Tale of the Naughty Knitter

I am a bad, bad girl. I am naughty. I am a naughty knitter. A couple of days ago (20 Sept 06 to be exact) I managed to get myself banned from an online knitting community. Banned. Me. Verbally flogged in the public square of comments by a zealous moderator. Some of the “banning” was done in all caps including the word “ABSOLUTELY”. So, I come before you here and confess … I am a misbehaving miscreant naughty knitter.

I must say, however, at first I was a bit dismayed. If you have followed my blog at all, I think you might see my communication tends to be respectful, wholesome, inspiring for some, and offered in a spirit of friendship and kinship. Being met with harsh, somewhat fascist treatment was a bit disconcerting … at first. Very shortly afterwards though I did get my sense of humor about it all. I mean, really … this is knitting for goodness sake.

Truth be told, stirring up a bit of controversary is a great marketing tool, and there were about 1,500 curiousity seekers who came to my blog that day to see the naughty knitter for themselves. I hope they weren’t too disappointed.

I have decided to adopt a positive attitude and regard for the entire affair. I consider my banishment as a badge of honor in fact and I feel sincere gratitude for this opportunity to remind myself and others that life is far too sweet and much too short to lose ones sense of goodwill and to treat others harshly, even if you believe they deserve it (which I believe people do not deserve).

To mark the occassion, I have created a scarlet “N” for “naughty” and made a badge which you will see proudly displayed on my blog from here on out. It is the “Sign of the the N”, the official badge of honor of the Naughty Knitter. I offer it in the spirit of play … so please, don’t anyone take themselves or the “N” too seriously. We are knitters, after all; we have a certain reputation to maintain.

If you too are naughty, have been publicly flogged on the Internet (especially if ALL CAPS were involved at all), or if you have been ousted from any ostensibly “cool” group ever in your life for any reason whatsoever, please join me in the Naughty Knitters Club.

(If you use the badge, please copy the image and get it hosted wherever you get your images hosted so as not to eat up bandwidth over here … even if you are naughty, please be helpful on this point.)

Wear it proudly my friend.