Brook’s Reviews > Knitting for Anarchists: The What, Why and How of Knitting > Status Update

“Part of the reason that knitting can, or could, be so friendly and cooperative is that it is not completely product oriented. Very little knitting is done just for the finished result…however important the product, the pleasure of making it and the satisfaction that comes with having done it, are crucial.”

“Hand work with tools, in this case knitting, encourages individuality in a way that machine work does not. Children should be taught to use tools if only as a counter-balance to all the teaching that tells them to follow directions. Following directions needs to be taught and learned. We cannot navigate through modern life without that ability. But we also need to use the creativity we have.”

“Tools are aids we can use however we like. Indeed, they encourage us to do more than we thought of doing when we picked them up. Unlike machines, tools encourage one to try different things, use them differently. Use a machine for something it wasn’t made for and it will most likely break down. Use a knitting needle as a hole punch and it will peaceably comply.”

“There isn’t much in our culture that encourages individuality. There is a great smokescreen of words all around us about individualism, about finding one’s real self, fulfilling one’s destiny—whatever the phrase. But the truth is, we are encouraged to want, do, rejoice in, suffer from, be relieved by, the same, usually purchaseable, things.”

“These days our fingers are primarily trained to push buttons. When you see the speed and mastery with which they address computer keyboards, you know that fingers have enormous talents that are not being tapped. To leave your fingers untrained for anything beyond pushing, and perhaps twisting, is like leaving a voice without singing. It is a shame and a loss.”

“One last bit of advice about color. When you have a combination that everything in your head tells you looks dreadful and won’t work, but at the same time an inner voice keeps insisting ‘but I like it,’ go ahead and use it. The chances are it’s dynamite.”

“Color theory is interesting but it will not tell you what you will like or what others will like. Following the dictates of a color wheel will give you combinations that are inoffensive, pleasing to most eyes, and therefore will sell well. The only problem, from the anarchist point of view, is that these color combinations always look somewhat commercial. They lack individuality.”

“If you do not want to design your own knitting patterns, you should nevertheless bear in mind that the ones you want to follow have been made by a person following a comprehensible series of steps. They did not appear by magic, perfect and whole from a mystical vision. They can be altered however you want.”

“You have to take all directions with a modicum of skepticism. Which means you have to assume you are smarter than all written directions…When you are following written directions and find they do not work, it is a good idea always to check first whether you have followed the directions correctly. Then use your wits to figure out how it ought to be done.”

I really like this book so far

“The great desire of anarchism is for all people to live in peace, following their own stars. We may not be able to accomplish that in the world at large, reality being as it is, but we might well attain that ideal in the world of knitting. We do not need to be ruled by fashion in deciding what to make.”