So TOUCHY!

When did it become unacceptable to have someone give you feedback, correction or criticism?  Honestly, when someone offers me useful feedback about something I've done wrong, and they do it in a way that's helpful and not hurtful, I thank them for it.  Don't get me wrong, I don't always accept their feedback, but I'm  grateful that they were trying to be helpful.

It's a Jerry Springer World

Go ahead and tell someone that they dropped litter, or ask them to be quiet in a movie, or excuse yourself for trying to get past them while they stand in the middle of a thoroughfare texting, or let the passenger on her cell phone know that the flight attendant has requested all electronic devices were turned off a little while ago.

The usual reaction is a polite, "Oh I'm sorry...thanks for letting me know."

Yeah...no...it usually elicits a reaction as if you had told them that they were a piece of shit, or that you're sleeping with their spouse/partner.  The response is usually aggressive, confrontational, threatening and full of obscenities and verbal attacks.  And often times, if the person is with friends or family, instead of being embarrassed by the show of defensiveness, they join right in berating and threatening you.

Shows like The Jersey Shore and Jerry Springer have made it completely acceptable for people to attack you for any correction or criticism, even when they're totally in the wrong.  In fact, even more so often when they're in the wrong and they know it.

It wasn't always that way.  In fact, if you tell me I'm doing something wrong, my first impulse is to get totally embarrassed and apologize, even if I don't think what I did was wrong.  And if Thaddeus was to ever react aggressively to someone's criticism while I was with him, I'd be mortified.  But he wouldn't anyway.

Knitters to the Rescue

To offset the crazy, raging world, Suburban Knits have put out a 20 pattern e-book for $20, and they are sending all the profits to Oklahoma Tornado relief.

For the knitters that remember, this is NOT knitting sweaters for penguins...it's thousands of much-needed dollars going to the relief effort.

Please buy your copy in support of this effort.

Current Knitting/Crochet

I've completed a few more rows on the Interlocking Crochet Scarf done in various remnants of sock yarn, and it's looking (and feeling) fantastic!

Since the Milano Stitch blanket, I have always like the color combination, and this stitch also breaks up the striping to make it more interesting.  The drape is also quite loose and lovely.

Readers' Comments/Questions

Beverly in NJ makes two good points in her comment, "Congrats on the 10 best showing. But where is Jean Miles on those lists?

I like your yarn but not sure how it will work in a Stephen West shawl. His patterns rely so much on strong contrasts...."

First of all, these top 10 things are bullshit and only show an indication of the top 10...often it's the top 10 people that know how to leverage web search engines.  Second, I plan on using two different yarns for the shawl, and the other one will be high contrast.  Thanks for pointing out both these things.