My relatively recently acquired knitting obsession is concerning me not because it's an obsession but because it is still an act--a ravenous act to which I am totally and admittedly addicted--of consuming.
I spend almost as much time finding, downloading, hoarding, and printing free knitting patterns and coveting, looking for, and buying yarn, as I do actually knitting--apparently all "normal" behaviors of the typical knitter.
That's not even the problem. You might argue that knitting is also/still an act of creating, but at this point in time, acts of creation, whether they are giving birth, inventing instruments of death and injury (the car being among the top of that list), or designing fashion garments, seem to be more destructive to the planet than they are, in the Grand Scheme of Things, anything else.
To be sure, my rabid desire to buy and own clothing has decreased markedly since I have been knitting, but buying secondhand or making one's own clothing; taking the bus or riding a bike, are still acts of consumption and are neither "ecological," "sustainable," or "environmentally friendly." Everything is relative.
Sorry for the poor alignment of these photos and for the lack of captions. These are photos of the only two completed knitting projects I have photos of, thanks to the generosity of the projects' owners (or project's owner's parent, in the case of the baby sweater).
P.S. I am eating, by the handful, those melt-in-your-mouth cookies that are shaped like tiny little buns and that in my mind are always connected to the fat, bratty Asian kids begging their moms for sweets at the Chinese supermarket. It's probably been 20 years since I've eaten these, and boy are they tasty in that nostalgic baby-food sort of way.
3 comments:
i would argue that a lot of your time is spent not so much consuming/creating, but rather increasing your knowledge; of patterns, characteristics, techniques, etc. of course some consumption is a by product of this,, but a lot of it is time spent thinking and fiddling, which is largely a neutral activity. it's impossible to leave no fotprint, and surely that's not even the aim really, but a good hobby can ber a great way of spending a lot of time on a little resources, and that, perhaps, is something of an aim. (says he with his thousands of euros worth of highly resource intensive bicycle componentry). also i think the cultivation of good, solid knowledge/skill in any field, is inherently a wonderful thing, and something that is too often neglected in favour of newer, flashier baubles. here's to your knitting
That's one great baby sweater.
Heh, it's true that making your own clothing or taking the bus, is still consuming, but it's not the worst way to be! I think it's impossible to consume nothing or give off any waste at all, unless you were nothing but a puff of air lol. Sames goes with buying used items; the labour and resources has already been used to make the item, so you might as well reuse it as much as you can to balance things out. Anyhoo, thx for visiting my blog :)
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