Creation, community and the woolly arts

One of the blogs I have started reading more recently (compared to some) is called Transpositions, a blog on Theology, Imagination and the Arts. It’s been stimulating ever since. This week they are actually having a week of featuring the 'domestic arts' and first up was a lady by the very suitably artsy name of Cosette Cornelius-Bates – a knitter. And would you believe she has a Masters in Christian Studies in Christianity and the Arts – in knitting! I never. You can see Cosette’s own blog and read about this here.

Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t think knitting can qualify as “art”, though for me and the way I do things with wool it leans a little more towards “paint-by-numbers” (but they do still sell paint-by-numbers in “art” shops don’t they), but I have never heard of anyone with such a degree. So I was quite intrigued to explore this.

Cosette has also written a post at Transpositions on Creation, Community and Knitting, which I enjoyed (and is along the lines of a post from the last time I linked to Transpositions on Reflections on the Practical Art of Quilt-making). I particularly liked her first point about knitting being a 'centering pursuit' (though I don't quite see how it's akin to prayer). One of the reasons I do and enjoy crochet (and crochet that’s actually not too complex and distracting also) is because my personality type is one that needs time to process things and sort and work them through, and so if I have had some kind of emotional turbulence I need to be able to think about it for a while (and possibly over-analyse it to the death) – and I can do this while I crochet, without just sitting staring into space.

Further, while Cosette talks all about knitting, this picture, taken from her latest post, is most decidedly crochet, so I think that validates me letting crochet be in on this knitting territory!