The Risk of Knitting

I know I've been a bit chatty lately, and I have no explanation for this other than I seem to have a lot to say about issues that keep popping up on the lists I read.  Well sort of read.  I don't have time to read them all all thoroughly, so I usually works out that I read each one intently while I'm in their "zone". 

I always read Socknitters, since I'm always knitting socks.  I always read Freeform Crochet, since I always Freeform.  The rest, CQ, Knitlist, Bead Crochet, Quilting on the Side,  A Girl Can Never Have Too Many Handbags, BellePapier, Dyehappy, Freecycle, Spindlers, Spindler's Pay it Forward, Spinning on the Edge, Chainlink, Knitteachers, NETA, and all the others are catch as catch can.  I think you can see why.

Anyway, today I read a post on the Socknitters list by a woman looking for a cogent argument to use for her fretting husband.  He wanted her to stop knitting in the new car since it had passenger side airbags.  I realize that my answer may seem flip and callous.  It isn't.  I've been mulling over the place risk and "Danger" have in our daily lives since the Bicycle Helmet law was passed. I worry about a risk averse society and among other things, what that means, to not only geographic and space explorative sciences, but to all fields of scientific endeavor.  Frightened people make poor science. 

I could do a whole post on this alone, so perhaps I'll leave it to another day. For today:

Argument for a Risk Averse Husband. 
Or, you don't usually die from a single, small abdominal puncture.   

Over the years, many people have told me that I shouldn't knit in  the car.  Here's my answer:

Life is risk.  Most activities can prove dangerous to body parts at some point. Notice I said dangerous to body parts and not dangerous to people.  We need a certain amount of danger to feel alive.  Remember how you felt going down that steep hill on your Flexible Flyer, or like me, on your brand new clamp-on roller skates?  You felt alive – exhilarated!  It was the most fun you had all day. 

Most of us don’t go down those hills on sleds anymore.  We’re worried about what a broken leg or arm or even a wrenched back would do to our schedules.  So we play it safe.  Playing it safe is a dangerous game though.  Being safe means being fearful; being fearful means curtailing, one by one, those activities that often bring us the most joy.   Until we end up sitting in the living room, on the couch, under a lightening rod, behind a burglar alarm, covered in sunscreen.

I am going to die, eventually.  When I do – I want to have packed in as many high risk activities as I can. I do NOT want to sit on that couch for one single second thinking about the things I was too afraid to risk.  The fun I was too fearful to have.  And that includes knitting socks in cars. 

A couple of years ago I read a book that changed my life: Ghosts of Everest: The Search for Mallory & Irvine.  In it is a photo of Leigh Mallory’s body.  It was found frozen in nearly perfect condition.  He died with a broken leg, cracked ribs and numerous bruises and contusions.  His body was positioned with arm and leg straining upwards, clinging to rocks.  He died, still climbing.  He died trying. 

I’m not a fool hardy woman.  I wear boots with good traction in the snow.  I don’t grab at electrical appliances when I’m wet, and I do attempt to statistically asses most risky activities for likelihood of life altering possibilities.  In other words, I look before I leap.  But leap I do - and I always will.   I’d rather go like Mallory.  I’d rather die doing what I love.  I’d rather die knitting in the car with one more pair of socks to my credit.

So my knitting friends - challenge your detractors to argue with that.  They’ll tell you they love you too much to lose you.  Tell them that if they really love you – they won’t lessen your life by making you afraid.  If they love you – they’ll love you as the glorious, knitting risk taker you are!
   

 

Comments

[Sue Lyn]

I love this! Some people seem to want to suck all the fun out of life by clapping a metaphorical bike helmet on the whole world.

[Debbie]

I also came over from Socknitters. Another very well-written post. You sure do have a nice way with words. I agree - I think I too would rather die knitting in the car then to be too afraid to knit!

[Becky in Iowa :O)]

I just read your comment on Socknitters and just had to come on over to your blog. I so agree with all you said. You have a real way with words. :)

[Crafting Jen]

I'm with you - it seems like everywhere you turn these days, people are all too ready to tell you yet another thing that's risky, and how to avoid it.

At which point, I usually express the same sentiment as you, but a bit more succinctly:

"Living is the leading cause of death. I refuse to stop living just to avoid dying."

[Laura]

I hear you sweetie. Just by chance I was looking at http://www.radarmagazine.com/features/2006/12/toys.php
today - now they were risky toys!

Oh - now doesn't that look like some kind of awful spam message? Sorry - promise it's not - just a link to dangerous toys

[Jan from PA]

That's pretty much the arguement that I presented to my mother who asked me not to carry knitting in my book bag in 1966 because a woman tripped and pierced somthing vital with a knitting needle.

These days, I'd have to ask who made the needle. My sock needles are always bent!

Go for it!