We do not want your Money

Hey Flan,

I have been reading knitting blogs and something keeps coming up. Several knitters have decided to raise money for various causes. Many of these causes have noble pursuits, such as ending famine, encouraging education and research to put an end to devestating diseases. There are several success stories such as individuals having raised thousands of dollars.

However, it seems to be like there is now an Expectation. It seems like there is an Expectation to Give; an Expectation of Generosity. This increasing expectation makes me incredibly sad. It now seems that in order to be a respected, full fledged member of our "community" you must purchase the membership.

Knitting has become my haven. It is the one area of my life that can drown out all the horror of the world, all the catastrophic things people do to each other, it can drown out the pain and suffering and stress. It does not ask me what kind of car I drive, nor what I do for a living, what level of education I have or what I'm planning on fixing for dinner. It asks little of me and I can choose how much of myself I give to it. I think that is one reason that the increasing fundraising saddens and frustrates me so. It has infiltrated the place of respite and retreat.

The Expectation is incredibly pervasive; not only with pressure to knit for charitable causes, but also to generally knit for others. A few months ago a blogger wrote that she typically knit only for herself and received several shocked comments. People were more than a little surprised by her apparent selfishness.

The fact that we are all knitters should be enough for membership in this community. Nothing more. Membership shouldn't be granted based what I knit or how I knit or for whom I knit- just that I knit.