site, The Panopticon, got high praise from us — one of our missions is to seek out and review well-written blogs. And Franklin’s response, in a section titled “I’m a Writer,” was equally complimentary to us. Except for “just one quibble” (read it here).

I learned two things, the first less important than the second:

1. Don’t try to out-smart-ass Franklin. He took my crack about “us sports-loving, beer-drinking, East Coast he-men” — a description that might have fit me 40 years ago, but now a pure fiction meant to emphasize that even someone with little in common with Franklin would like his writing — and turned it on its head (and mine, which is still smarting from being slapped down by some of his fans). In the arena of tongue-in-cheek wisecracks, Franklin is The Man (please, no more emails — it’s a compliment).

2. There’s an unbelievable wealth of writing talent among knitters. Franklin is one of the best examples, but consider the following sites, all suggested by Franklin’s devotees:

• Yarn Harlot, written by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, a Canadian blogger whose chief subject, knitting, is so skillfully woven with her observations about life that it’s interesting even to those of us who don’t knit. She’s been blogging since January 2004, and I haven’t read all her entries, but the one that struck me the most was her most recent (May 30) — her 18th birthday wish for her daughter Amanda, a long message that is often humorous, always touching and at times deeply insightful:

In short, I realized that people are adults for a lot longer than they are kids, and that it makes more sense to cultivate wonderful adult skills than those traits that make kids easy to take care of.

• The Life and Times of Florence Knitingale, written by a Seattle-area student, cat lover and newlywed who in her June 1 entry is dealing with some yarn:

The yarn is Koigu and, since Koigu does not give their colors names, I’m afraid I can’t identify it any better than that. Except to say that it’s both stunningly beautiful and a stubborn bastard. It is now in its fourth sock incarnation. In a perfect world, yarn would be able to talk, and would tell you exactly what sort of sock it might like to be knit into. I, for one, would welcome a quietly whispered ‘No, no — don’t try to make me into a feather and fan sock. I will pool like a sonuvabitch, and I won’t even feel badly about it.’

• Rabbitch, written by another Canadian blogger who in her May 28 entry offers a song, “The Horrible Boob-Morphing Bra,” sung to the tune of “Gilligan’s Island,” that recounts her struggles with said lingerie during a visit to a supermarket:

And so I stood there quite aghast
All four-breasted was I
I didn’t know what I should do
I thought I’d like to die

I grabbed a handy spatula
And scooped the things back in
I paid for the juice and got right out
They won’t let me back again

• Then there’s Crazy Aunt Purl, Tales from the Den of Chaos, Alala, and the list goes on . . .

I got to thinking about why so many knitters are such good writers, and I came up with at least one possibility: Knitters are a contemplative bunch, sitting with their knitting and their thoughts, taking care and time to keep both straight.

Oh, and a third lesson I learned: Knitters are a kind and generous bunch. The reason for this was suggested by my wife, Bonnie, a sometime knitter and daughter of another knitter-extraordinaire:

Knitters are usually making something for someone else, often to keep someone else warm.

So what I learned from fans of The Panopticon, even the ones I angered, is that knitters basically are all three — thoughtful, kind and generous. And for that, I owe Franklin another debt of gratitude.

– Sid Leavitt