Is there a knitting Hall of Fame? A Who’s Who in American Handicrafts?

Local fame is a moderate thing. Just say thank you.

And another time, which I blogged at http://spinningwheel.net/?p=128, a lady approached me at a spinning event, said she’d come because she’d read about it on my blog, and I made an utter ass of myself.

Fame is fickle indeed.

Mimi, blogland is wide. If you don’t like what Mim has to say, go read something else, somewhere else. The magazine thing was clearly a perspective altering moment for Mim, & she was gracious enough to share it with us. It’s pretty clear here who is sharing their own opinions & experiences without slamming anyone else, & who is being too harsh. Mim didn’t name names & didn’t single anyone out.

Just because I blog doesn’ t mean I’m under any delusions that blogging will ever turn me into a celebrity. And thanks to the responses posted here, I’m under fewer delusions that all knitting ‘fans’ are nicer than the average person.

I find myself wanting to separate film-celebrity status from knitterly-celebrity status, because I really do think that the “celebrities” of the knitting world can be perceived more as role models in their craft and that it is the craft which first draws the admiration.** For instance, I’ve been doing colorwork for most of my knitting years (which aren’t very many), but your Seraphim was my first attempt at lace, and having done it, my own admiration for the skills that go into designing a beautiful but also clean and well-written pattern–as well as knitting lace in general–have increased exponentially with each stitch. I look at Hidcote and think, “Gosh, I’d love to do that!” Your skills give me something to shoot for–and I really do think that’s a good thing. You encourage me to try something new, to learn a new technique, to recognize mistakes in my knitting, and to grow my own skill. And that, too, is a very good thing.

I agree, though, that blogs and other online tools can be a really useful way to make one a bit more real. I teach writing and literature at the university level, including fully online or distance courses where my students never have a chance to meet me in person. That facelessness is sometimes problematic for students, so my blog serves an additional purpose. In addition to simply reassuring family and friends that I’m not dead when I get into those really hectic periods and all e-mail goes unanswered for a month, and sharing academic resources with students and colleagues, it gives those students a way to put a “face” to the black and white academic voice they normally see. I know that we edit the face we present to the rest of the world on our blogs–consciously or unconsciously–and that there is considerably more to us than even a blog can present, but I still believe they are usefull ways to humanize ourselves. I would miss your voice if it disappeared.

And to end a far-too-long comment . . . You know, I’ve just gotta say that I’m sooooo glad to find that there are others in the world who fall UP stairs! That’s been a standing (er, no pun intended) joke in my family for ages. :-)
Rhonna

**I would assume film students and other actors consider their celebs the same way, however, and that there is a corresponding tendency in sports, music, science, literature, and so on. The novice will almost always consider the successful expert a celeb, I think.

And I agree with you on the point that teachers should be paid better than they are. I’m a former teacher myself, and although I really wanted to work in an inner-city school in an urban district, a district like that wouldn’t be able to pay me enough to live off of. It’s a shame — especially with all the hoops you have to jump through to even be allowed to teach these days.