A Knitter's Rant

The other day, my eyes caught something on TV that really bugged me. I was reminded of a major pet peeve of mine. The movie was of low production quality circa 1975, and there was some insane lady sitting in a rocking chair, who was supposed to be knitting. Yes, she was supposed to be knitting, but it looked more like she was ineffectively digging a hole in a tangle of yarn. There weren't even stitches on the needles. She was holding a pair of needles much too large for her project, and was plucking and poking like her life depended on it. Would it have been so difficult for either her or the director to do a teensiest bit of research on how to hold knitting needles?

These fake knitters pop up everywhere. I love getting craft ads in the mail (especially my Knit Picks catalog), and scan over every little detail for good deals, inspiration, and eye candy. Not too long ago, I received an ad for a craft store (who shall remain anonymous to protect the innocent), that contained a picture of a joyous mother and teenage daughter who were bonding while supposedly knitting. They couldn't have looked any more awkward. Yes folks, even the craft stores can't quite get it right.

Yes, I do understand the saying "there is no wrong way to knit". Left handed, right handed, pickers, throwers, Tunisian, Portuguese... there are many ways to to hold your needles, and many variances on how to craft stitches. But sometimes it's quite plain when the person has no idea what they are doing. No, I am far from a perfect knitter, and I pass no judgment on other knitters (regardless of their skill level). Maybe I just feel like the intelligence of me and my fellow knitters is being insulted. Or maybe this is just one of those silly, pointless pet peeves. Or maybe I'm just paying too close attention to something so trivial. Hopefully I don't come off to rant-y (yes, I just made up the word "ranty"), because I don't mean to. Well... not really. :)

Inconveniently, I was unable to find a picture of a fake knitter. Go figure. This lady however, really DID knit with these ginormous needles, making the Guinness books with these big 'uns. What are those, like size 80 needles? And rope for yarn? Amazing.