sometimes i get "leads" on knitting blogs with which i have been previously unfamiliar. there is a restlessness. restlessness relaxes me.
i've talked about the "sea change" before -- the creeping backlash of dislike for cutsey hip knitting books with crappy patterns and stupid writing. and that's just from the people i'm friendly with. lately i get tipped to blogs where this kind of anger has been brewing like a strong pot of prince of wales tea left out all afternoon in the sun.
interestingly, a lot of these blogs are not in "the ring". in fact, of the few blogs i have regularly read over the last few years, bloggers seem to be leaving the ring -- with an awareness, of course, that it will lower their hits-per-day and make them harder for the average knitter-on-the-street to "find".
isn't that interesting?
i've even heard tell of some folks who privatized their k-blogs, going from a once-public platform to a password-only one. keeps out the riff raff. these marlene dietrich moves are conducted in the public forum -- people often KNOW that people are bowing out and going members-only.
but do people ALWAYS know? are knitbloggers "faking their own deaths" -- posting final messages such as, "knitting. eh. i guess it's not really for me. bye!" and then resurfacing...underground? ringless? gated? so sick of "buttons" and blogrolls dangling from every page like a bunch of stinky old friendship bracelets, that they now move only in the shadows, passing each other with only a knowing -- and undetectable -- look of understanding? because the party has gotten just that big and ungainly and ugly? full of hangers-on and "me-too"'s, and old-timers who stand around inflating their neck flaps in the hope that it is mistaken for some kind of wisdom, wryness?
what if new bloggers aren't joining the ring at all? what if previous knit blog ring members are leaving the ring as though they are actually leaving k-blogging -- and starting new, unmapped blogs? and what if these blogs are different from the ones they had before -- as different as though they were by entirely new people?
if you knew it was happening, who would you tell?