Sometimes it just doesn't pay to be right. Two weeks ago, I thought I broken a rib. Nah, I thought, impossible. It started to feel better, so I ignored it. It acted up Sunday, if you can call feeling as if you're being stabbed in the chest with every breath "acting up." I ended up in my doctor's office yesterday. Uh-huh. Broken right through.
How did I break it, you ask? Coughing. Are any of you asthmatics or allergy-sufferers? BEWARE.
It's broken on my knitting side - I'm a picker, and I use my right arm to pick with. I'll have to wait a little while before I do anything as strenuous as knitting. I guess I'll just have to spend lots of time reading. Drat!
I'm determined to get through Moll Flanders, even though I am not enjoying the book at all.
I'm also reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, a fascinating study of how movements and ideas spread. A person or a small group does something New. Others observe the New, and something about it catches their imagination, so it "sticks" and spreads if the cultural context is hospitable. The facilitators of this phenomenon are those who connect with others, people who are information-oriented, and people who can "sell" an idea.
Let's apply this to the knitblogosphere.
Blogging, by its nature, is peopled with connectors. Some bloggers are brilliant teachers of technique. Others are extremely persuasive.
Would you like an example? Let's look at the Clapotis. A pattern appears in Knitty. A few people knit it, adore it, and flaunt it. (I seem to recall delicious pictures of people running down a street, Claps spread in the wind like gorgeous, multicoloured, luscious capes, or extremely sensual pictures of Claps draped over dimly-lit bedspreads... Very, very enticing photos, indeed.) Others see the Claps and just have to knit them. Pretty soon, the Clapotis is The Project, groups form to share the process and techniques, and everyone who has made one urges everyone else to experience it.
Do you think Malcolm Gladwell had this in mind? HA!
You know where this is going. I'm thinking about starting a Clapotis. I can't do it now, and I won't do it until I finish at least one of my three WIPs. But now that the idea of a Clapotis has seized me as a project to do instead of just something to admire and drool at, I too, will become a salesperson. (Psssssssst, Janet -- wanna join me in a Clap?)
7 comments:
Aww man - I feel your pain! I once pulled a muscle in my ribcage by coughing too hard. I hope your rib will heal quickly - but I remember it felt like it took forever for my muscle to feel better.
Oh dear! You poor thing. I hope you start feeling better soon.
*wiggling fingers in a hypnotic fashion* You neeeeeed tooo knit a Clapotissssss....
I have yarn on the way to knit a clapotis! :) Will take a bit to get to it, as I, too, have WIPs to complete. But I'll join you!
(gentle hugs) Heal quickly! (no knitting is almost a "fate worse than death."
I have Blink by Gadwell if you want it! There's a cool personality thing I want to post, not as a meme, but more like an experiment...
Hope you feel better, and of course, you're more than welcome to my copy of Blink!
Oh, sweetie! I do hope you feel better soon. I've heard of that happening before, and it wasn't fun for the girl who suffered it. I've got asthma, too, as do my kids, so I'm usually on the lookout for such events.
Did I ever tell you I 'pick' my yarn, too?
I'm not having much success with Moll Flanders, either. I find it hard to read, and I started late, too. I'm still reveling in how much I enjoyed Pi, and now that my son is reading it even more so.
I guess there is quite a fascination with Clapotis. I guess I may be missing something because I haven't knitted it yet.
I am sorry about the rib. I've heard of that happening...although it has never happened to me.
One of my HS students that read Moll for an independent reading project said that reading it was painful. She also said it made her feel dirty. I felt bad that I hadn't warned her.
I hadn't thought of "the tipping point" with regards to the Clapotis - very true. I also enjoyed his book "Blink" & in a similar vein - "Freakonomics"
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