You Got a Problem with CONDOMS?
Rejection. Not good with it.
Rejected... as a winner in PDX.
Rejected as an "original" knitter in a One-Skein Knit Contest.
The envelope came in the mail today from Portland, Oregon's Yarn Garden. Not that I expected to win first prize--or second. Maybe a "Thanks for the thought" consolation greeting.
But nothing? And they enclosed everything in my return envelope--
OSU (Oregon State University) amulet, carefully knit in school's colors,
New York City's 2007 condom (good through 2011),
Female condom (you don't see these every day),
How-to instructions (see above), and
#15 of my handmade, bright yellow zine (hey, pass it along to a local woman--with the condoms).
No note. Not even a printed form, "We had so many entries..."
How about a message of sisterhood in the struggle for Safe Sex. Nada. You think they're telling me something: SAFE SEX not appropriate for knit competition?
Guess I'll have to tell my grandson that Grandma is too edgy for the yarn store in his neighborhood-- and I pull my hood up when we walk by. Tell my knitting buddies at www.KnitaCondomAmulet.com. And Pearl Chin at KnittKnitty City.
And I'll have to go public in the Knit/Crochet a Condom Amulet group on RAVELRY, the 6,000 member online group. (By the time you read this probably up to 7,000.)
[Enlarge the amulet image to read the pattern. I'll be posting on Ravelry soon. If your're a member, find me there as aLittleRedHen.]
maybe they're church people who are not only against abortion, they are against the most effective means to lessen abortions: birth control. sweet jebus....the world is full of very STRAAAAANGE folks, non??
Posted by: M.E. | February 22, 2008 at 09:17 PM
That sucks!
Posted by: helle Jorgensen | February 26, 2008 at 08:58 PM
WTF? That is so rude! And bizzarre! You are doing great work and making wonderful art. Keep it up.
Posted by: sweetea | February 29, 2008 at 04:15 PM
oh never mind them. get in touch with this knitter; bio at bottom. the two of you could supply Florida:
http://www.knitty.com/issuesummer04/PATTcozies.html
Posted by: anon | March 04, 2008 at 08:53 PM
I knit covers for my vibrator. Similar, yet different.
Posted by: Ali Barrett | March 05, 2008 at 05:17 PM
Say Wha?! But hey, Portland is not a progressive place, much as they'd like to think. The female condom, probably really freaked them out. Personally, I think it says something about their sex lives.
Sometimes yarn shops, as women's establishments, are too "pleasant" for my taste; in other words, we don't want to address issues that aren't pleasant––AIDS, HIV, or even having sex after 50.
Okay, it's time for me to get off my butt. I'LL devote a blog post to the Condom Aumlet. As my readers are global, a few Americans dropping off my site won't bother me. Besides, this is a trans-generational issue.
It's a shame. The yarn shop is the perfect place, as the majority of knitters despite the recent boom, are still women 40+.
Posted by: sahara | March 09, 2008 at 05:24 PM
Actually, sahara, Portland is progressive (#1 city in which to cycle, recently rated #1 green city in America, job centers for immigrant workers, public restrooms and showers for homeless, site of one of America's only permanent homeless cities, blah, blah, blah), although Oregon, as a *whole* is a mixed bag.
Any-who, I'm shocked that this entry was returned and I will definitely be saying something about it the next time I'm in the Yarn Garden. A lame response will guarantee them a lost customer!
I've joined the ravelry group for knit/crochet a condom amulet, and I plan on making a bunch of them and talking to one of my local shops about doing beginners classes centered on the condom amulet!
Keep up the great work!
Posted by: pdxWoman | March 16, 2008 at 06:01 PM