I met my friend Grumpy for tea last night; she is busy revising for exams, and as a result was procrastinating (something that leads to a lot of useful discoveries). She found this article on the BBC website, which initially incensed her for the use of “Harry Potter” and “Google” in the same sentence. An avid Harry Potter fan, I checked it out.

The article discusses the way that the amount of knowledge and related literature have expanded from collections of manuscript in the 1600’s, to encyclopaedias and dictionaries, to the internet — specifically, Google. It interested me for a different reason; it mentions knitting, and online knitting communities.

Specifically:

Online knitting communities keep the craft alive

While I have no doubt that this is true to some extent (I mean, who can deny the sheer power and awesomeness of Ravelry, really?) I disagree.

Taking my own history as an example, I have been a knitter since before I can remember, and both Super-Granny and Wonder-Gran, as well as Wonder-Mum really encouraged me. I have a huge collection of knitting magazines and books, and these started well before I joined an online community. Most of my friends have expressed a desire to learn to knit when they have seen me doing it.

Yes, Ravelry and Twitter keep my interest in what other people are doing alive, and I have some amazing Twitter friends who keep an eye on me in a way that none of my real-life friends can — but my love for knitting is not alive because of the internet. It is a good resource for patterns and people, but not essential.

I know this totally wasn’t the point of the original article, and I’ve gone off on a tangent, so I’m not meaning to pick holes in someone else’s hard work. I was wondering what other knitter’s opinions are?

Much love,

Corrie xx