Thursday, July 03, 2003

Oh, hello! I still have no Internet access at home, but I've found an Internet cafe in the neighbourhood, so I can give you text in the meantime. I've missed you! I've been flying through a little raglan pullover sweater (from this pattern) using Regia Crazy Colors 5262:



The colours are very bright, and I think it will be perfect for the 18-month-old boy I have in mind. It's so much faster than the Haiku, because I'm knitting much more loosely. The Haiku mystery yarn is much like butcher's string, and I held it very tightly. With the Regia, I'm knitting like the wind. Something disturbing: I'm finding that, especially with Haiku but also with this sweater, the pinkie finger on my right hand gets sore after lots of knitting.

As she always does, Zoe Williams wrote a good column in the Guardian the other day: "What women want". I'm a little surprised she hasn't addressed this before, as the media have reported for years that many young women avoid the F-word for various reasons. I'm not even convinced that it's true, being a 30-year-old feminist who has called myself one for a decade. Am I really that marginal? Anyway, in response to surveys that report women make less money than men and would in fact rather not work outside the home, Williams manages to get to (and to get) the point:

Domestic work and childcare have always had a low status compared with the fabled "career" option, and feminism, rightly, undertook to redress this by storming the workplace. But truthfully, every job, however high-powered, is principally made up of talking to people who aren't really listening, and moving bits of paper....
[Feminism] was as noble and important as any other civil rights movement, and yet we seem to take no pride in it. We are crazy to disown it like some kind of embarrassing old aunt. If the workplace is a disappointment, that's not a failure of feminism, it's a failure of capitalism.
It looks stormy outside. I'd better head home before the rain comes. Oh, and look! I think you can leave me a comment! Would someone please try, so we can see if this works? Thanks.

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