Pentagonal Progress Again

Pentagonal Progress Again
Originally uploaded by sunasak

Oh boy, another picture of the lumpy Noro item. I said I'd post progress reports! Last night I finished the row of small squares across the top of it, and started a band of plain stockinette that I picked up along the top edge. I hope to finish it tonight, barring too much back-to-school shopping and the phone ringing.

Then I will do one more little task to set up for the next stage in the project and felt away. We will see how the front-loading washing machine does. Pat at the yarn shop says hers felts fine, and that woman has felted a LOT of flowers and purses.

I got a ways up the sock leg yesterday, at lunch and a bit after work. But when my youngest is asking rapid-fire factual questions of me (Mom, are there such things as small sharks that are the same as big sharks? Well, there are baby sharks...), I find it very hard to keep track of where I am in the written-out instructions for the lace (it is not a memorizable pattern, at least for me, though I can tell if I mess up). I am wistfully wishing for a chart. I do see that the floral pattern with so many twists and turns, might not chart well.

People Are People

[Editorial Content Alert. Opinions Included.]

Now. Someone on an email list I read got blasted by list members for something she posted. (And by the way, I don't consider something an "advertisement" if you are sharing a contest, resource, sale or pattern with others--only if you are making money off of it would I call it an ad--how else would you tell people about something you found on the Internet that might be pertinent?) She wrote that she was hurt, and I felt sorry for her. But then she mentioned that she thought that type of knitter were all kind, like-minded souls who would not treat each other harshly. Oh, sigh, sigh sign.

I just have to tell you that assumption is ALWAYS false. In any random group of people drawn together because they have one thing in common, there will be all kinds of folks represented. Nice ones, smart ones, talented ones, slow ones, snippy ones and clueless ones, among others. They will run the gamut in political and spiritual beliefs, too. That's why more successful email lists stick to one topic and keep off-topic chit chat to a minimum. You're less likely to offend a snippy, clueless or nasty member that way, and less likely to get hurt.

How do I know this well enough to put an absolute like ALWAYS above? Decades of email list administration experience. Heh, there's a reason I don't administer lists any more. I was afraid my tongue would fall off after being bitten so long when people said unkind things to me.

I used to work for a nonprofit organization where all the members (all women) shared one thing in common. For some reason, that led a large number of them to assume that also meant they were all nice, kind and polite, too. But, then they'd also assume all members shared their religious or political views and YOW, that kindness thing would go out the window. And organizational disagreements and power-plays certainly made it clear that all mommies are not sweet "let's all play nice" kinda people.

I've seen the same thing on church email lists (please, NEVER make a joke about Christians on a Unitarian Universalist email list), school email lists...yadda yadda.

The point is, unless you hand-pick list members (and I do have a list like that!) you will need to remember there are many kinds of people on the list. Ideally you try to follow the rules and be polite. But if you mess up, accept that you'll get some sniping, mostly based on simple misunderstandings. However, I no longer try to explain myself. I just say I am sorry and drop it. Focus on the nice people who remember that all spiritual traditions have some version of the Golden Rule, and you'll be OK.

No set of people will all be "nice." Not writers, teachers, knitters, mothers, conservatives, liberals, agnostics, Quakers, comic book collectors, marching band parents, chocolate lovers, folk musicians...you get it (and I am all of the above except one adjective!).

I'm just knitting, reading and doing the best I can. If I mess up, I'll punish myself plenty and delete rude posts as soon as I see where they're heading. You can't engage in a flame war if one party doesn't flame back!