Gosh I love Controversy

As a highly opinionated person, I do love a bit of controversy, and I can be quite argumentative. And my most fiercely held opinion is that everyone has the right to their own opinion.

I’ve argued with a lot of people in my life and what I’ve found is that many people believe I argue because I want them to agree with me. I don’t. I want people to think. I want folks to explore what they believe, and to challenge themselves and me. I want people to have opinions and support them. I want people to convince me of things, and to be convinced of things by me. Or maybe just to have a good discussion that results in nobody changing their minds at all.

I don’t believe that because I think something, the person who things differently about it is necessarily wrong. Probably no one is wrong. I can’t decide for someone else what’s right or wrong for them, and it’s never a good idea for others to try to decide that for me. I simply won’t have it. And feel free to disagree with everything I’ve just said.

With that said, I recently read a post that stirred up discussion, so in celebration of crafting controversy everywhere, I present to you some of my favorite posts. I recommend reading the comments as well as the post.

1.  Political agendas: the Etsy Craftivism team on Crafting a Green World.  There was a flap on political leanings within the ranks.  Do you have to be leftist to want to effect change? It seems sometimes the assumption is “yes.”

2.  Also from Crafting a Green World, Julie gets called “retarded” (definitely poor word choice) in the comments in reply to her post about using acrylic felt.  As an acrylic felt (and yarn) user myself, I thought the response was in remarkably poor taste, but everyone’s got an opinion.  Just maybe insulting others isn’t the best way to voice your response.

3.  The post that gave me the idea, the Stitch Bitch’s post on the DIY craft youth movement and its portrayal.  And of course, Anna wrote a well-crafted response post as well giving due consideration to the comments she received originally.

4.  OMG, the Craftzine dared to post … Squirrel Feet earrings!  Creative taxidermy turned out to be very controversial. It incited something of an online riot.

5.  Although I’ve drawn out the squirrel discussion in particular since it got people so riled up, Craft in fact noted a whole list of 2008 controversial posts.  Never say people don’t have opinions.

6.  Margaux Lange, creator of Barbie-inspired jewelry, who posted on her negative experience at a craft show in DC. It’s a long and detailed accounting.  I responded, and I realize now it’s overly long, I forgot I had so much to say about it.  I was very disappointed in the craft show attendees, and apparently other things as well.

7.  Remember the CPSIA flap over new childrens’ products testing and the impact on small business owners?  Etsy got really involved, and got the attention of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. I still have a button on my site which I mean to take down ANY day now.

8. Speaking of blog maintenance – I’m kinda sad she edited it from the first, glorious rant, but the point is still there on Urban Craft’s blog post No One Reads Blogs Anymore. You can get a better idea of her original post from the 60 comments. The point is: what’s the etiquette of craft blog posting? Is it really interesting to post about our dinner-making, children and other non-craft pursuits? Do we really read each others’ posts or just skim?  Do we take care of our blog links, etc.?  Very interesting, and worth a read if you write a craft blog.

Those are the ones I’ve noted and remembered, but I would be really thrilled and pleased if any of you know of any more rants, discussions, arguments, or controversies and can post them in the comments.  I do love reading them.

There are currently 50-some people subscribed to this blog, which is amazing to me, but I rarely hear from any of you!  So I am hoping at least ONE of you manages to actually stop by! And if you’re the owner of one of the flaps mentioned, I’d like to hear what your response was when you realized you’d incited comment

Who, me?

I turn beet red and develop an embarrassing stammer when people compliment me. I’m just not so good at it! Nevertheless, I must say that I appreciate that Shelly of This Eclectic Life and Jenna of Corgipants and the SwapDex both gave me the Arte y Pico Award some time back, and the time has come to pass it on to some of the folks that inspire me (I’m supposed to pass it onto 5 people).  It’s just too bad those two are out of the running, or they might have gotten it from me!

So here are my awards, and if these fine folks feel as though they would like to pass it on, they are welcome to, but no pressure to do so!!  My desire is simply to compliment some folks that I love to read, and who inspire me in different ways.  Although I try to comment on the blogs I read fairly regularly, I sometimes fail in that, and often I think that the people who blog don’t always know their impact on others and that their effort is appreciated!  So here we go, in no particular order.

I think I stumbled across A Chicken in Every Granny Cart accidentally, but wow! was that ever a happy accident. I love Ann’s blog – her pictures, her food, her ramblings.  Each week her blog is a visual treat of food talk and collections of pictures from her long, long walks around New York City’s boroughs and upstate New York.  And at the end, a delicious recipe from what she’s been cooking.  Ann loves food like I do, and she’s much more adventurous with her ingredients than I.  You should hear her wax rhapsodic about beans, it’s truly inspiring.  I can’t decide about whether I like the pictures or food more, but the combination just makes me happy every time I get a new post.

misshawklet has been my favorite yarn spinner-and-dyer for a while. I am sad that I can rarely buy anything from her since I’m so allergic to wool, but sometimes (like now!) she has cotton as well, in natural and yummy colors.  I can’t quite explain what I mean by this, but I like reading her blog because of her voice, the approach to life she projects.  To me, she always seems so positive and hopeful (even if she doesn’t feel it), and makes her homebody/yarn projects seem fun and easy, and she always seems so interested in everything around her.  I’ve been hoping along with her lately that she can buy the house she’s interested in!

Hanna of iHanna.nu is a favorite because of her approach to creativity, which is a huge part of her life.  Last year Hanna created a book, and this year she’s making daily art cards, but her creativity is expressed in a lot more ways than just that.  Like Hanna I love research and collecting/documenting, so that may be a lot of why her approach appeals to me.  Overall, though, I think that reading Hanna’s blog, looking at what she creates (this is a favorite) and seeing what inspires her reminds me to open up my idea of what “creativity” actually is and where it’s found.

Leah runs a blog and challenge at Creative Every Day is another person who inspires me in the creative arena. I wasn’t ready to join the challenge back in January, but I’ve certainly benefited by reading this blog and watching her create her art.  I’ve thought for a long time that being an “artist” was a sort of mystical, vague, intimidating concept (translation: I had no idea what it really meant to be an artist) .  I’m less vague on the concept and more impressed now, because of what Leah does and how she does it.  It’s hard to pick a favorite of her pieces, but if I weren’t broke I would own this original piece.

My last award goes to Diane Slade of Thoughts from a Seamstress, and if you want to know why I chose Diane, just go read this post which shows her making a shirt.  I would in no way be able to make that shirt, no matter how clear the instructions – not only because of her impressive equipment (serger, double needle sewing?!) but because of the techniques (the gathering gives me the heebie-jeebies)!  Diane is a talented professional seamstress, and it really shows.  I featured Diane’s denim bias skirt many moons ago, and I have enjoyed living vicariously through her talented fingers ever since then.  If she weren’t in Michigan, I’d try to convince her to give me lessons!

So there you go. The talents and creativity of five lovely people I wouldn’t know a thing about if it weren’t for this here lovely interwebs.  Thanks again to Shelly and Jenna, not only for the award, but for giving me a chance to tell these folks how much I appreciate them!

Crafting for Charity: Shelly Tucker, Storyteller and Share A Square

If you’ve been reading this blog for a month or more, you know I was involved in Share A Square, a charity afghan project. I’ve posted a fair bit about it, beginning with my original post on February 12, continuing on February 19, February 21 and February 29. I got my mother-in-law working, and she finished one on March 7. I posted my finished afghan (#134) on April 28.

I also asked the creator of the project, Shelly Tucker, to do an interview about Share A Share, and she’s graciously done just that! I think it’s grand timing, as she (and whoever else can go) will be delivering the 140 afghans to Camp Sanguinity over the Fourth of July weekend (July 7). Before I let you have Shelly herself, I should tell you I think this project is just like Shelly – each afghan is a story between the yarn and the tags, and it’s all full of heart. How like Shelly to conceive of it – she’s a storyteller with a heart herself.

Links: The Share A Square Blog, the Afghan Gallery and Shelly’s blog This Eclectic Life.

Without further ado, I give you Shelly:

First of all, would you explain what the Share A Square project is and what it’s for? Just a recap of what it is for those who haven’t seen it before.

On June 14th, 2008, I got a crazy idea. I posted asking folks to send me 6″ granny squares with a tag showing their name and location. I planned to take 48 squares from different people to make afghans. My thought was to make afghans to give to each child at Camp Sanguinity. It’s a summer camp for kids with cancer and blood disorders associated with Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, TX. One hundred and forty children would attend. I planned on each of them getting an afghan touched by at least 48 different hands, so they would know how many people care about them.

Why did you decide to start this project? What does it mean to you?

Why? There is no telling “why” I decide to do anything! I’m “possessed.” Actually, I had seen a quilt at Your Mirror Or Mine that had been given to Pharah’s son at cancer camp. I thought it was a fantastic idea for a way to contribute to society, but I don’t quilt. That same day, a blogging buddy in Canada sent me some tea towels she had knitted. I remembered that I crochet. Then, I thought, “Hey wouldn’t it be neat if several people helped make one afghan?” Then, it kind of snowballed and took on a life of its own. I posted, and before the day was out about 15 bloggers had linked to it. It took several weeks, but all of a sudden the squares started pouring into my mailbox.

What does it mean to me? This storyteller, who makes a living with words, is positively speechless when she tries to tell you what this program means. Yes, 140 children will get some afghans filled with love. But, more importantly, MANY people got the opportunity to open their hearts and give. I’ve been amazed at how many people have thanked me for the opportunity (especially when I was making them work!).

It looks like it’s been a tremendous amount of work – tell us about what you’ve done for the project yourself. Did you expect you’d be in for this much work?

Did I tell you that “Clueless” is my middle name? I had no idea how much was involved to put this together. That’s probably a good thing, because it might have seemed too daunting. Thankfully, the really hard part (crocheting squares) was done by other people. I had some awesome volunteers from around the world. Without them, this never would have come together, and I can’t thank them enough. For my part, yes, I did a lot of stuff. There has been the daily trips to the post office, recruiting volunteers, sorting the squares, LOTS of crochet, taking pictures, editing the photos and posting them, writing about it (it soon required its own blog), writing thank you notes, tagging afghans, bagging afghans…and it isn’t over yet. We still have to deliver the afghans AND I have tons of squares left to make “extra” afghans for the children who are too sick or too young to attend the camp.

I made more work for myself than I had to do, because I didn’t know what I was doing. Looking back I can see mistakes I made, but it was darned well worth it.

The project had an offshoot, too. My blogging friends Sherry at Yellow Rose’s Garden and Barbara at Purplemoose Gazette started what we called the “Bag Project” to make “medicine bags” for each child to hold the special tags from the afghans. They got together 140 handmade bags. It’s astounding.

I think the size of this project (those are boxes of afghans there on the right) and people’s generosity is best expressed by some numbers. (1) How many squares have you gotten now, (2) how many people have contributed squares and/or afghan-construction? and (3) where are some of the places you’ve gotten materials from?

After 10,000 squares, I quit counting. More than 400 people have been involved in one way or another (many of them chose to remain nameless). Where did the squares originate? All over the United States (from Alaska to Hawaii), and from foreign places like Japan, Taiwan, England, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Mexico, several provinces of Canada, Germany, Italy, and Oklahoma (sorry, I had to jab my sisters in the neighboring state).

My biggest surprise was to find that my blog had been translated into Japanese. One night, my husband and I watched a PBS special about the Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Tearfully, I turned to him and said, “If that had happened to my country, I would never forgive the perpetrators.” The next day, my mail held 12 packages from Japan. The first I opened was from Hiroshima, and the woman wrote, “Thank you for letting me happy children.”

I guess the Universe had a little lesson for me about forgiveness and love, eh?

It sounds like, from your blog, that you’ve been overwhelmed and surprised by the reaction to your idea. What kind of response did you expect and/or hope for?

Overwhelmed, but not surprised at all. I already knew that people have big hearts.

Any really great or touching stories from people who have contributed squares? Any particularly interesting tags people have attached to their squares?

How many pages did you say you wanted to dedicate to this interview, Miriam? As for the tags, I’ve loved the origami from Japan (there were several with an origami frog that blew me away). As for stories… I can go on for hours. There’s the blind woman who sent squares, the 94 year old woman who churned them out, the woman with MS who put together four afghans (even though she could only work an hour a day), the woman who made so many squares that I suggested she make an afghan (but it was to bulky to take to her chemotherapy session), the woman with Alzheimer’s who couldn’t remember how to make a granny square but could still single crochet, and there was Kathleen (who didn’t know she didn’t have any time)…

Do you get my drift? EVERY square has a story, and ALL of the stories touch my heart.

Tell us a little about Mr. T (right), the young boy who received the first afghan. I think it’s a really great story that shows the impact of this kind of work – both the afghan itself and also the impact of having something made by so many people.

Taten’s grandmother Matty, at Running on Empty, was one of the first people to donate to Share A Square. When I found out how terribly sick Taten (Mr. T) was (in need of a bone marrow transplant), I sent the first afghan that we made to him in Canada. He wouldn’t take the tags off for three days, and when he did he shuffled them like cards and memorized the names of his 48 new friends. THAT’S when we realized how important the tags were, and the idea for the Bag Project was born.

Any final thoughts or observations?

Oh my. I’m still in awe of what we did. Every time I pick up a stray square (and there are many strays at my house), I touch it and cry at the time and effort that people took to give of their hearts. It amazes me every day how powerful the internet can be. Some of my volunteers were bloggers, others were just internet surfers, and some came from the community where I live. ALL of them have hearts as big as Dallas, and I can never thank them enough. What a joy and a blessing this has been.

Shelly Tucker, storyteller

Website: http://www.spinmeayarn.com
Daily blog: http://thiseclecticlife.com/