So here I am again, almost a year from when I posted last year. And I’ve cast on another Age of Brass & Steam in another color of Malabrigo Silky Merino - Indiecita, a blue with purple and green tones mixed in. You know when Life gets stressful I like to knit for peace inside. But nothing would work for me lately. All other knitting required a focus I couldn’t give it and I finally gave in to my urge to do another Age of Brass & Steam. For several reasons: I can do it without thought, it’s second nature and I can read a book & knit.
Also more importantly, I can think of global changes politically and national politics and government changes. Our country has changed at a blitzkrieg pace. We are not the country we were just 7 weeks ago. And I suspect we will be totally different in the future. Whatever it is so far it’s not good. I literally woke up this week analyzing our nation’s border and the possibility of war with Canada. Then I remembered one of the few things I know about Canadian history is our failed last attempt in 1775 to take Quebec City. So that’s what you get with a History degree & Master’s level International Studies at the end of the Cold War. I am fascinated with current events. So while I’m concerned for what is happening now in our country and I relentlessly check the news and read books to make sense of this; my refuge is found in my hands, the feel of the yarn and the rhythm of stitches. My knitting is my peace.
My reading has slowed down as I’ve created a Bluesky account @resistanceknitters.bsky.social to continue fighting this new administration. The previous one Trump 1.0 I fought on Facebook with a Resistance Knitters group. We knit for Migrants , Resistance Craftivism, and for Ukrainian refugees. But most importantly we kept each other company through the years. Now I’m back with my own space on Bluesky. Bluesky has become a place Liberals are flocking, especially with X being taken over by the Right, Twitter most likely made illegal and many boycotting Facebook because of Zuckerberg redirecting his energies in an opposite direction than Liberals. I’m not focused on knitting so much but on posting good, hard hitting journalism that is truth based. For me the fight is in accurate news. Many of my articles are from Substack, a somewhat new app for writers. Some from New York Times, my favorite paper still. You’ll find journalists that have left main stream news lately there on Substack. So I’m finding my knitting more a source of peace. But I’m also got a Craftivist project of a Temperature Shawl on needles.
Slowly I’m getting through a Peter Heller book. Which is kinda nice because he is a writer to savor the details. He writes for sporting magazines and is an amazing writer of nature and those poetic details that take you into the woods or on the waters. I’ve plowed through Burn his last year’s book. I read it too fast and it’s worth a second read. Now I’m reading Celine. Also other books by him The River & The Guide (read The River first before The Guide, same main character and you’ll ruin The River plot if you read The Guide first like I did!). Check them out at: Peter Heller.
I’d especially recommend “Burn”. It is a tough read but it was written by Heller because he was concerned for what was happening here in our country and where it could lead - Civil War. The story is of two hunters that walk out of the Maine woods after hunting for weeks to see towns burned down to the ground. Now Maine is now politically a microcosm of the U.S. The coast is Liberals and go inland less than 10 miles and you hit Trump signs. But Heller’s book is devoid of politics. Very well done. He creates an intense suspenseful story and it builds with all the big political questions not really answered. Once a character says- who knows who did what?- and lists all these different opposing groups and says maybe any of them are involved. Almost like saying do the details matter so much when it comes down to this, the death & destruction? I like its ambiguity in that way. But it’s a good read, even if tough. Makes you aware that even here that could happen. Just look at today’s news. We never could imagine our government could be dismantled so quickly. We grew up with promises of “guardrails “ that were in the government. Our balanced government could never fall. Now I wonder at our Pride. We are now friends with our staunch enemy and strong-arming our previous friends and allies. I am ashamed to call myself an American.
Please forgive my dour mood & horrible splash of reality. I’m not one to pull any punches as they say and I’m blunt & honest by nature. I am bottom line not only a knitter but a student of our history & politics & foreign policy. I can’t cleave myself in two. So I knit for Peace when the World falls apart.
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