Knits - how do you wear yours?

Scrolling through my Instagram feed recently it suddenly struck me that something was missing. I share a lot of photos of knits in progress (also coffee and cats) but hardly any photos of the finished pieces being used or actually worn. There are the occasional glimpses of socks or things in the background but very rarely do I actually take a photo of the finished knit "in the wild", as it were.

Once I noticed this I started to notice it in general, in other people's feeds as well. Of course it makes perfect sense when you think about it. Not all of us are particularly comfortable in front of a camera (I know that I'm not) and we don't always have a willing photographer to hand. And no matter how hard I try and how many lessons I have from my 15 year old niece - I'm still to master the art of the selfie that doesn't make me look slightly deranged.

So, I thought I would come at the problem from a different angle and use the type of shot beloved by Instagram users - of the flatlay - only with knitwear. The idea was to show my outfit for the day and to show how I pair something I've knit - in this case my Worth The Fuss shawl - with my everyday wardrobe. The yarn is Titus 4ply from Eden Cottage Yarns just in case you were wondering. The colourway is a beautiful one called Starling and just like the feathers of it's namesake there are tiny flashes of bright greenish-yellow within the grey which my photos really don't do justice to.

I'm pleased to say that even though I was worried folks might think me a little strange, the post has done really well on Instagram this morning, with lots of people commenting on how they like to wear their knits and also talking about how they might incoporate this into their future posts.

Apart from shows and yarn festivals I don't often get to see many knitters in my day to day life and yet I love to see how people wear their finished items and how they combine them with other pieces in their wardrobe to come up with finished outfits.

I've yet to think up a cunning hashtag for this yet - watch this space - but I'd love to know what you think of this idea and whether you think it's something you think would be fun/useful/inspirational. 

You can either head over to the the Instagram post to join in the conversation or leave a comment here.

If Knitters Ruled the World

A casual conversation online the other day sparked the idea for this blog post. We were casually chatting about politics, and putting the world to rights in general and one of us commented that "If knitters ruled the world they would make a much better job of it".

That thought has been buzzing around in my head for several days now and I can't help but think that there are many things we take for granted in the knitting community, that if they were routinely practiced in the everyday world, would make it a much better place to be.

For example, with tongue ever so slightly in cheek and in no particular order I give you

1. Posting a picture online of something you had accomplished or were proud of (analogous to posting an FO picture) would elicit supportive comments and genuine praise from those around you. It would be generally accepted by the community you were part of that if they couldn't say anything nice about something, then they would simply refrain from comment. There would be no snarkiness, no attempts to outdo your post with something fabulous they had done and no suggestions about how they would have done it better.
2. The accepted response to someone being in difficulties, depressed or generally feeling down would be to give them a hug, a cup of tea and some cake. Yarn would also be nice. There would be no attempts to solve their problems for them, to tell them how to 'pull themselves together' or to make them feel worse about their situation. There would be tea, sympathy and no judging.
3. It would be perfectly acceptable, indeed positively expected for you to whip out your needles and knit at every available opportunity. There would be no assumptions that simply because your hands were moderately occupied your ears, eyes and brain were not capable of being fully focussed on the task or conversation in hand. This type of multi-skilling would merely be recognised for the efficient use of time that it is.
4. All telephones would automatically have a hands-free option and saucepans would be self-stirring. It would really help if cars were self steering too but having seen some of the news coverage of driverless cars I'm reserving judgement on this.
5. Ice cream vans would be replaced by Yarn on Wheels. Little mobile LYS's on wheels who would regularly rock up in your neighbourhood and have a permanent and inexhaustable supply of needle tips, buttons, tape measures and stitch markers - all the things that you seem to run out of on a regular basis. They could keep the jaunty jingle though.

In general I think that more cake, more tea and more yarn is the solution to more problems that we admit. If we just extended the tolerance, support and friendship of our online community into the wider world I am firmly convinced that knitters really could make the world a better place.