Big Deal

It's a big deal to me that Stephanie Pearl-McPhee commented on my blog.

The Yarn Harlot.

If all it takes to get her over here is some perceived criticism (oh, how bad things look when you've just returned home from an arduous trip), then maybe I should do that more often.

Nah.

I'll just go back to my usual role of being a groupie. Honestly, my husband must be pretty sick of hearing all about the Yarn Harlot, the way I go on and on normally.

The woman is funny. Even my 12-year-old son would agree -- since he spent twenty minutes giggling through the glossary of Knitting Rules. After driving me batty reading it over my shoulder, he finally got the book to himself for a while, whereupon he proceeded to read aloud to anyone who would listen definitions such as SABLE (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy) and WHACO (Wool Housing and Containment Overload).

So yeah, the humour. It's there and it's good. I loved Knitting Rules. The other book I've read, The Secret Life of a Knitter is a slightly earlier work. Not all of the situations in that book sit well with me.

Do you know people who have trouble watching I Love Lucy reruns because they describe it as "painful", or who run out of the room when Richie Cunningham is about to make a fool of himself on Happy Days? (Yes, I know I'm showing my age here. I should probably think of an example from Seinfeld or Friends or whatever, but I can't.*) What's happening there, I think, is that the viewer is so invested in -- identifies so strongly with -- the character, that it's psychologically jarring to see behaviour that doesn't correlate with the viewer's high opinion of the person (character) they are watching. It absolutely ceases to be funny and becomes a source of distress.

Welcome to me reading about "socks for Sinead", or "sour grapes" towards the art of crochet. There comes a point where humour is painful. An admired figure somehow crosses the line into decidedly un-admirable behaviour in the name of humour and it becomes a source of distress for the admirer.

But honestly, it's no big deal. It's what... two chapters.

It is NOT going to stop me from reading the most famous blog in yarndom, or buying the Yarn Harlot's other books.

Really.

* I just thought of a current example. How about some of the cringeworthy antics on That 70s Show?