Norms & knitting blogs

A while back, Torill Mortensen noted that someone needs to write an article on knitting weblogs because there are many good ones out there that share information, create a community, and use photography and other graphics.

There is at least one article that I know of on knitting blogs:

Wei, C. (2004) Formation of norms in a blog community. In L. Gurak, S. Antonijevic, L. Johnson, C. Ratliff (Eds.) Into the blogosphere: Rhetoric, Community, and Culture in Weblogs. Minnesota: University of Minnesota. Available online:
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/formation_of_norms.html

and a review of this article by Lilia Efimova: http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2004/10/18.html
I agree with Efimova (and Schmidt) that Wei’s article doesn’t examine the formation of norms as much as it compares actual practices vs. stated norms for particular knitting webrings and knit-alongs. These stated norms seem to be more technical rules rather than the informal, idiosyncratic adaptations or emergent ones that I’m also more interested in.

I have a long-standing research fascination with norms and love to read knitting weblogs, so writing an article on norms and knitting blogs appeals to me a great deal–except I have a thesis to write! So for now, I’ll content myself with sharing a recent knitting experiment with you.

I bought some merino fingerling weight yarn to try dyeing my own wool with kool aid. This yarn is “Bare” from Knitpicks .

I mixed up a bunch of colors (2 packets each) in large mason jars (750ml). I was aiming for a Fleece Artist “wildflowers” type colorway and followed directions for the variegated handpainting. If I wanted saturated colors for self-striping yarn, I would have used more packets.

I ended using only 2 colors: cherry (red) and switching secret (green). I squirted the color on with a turkey baster, wrapped the yarn with saran wrap, and zapped it in the microwave for a couple of minutes three times, allowing yarn to rest in between.

Note: Red & green. I wasn’t trying for Christmas colours. I thought I was grabbing blue moon berry or ice blue raspberry lemonade.

Anyway, this is what the skein looked like after it was cooled, washed, and dried.

And this is what the yarn looks like so far in knit2, purl2 rib start of a sock.