Knit. Blogosphere. Still two words.
Yesterday, I attended the BCAIM (BC Association of Integrated Marketers) Christmas luncheon at the Four Seasons Hotel. One of my clients is on the board of directors at BCAIM and she invited me out to hear the program.
The association had invited Darren Barefoot to speak about blogging and how blogging can be incorporated into business practice. Long gone are the days when marketers can control the message that the consumers receive. Now, at best, they can hope to engage in a conversation with consumers and attempt to manage the conversation. It was really an excellent presentation, illustrating how businesses can become more appealing to the consumer when they use blogs to communicate with their customers.
This is knit-related because one of the things Darren mentioned was the incredible number of knitting blogs out there in the blogosphere. (You know, I was all ready to come out of the closet with my “hey, I write a blog and yeah, it’s about knitting” until I heard all the snarky giggling and laughing from the crowd at the concept of knitting blogs.)
He seemed genuinely surprised that there would be so many knitters who blog — ok, I can deal. But unfortunately, this was then followed by the conclusion that this meant that bloggers are more than just geeky teenage boys — that, gasp, they might include older women. Did I just read that in? Or am I just too sensitive about the whole issue? It seems that with all of knitting’s new-found popularity, it still can’t shake that old granny image. We need some serious PR-work, stat.
Update: Isn’t it wonderful that we are all so passionate about this craft? I can sense everyone’s intensity through your comments. For me, I appreciate Darren coming here and clarifying his point. I’m cool with that. I’m sorry if this post sounded at all like a Darren-vs-Knitters complaint.
I think it’s kind of a defense mechanism for people to tease you about things that they don’t really understand. So the prescription for that is more exposure, more information, more communication. That’s what blogging is all about, no? Getting the word out.
Happy Friday!
Hey! Knitting is no longer a ‘hobby for little old ladies’. I helped operate a sales booth at a knitting and sewing fair and was amazed at the people who dropped in…young and old, female and male. So for those of the audience who smirked…perhaps they should take up knitting…they’d be amazed at what it can do for them! First of all, the learn a new thing, which is good for the mind; secondly, they create, again, good for the mind; thirdly, they add to their wardrobe and fourth they get to meet people like us…and they get to blog!! So there…! I now knit on the bus, at appointments, wherever and people always have a slew of questions as: Is it hard? Do you think I could learn now? Where can I take classes? Etc. Happy knitting! Carmen
Heh. I probably didn’t make my point as clearly as I should have. I suppose there are two parts, both relating to the entrenched preconception that all bloggers are pasty white guys sitting in their basement in their pajamas.
The explosion of knitting bloggers is shocking, in part because it debunks the aforementioned preconception. As far as I can figure, there isn’t a similar hobby popular with women that’s gripped the blogosphere in the same way.
The fact women are blogging–and have been since the beginning–is something that surprises a lot of people. I viewed it as a big triumph when 40% of attendees at Northern Voice last year were women. I think knitting is currently popular among women of all ages, and the blogosphere reflects that.
My point–and I think the online knitting community exemplifies this–is that bloggers are everyone, from 5-year-old boys to 95-year-old women. That’s important for marketing folks to understand. Apologies for not making it clear the first time around.
Hmm, and I just started my blog today. I’m a 40 something mom who colors and highlights her gray! I knit for the soothing effect, and the connection to the past. Why is it that people don’t snicker about the men who “collect” toy trains, or spend all their time watching sports on TV? Somehow that’s ok and knitting isn’t? Somehow when there are enough people involved there’s a built in support system.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t just snicker, I laugh outright at men who collect toy trains. As for men watching sports–have you checked out television ads recently? They’re chock full of mocking portrayals of the armchair quarterback.
Totally off subject, but I am curious to see what drum carder you ended up buying? I am in the process of getting one and don’t have any idea what I should get. Thanks. By the way, I just came across your blog last night while researching drum carders and I must say that you are VERY talented!!!!
Ugh, I know the feeling. Knitting is not only associated to older women, but to women with too much free time on their hands. As if knitting were not a hobby like any other. Better, because you’re actually producing something useful.
Someone didn’t do their homework. If you do something like going through the blogs listed in your sidebar, it’s apparant fairly quickly that the stereotype of the knitting granny does not fit the world of knitting blogs. Not that there aren’t any knitting granny bloggers, but there is really a wide age range for us, and many of us are in our 20s and 30s.
I had been reading your blog for a while but can’t remember if I had posted any comments before this. No, you are not sensitive! Whenever I tell people I knit, they look at me like ‘Oh my god, you are a grandma’. I am only 26! I got that reaction when I gifted my friend with a handknit lace scarf for her birthday. No more handknit presents anymore unless it’s a friend who appreciates it!
Yeah, everyone who knows me in real time AND who knows that I blog can’t wait to mention that they heard someone say that there are a lot of knit blogs out there. It’s an easy way to take what could become a very solitary, quiet activity and share it with others.
You can’t be serious on the snarky comments and the snickering?! I’d have been a tad perturbed too! You seriously need to send your blog address to him and show him just how stylish knitting can be! They don’t know what they’re missing and they need to open their minds a little! So there!
I’m 26, but I’m glad this man finally realized gamers and geeks arn’t the only one who use the internets
MUAHHAH!
See, now, to me, what’s painfully obvious is that while many people like to talk about how many knitbloggers there are, none of them ever read the blogs. The over 200 knitblogs I read are funny, intelligent, creative, fresh – should I go on? – and that reflects the authors, no matter how old they may be. I suspect that if any of these people read the blogs they’d find a very powerful voice coming from the knitblogging community.
How else to explain the over $100,000 dollars raised by the Give A Little blog? That’s a lot of power, of which the majority (but, of course, not all) are women. NO ONE wants to read about powerful women. Hence the tittering and snarky comments. Powerful women make people really, really nervous.
The best revenge is a great blog – and you’ve got that!
so glad to see this post from you. i think knitters are cool, young or old. but nobody at work knows i’m blogging about knitting. though they know i knit. i am interested to see the effect of this knit/blog phenomenon in the next couple years.
The talk sounds interesting. Kristine at Knit Happens has a blog for her shop and I think it works well for letting people know what’s going on. For someone like me who depends on the internet for most of her shopping, I like having somewhere to go to find out what’s going on with the business – it makes me feel like I’m in the loop. I’m impressed that Darren took the time to comment and clarify his position. As for knitting blogs, I would be lost and alone in Wyoming without all my blog friens, so personally I’m really happy that we have such a strong blogging community.
Maybe that’s why I don’t knit on the subway, too much staring, pisses me off, LOL.
The comment about people laughing when you tell them you knit reminded me of this story. I was at my father’s funeral a couple of months ago, and saw some relatives I hadn’t seen in about 10 years. They asked me what I was up to and I told them about the knitting, the spinning, the two sheep in the backyard. They thought it was hilarious. I thought it’s pretty bad when you are mocked at your father’s funeral. My dad thought it was very cool though, and was buried in a pair of hand knit socks. The only thing he ever asked me for was more socks.
Well, it makes sense that women are the biggest bloggers. Women love to talk. And show off their stuff.
Props to Darren for dropping by and clarifying.
I feel for you! I would have felt modified too. But what do they know? Sometimes people are cynical when I tell them about my business and my blogging. I told my best friend’s BF and he was like, uhhh and that works? Now my best friend is thinking about starting her own, so take that!
I’ve found that knitters are some of the coolest people. SOme I’ve gotten to met in person and it’s exciting. People who are not knitting or blogging are missing out! There are such incredible opportunities through blogging. It’s like your calling card. Someday it’s going to be like, uhhh YOU don’t have a blog? What century are you in?
Very interesting, Felicia. Thanks for posting about it. I don’t really know if I can add much more to what has already been said about smart women with great skills sharing with the world – I just like to see that this is being talked about!
Thanks to Darren for clarifying and explaining further as well.
Have a good weekend~
Yes, getting the word out. And yes, unfamiliarity breeds contempt.
The company that I work for, an online marketing company, are always going on about how we should be harnessing blogs as part of the marketing mix. Quite a few of the people that I work for seem to think that blogging is a bit of a waste of time – and as for my knitting blog, I’ll spare you the comments that I’ve had. Pah humbug.
While I agree that there often seems to be a sort of incredulity about knitting blogs (which could be attributed to the perceived demographic of knitters, or just for the fact that anyone devotes an entire blog to a perceived obscure hobby), I am often suprised by the sheer number and popularity of knitting blogs (and I’ve had one for close to three years). I found this site: http://usability.typepad.com/confusability/2005/04/bloglines_user_.html which is a statistical analysis of bloglines, and the folder entitled “knitting” is the 37th most popular folder! There were over 1700 knit blogs when she did her search in April 2005, and there have certainly been a lot of new ones since then. There isn’t anything similar for quilt blogs or cross-stitch blogs or Laborador retriever owner blogs, or even collecting toy train blogs…
I’m not sure where I’m going with this, but I guess I don’t always take offense to the snickers about knit blogs because I don’t quite understand the phenomenon myself. (Or, more precisely, I don’t understand why there aren’t many huge blog communities for other hobbies or special interest groups.)
Wow–interesting post and comments. I, too, am surprised that knitters represent such a large section of the blogosphere–why aren’t other crafts/arts/hobbies being talked about more often? I think that many people assume that knitters aren’t technologically savvy enough to work out how to turn on a computer, which is so totally off the mark (so many fiberistas I have met work in highly technical fields).
I know I blog to think things through out loud, to share triumphs, to get advice, to keep a record of my work and my ideas, to meet people (this was a big one for me as a newcomer to my community–and blogging connected me with a number of great people).
I’ve been having an odd sense recently of being irrelevant because I am 53, though not yet a grandmother (my daughter is 16). A spinning teacher was asked to write an article about new spinners, but she delicately rejected my comments because I’m not the demographic the publication was interested in. Phooey! I’m more free and more expressive now than I was 20 years ago, that’s for sure. But clearly too wordy….
Thanks for posting about this! I’m in the process of geeking out and transferring my web mag into a content management system, and the computer programmers I’ve talked to about it got really excited when I told them (sheepishly, anticipating the snickering) that the site’s about crochet. They said the whole knitting blog phenomenon is very highly regarded in the world of web application programming, and they didn’t at all snicker when I told them how popular “Crochet me” is. They may be personally baffled by the knitting and crocheting, but they’re certainly impressed with our online presence.
I am the person (Sarah I am actually a ‘he’) who did the analysis of bloglines subscriptions and was expecting to find people storing their subscriptions in folders called “tech”, “blogs”, “java”, etc. as most of the Bloglines users that I come across are ‘geeks’ like myself.
I found that the largest interest group that I found was the Knitters. I was not expecting to find this group so well represented in the blogosphere but I am really excited that less technical interest groups are making use of the technology to build and support a thriving community.
When you think about blogs and knitting are natural fits. They allow knitters to show other people their work and also discuss how their projects are going.
I have looked at quite a few knitting blogs since I stumbled across the knitters and I think that you can be proud of the fact that you are one of the first ‘human’ tribes to successfully populate the web in this way.
Chris, sorry about your inadvertant sex change! Thanks for clarifying!
I guess what keeps mystifying me is why other crafts or hobbies haven’t taken off. My mother is a quilter and I started searching for quilt blogs to show her and there just aren’t that many of them! (Most of the ones I found were folks who knit AND quilt…) But most of the time I don’t wonder too much about it, I just am thankful for the fabulous community/tribe I stumbled across and belong to!
i’ve been reading your blog for a couple of months and i find it very interesting and inspiring too. i am 28 (yes, yes, an older woman) and i loooove to knit, but i am too lazy to blog about it. so i am just a knitting blog-reader.
) i was very surprised, when i found out that there are sooooo many knitters outside! jipiiii! i am not alone! 
) so, yes, maybe a little PR would be good to show truth to persons like darren.
Hm. I’m surprised so many people in the comments above took it out on Darren. The people in the crowd were the ones snickering.
I’m also surprised that people laugh about someone knitting, or blogging, or doing the two at the same time. I’m always surprised when I hear that knitting isn’t respected; maybe I’m just lucky to live in an area where crafting isn’t frowned upon.
It’s the snickering like this that propels us to create things like this: http://www.sexyknittersclub.com/