What's my why?
On the face of it, it’s such a simple question. So why did it leave me open mouthed, totally stumped for an answer? I mean, completely bamboozled.
As a 52 year old I’ve been a resident of the internet for a long time, well over 20 years, since the days of loud dial-up modems and painfully slow loading speed.
In the pre-ravelry days I was using chat rooms to connect with fellow knitters and really enjoying pushing my knitting boundaries beyond those afforded by the laminated pattern booklets in my local ‘wool shop’.
I read this post recently from
about online community graveyards and it really struck a chord with me.
Not least because it brought it home to me just how long I’ve been online, all those people I’ve been connected to over the years in a way that just wouldn’t have been possible years ago. My internet presence has been pretty much a constant over the last 20 years, but why…? That’s not really something I had properly considered before
Connection
As a human I’m hard wired for social connection. I crave it, it lights me up. It brightens my day and cheers up my darker moments. As a card carrying introvert social connection can also be exhausting.
refers to ‘webtroverts’ and this is such a perfect term to sum up people like me (us?). Connecting with others online gives me the social connection that lights me up but without the energy-sapping reality of high-energy social gatherings.Plus, anything that I can do from the comfort of my own pyjamas has to be a good thing.
That’s part of my why. But that would just be fulfilled by me scrolling online, chatting to others. Why, specifically do I show up as a content creator online. What drives me to write and publish my knitting patterns? Why do I continue to write and publish my work knowing that it will attract all manner of attention - mostly positive, thankfully.
But over the years, as any female internet user will relate to I’ve experienced my share of abuse, harsh words and criticism, along with my very own stalker once who sent me photos of my own front door. The less said about that particular episode the better, but it did really make me think.
By choosing to create ‘things’ and putting them out into the world we can’t control how they are received and some negative attention is inevitable. And I still do it. It’s still a conscious choice.
So…why?
It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that what we do is trivial. It’s just knitting at the end of the day. It’s soft, it’s comfortable, it’s certainly not essential. It’s easy to look at what’s going on in the world and think that it’s meaningless, almost frivolous to be thinking yarny thoughts at a time like this.
And yet, the more I think about it, the more I realise that’s precisely why we should be engaging more with our hands and our hearts. Coming together as a community over a shared love is more than ‘just knitting’. It’s about finding and deepening connection between each other in a world that increasingly seeks to divide us and set us apart from each other.
When we come together as a knitting community online we aren’t only deepening our connection with each other, I believe we are honouring our connections to our past, and through an increasing awareness of sustainability, to our future.
Knitting, even among non-knitters will evoke fond memories from childhood, of older family members knitting, of handmade cardigans made with love. It’s a way of thanking those who went before us for keeping these crafts alive (despite what the headlines may proclaim, knitting is absolutely not a ‘dying art’).
And in choosing the way of the handmade it also helps us to restore a sense of personal agency, in a world where it’s easy to feel we don’t have any control. We can choose to use sustainable materials, we can choose to reject fast fashion and embrace more aspects of slow-living - whatever that means to you. And we can connect, through the joys of the internet, with more people that feel as we do.
So, what’s my why? I’ve used up a lot of words so far but I’m still struggling to condense it into a meaningful sentence: Connection - to my past, present and future.
It’s not perfect but it’s all I’ve got for now.
Thanks for
, and for chatting with me on this and for prompting the initial thoughts for this article. There’s more to come I suspect as I continue to ponder the question further.I’m curious - if someone popped up to you in the street and asked you why you choose to do what you do, what would you say? Maybe leave a thought in the comments if you feel bold, or a DM if you’d rather keep it private.
I'm here (on the internet) for communication,information and education and entertainment - a bit like the BBC! I'm here on Substack for connection with like-minded, bright people who share some of my interests and have interesting things to say. It's much less stressful than meetings IRL, I can join in when and where I want (or not) and I feel in control of my engagement.
I definitely do it for connection. I have had some wonderful friendships over the years; people whom I would never have met in real life and whose company, support and humour have really held me up. In a simple way, I don't feel alone. There's always someone out there to chat to.