The End of Vacation, the Beginning of PT

Z and I just got back from a week-long trip up the Oregon coast, with many detours. One of these detours included a visit to the Cape Blanco Lighthouse, which features a first-order Fresnel lens. I know that has nothing to do with knitting at all, but Fresnel lenses are really beautiful.

Composed of interlocking steel-framed plates of molded glass (and weighing nearly a ton), the Fresnel lens is designed to refract the maximum amount of light in a horizontal direction. Before the development of the Fresnel lens, the average lighthouse beacon was visible from three miles out; after Fresnel, that distance increased to twenty-one miles. I was particularly enamored by this lens, as my reading material for this trip was Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund.

We also spent some time in Portland, where I got this fabulous shirt:

I bought this shirt at redbird studio, which is located at 2927 NE Alberta in Portland. It’s a wonderful store where all of the cards, shirts, and other stuff are designed and created by the people who work there. I would have bought every card on the rack if I could have. They all managed to toe the line of sentimentality without actually stepping over it, which is really hard to do (and regular readers know how I feel about “cute”). If you find yourself in Portland, or already happen to live there, please visit this store . . . and don’t ever buy another Hallmark card again.

The other item you see in that picture is a big black rubber band, which I am using to exercise my shoulder. I’ve finally started physical therapy for my knitting injury, and it’s definitely working. I would have started a lot sooner, if it weren’t for this little ditty:

Some poor woman is wondering why her insurance company has approved her for four physical therapy sessions for a repetitive-strain injury. As for me, I’m not sure whether to be relieved that my mysterious pap smear came back negative, to be concerned that my physican is under the impression that I have a cervix, or to be impressed that she was able to perform a pap smear without me being aware of it. I know a few women who wouldn’t mind that kind of pap smear.

And speaking of gender trouble, thanks to everyone who commented on my last post. You all had really interesting and insightful things to say. I’ll be doing a follow-up post soon!

One Good Reason

One of the movies I watched for a documentary film class I took in college was a piece called Blood in the Face. The filmmakers, Kevin Rafferty and Anne Bohlen, spent a great deal of time interviewing the members of a group of white supremacists in northern Michigan, and in these interviews the members of the group argue their point for the inferiority of non-Caucasians, non-Christians and non-(insert majority group here). Their arguments were the usual combination of rewritten history, Holocaust denial and half-baked evolutionary theory——including the notion that black people are inferior because they can’t blush (“show blood in the face”), and therefore have no sense of shame. Because their arguments were so typical, so predictable and ridiculous, all of the members of this group looked and sounded like a bunch of idiots.

During our discussion of this film, one of my classmates objected to the filmmakers’ presentation of the group’s members. She wasn’t agreeing with any white-supremacist philosophy, but she wondered if Rafferty and Bohlen intentionally focused on the most ludicrous and embarrassing interviews, and edited out any footage that might have presented some of the members of the group as intelligent and articulate. If they’d included such footage, my classmate said, then we’d be more likely to take their threats seriously, and less inclined to laugh them off.

I thought about this question after reading through the comments to one of Knit and Tonic’s recent posts. The post relates an incident at a summer school program in which a number of mothers turned their sons away from an opportunity to learn how to knit:

“I even witnessed one mom turn her son away from the cove of pleasure——and then when he asked about the sewing room as an alternative——I swear, I saw her eyeballs roll back and beads of sweat form under her nose so fast, my neck is still sore from the impact.”

The comments that follow the post are appropriately indignant, and quite heartening. What I’m wondering about, though, is the other side of the issue. Why don’t those mothers want their sons to learn to knit? Is it just fear that the boy/girl line is more flexible than we’re comfortable with? Are they afraid of their sons getting beat up on the playground? As a white, liberal, male, non-parent, there are entire perspectives that I don’t have access to. What’s behind the urge to keep boys from knitting?

If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably not someone who has had this urge. . . but if you are, I’d sure love a comment. Feel free to use a false name if you want to (email addresses don’t get published). I’d rather hear from you than not. Let’s see if we can get a conversation going. I don’t edit or delete comments.

Bald Heads of the World Unite!

Most of you probably know this already, but just in case you don’t, my Halfdome hat pattern is now available on Knitty for public consumption. Perfect for the bereft-of-hair among us . . . although you certainly don’t need to be bald to wear one. Or to knit one.