The conversation usually goes like this:
"Hey, did you catch that game Saturday?"
"Probably didn't."
"Oh, you're not a <insert the name college football team here> fan?"
Humor has always been my go-to defense mechanism so I follow with, "Yeah, I really don't discuss religion."
As a big burly white guy from Birmingham, people tend to look at me sideways when I tell them that if every football game on the planet disappeared tomorrow, I would likely not notice. I realize this isn't the "norm". People REALLY look at me sideways when I tell them I am a fiber artist.
"Wait, you knit instead of watching football?" This always cracks me up as if the opposite of football is knitting. A recent opinion post was published in the NYT times. It references former First Lady Michelle Obama's Instagram post featuring her fiber art. People find that really strange too as if the opposite of being a successful black woman is being a fiber artist.
Check it out here: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/27/opinion/sunday/knitting-fabric-michelle-obama.html
But, yeah, it's true, I would rather knit my own eyelashes together than watch a football game. It doesn't interest me. It would be the same as me talking about the joys of warping a loom with a crocheter and watching them glaze over just as quick as a football fan would.
On the flip side of this entire thing, I put off joining the Greater Birmingham Fiber Guild for much of the same reason. I don't fit the norm in the group. What if some of the group are opposed to guys joining? What if they think I am a football fan and they are actively avoiding the football fans in their life for a few hours every second Saturday? (Totally kidding here.)
I followed the Guild's social media channels and was blown away by the artists here. (I still am.) I felt like I would do nothing but tax everyone with my amateur questions. I did not feel like I had a place here because of my level of experience and my gender. What if I am completely rejected in the one place where I feel like I shouldn't belong?
But I do love fiber arts. Yall... I am not even kidding. I LOVE it. I've bought skeins of yarn just because I like the colors -- Some skeins, I just want to pet. I don't want to make anything with them. Just wanna pet 'em. I could walk into the guild meeting tomorrow and almost everyone there would chuckle out of recognition of that statement. I am fascinated by the way things are made. I have marveled over Shetland knitters that could walk and throw nearly 100 stitches a minute. Weaving was such a part of ancient Egypt that looms and shuttles are found in hieroglyphics. There is magic in finding materials grown from the earth and the animals that live on it and turning them into something that will keep me safe from the elements. It is that love that brought me to this group. It should bring you to this group if it hasn't already. The people that have been here for years are like living libraries.
That love for fiber was really all I needed to join. My fears were unfounded because there isn't a norm for fiber artists. Not really. We are all as different as the medium with which we work. I promise this isn't one of those "we are more alike than different posts", but if you are reading this and you are concerned about how you will be received. Stop. Take a deep breath, and come see us. I will tell you we are ALL hopelessly incurable fiber nerds and you being there gives us validity that we are not alone in our love for making pretty things.
All are welcome here. Roll Tide.
