Strange Communion

I must say that i have been apart of many communities and subcultures in my life and yet i have never found one so embracing as the knitting/crafting community. Over these last few months since i have started this blog and also opened up my Etsy shop i have had an opportunity to really jump into this whole community business with both feet

initially i started with the etsy shop and i got sucked into the vortex of drama but also of friendship and camaraderie that is the etsy forums. There i meet many sellers and buyers alike who are all craftspeople and artists at heart and had learned so much not only about etsy and selling but also on crafting and life.

Meanwhile i had started this blog and started reading other people blogs. I have a handful that i subscribe to and comment regularly and some that i am mostly a lurker who randomly comments. I myself have also gained some blog readers of both categories. Especially in the case of those whose blogs i read regularly and comment on and they do the same on mine i feel like i have really made a friend and that i know so much about these people who i have never spoken to or at times even saw a picture of. But i feel close to them and when i read their postings and comments i feel that we are having a real relationship.

Of course then i ventured off into Lime and Violet land and therefore became one of many in the army known as knitters. And from that point it was only a matter of time that in joined Ravelry, the Lime and Violet message boards and also knitwars. Needless to say i now have many more internet persons who exist now in my world. That plus the added fun of flickr means that i now have added a whole giant group of people with whom i not only share a passion (knitting) and also photos, but also regular random discussions knitting or otherwise. I know about their lives, their mental states, their families, their work...and of course they learn and know about mine.

I must admit that sometimes i listen to podcasts and then think that i had conversations, i.e. one time i told my husband "oh you know the funny story that violet told me the other day?" before realizing that actually i have never met violet and that she has never actually personally told me anything...(my claim of sanity loses yet another bit of credibility)

or i refer to conversations that i have had with internet people in my regular interactions with my physical world friends and forget that they have no idea who i am talking about

Of course my train to la la land of not knowing real people from internet people has deepened yet one more level now that i twitter...sigh