Posted on 10/24/2006 5:01:30 PM PDT by fanfan
Belinda Stronach's use of the K word an insult to 'pretty dynamic bunch' of yarn masters
The nation is still waiting for Belinda Stronach's apology for her vicious, uncalled for slur against those who knit. Not one slur, but two.
The pampered, privileged, millionaire princess wants an apology from Peter MacKay for allegedly referring to her as a dog in the House of Commons.
Never mind Peter MacKay -- you, Ms. Stronach, get off your royal buns right now and show you have what you say he hasn't, and apologize to the knitters of Canada and the world.
"She did us all a disservice," says Nancy Moynihan. "It was an insult."
Nancy Moynihan should know, she's president of the Ottawa Knitting Guild.
She's referring to two comments by Stronach, one the other day in the MacKay dog-dissing dustup when she said: "Why does this government insist on being so disrespectful of women? Is that because it would prefer that we simply shut up and stick to our knitting?"
Now, one could say that Stronach's knitting knock was simply playing off MacKay having told NDP leader Alexa McDonough several months ago to "stick to her knitting," and that Stronach has nothing against knitting, but wait -- this isn't the first time Stronach used knitting as a metaphor that women who knit are old-fashioned, non-feminist, and don't have a life.
In her recent biography by Don Martin, she responds to a question on her sex life with: "Let's face it -- I don't sit home on Friday nights and knit."
Knit? Why not just "I don't sit home on Friday nights," Belinda Stronach?
Why the K word as a metaphor for social doofus? Tell us, Ms. Stronach, have you ever knitted? Just asking, ma'am.
Nancy Moynihan has a proposition. She's inviting you to the next monthly meeting of the Ottawa Knitting Guild. It's Nov. 20 at Woodroffe United Church, 7 p.m. You might learn something about knitting and the type of people who knit. You might even want to join, $25 a year.
Nancy Moynihan, 51, married, mother of two, university graduate, knitter since the age of 7, owner of a company that designs and manages data bases:
"We have 130 members, including a few men. Doctors, lawyers, accountants, business people, as well as retired people. They range from teenagers to some in their 90s. Knitting has been viewed as non-masculine, and a socially outdated thing for women, but knitters are with-it people who've been known to meet in bars, drink beer, and knit. Belinda Stronach would find we're a pretty dynamic bunch."
So, there you are, Belinda Stronach. In the future, lay off the knitting references, okay? One can knit and still have a sex life.
Talking of insults, one wonders how fast the fragile Ms. Stronach would have melted in self-pity had she been the MP who once said to Winston Churchill in Parliament "Winston, you are drunk?" with Churchill firing back: "Indeed, madam, and you are ugly, but tomorrow I'll be sober." Or when he rebutted Lady Astor's "If you were my husband, I'd feed you poison" with: "And if I were your husband, I'd take it."
Churchill's retorts didn't railroad his great career, and when it comes to insults, how about you, Ralph Goodale, Liberal House leader, who spluttered about MacKay's supposed dog reference: "After depicting a woman as his dog, how can the minister of foreign affairs pretend to promote women's rights in Afghanistan or anywhere else?"
You were a Liberal MP in 1997, Ralph Goodale, but we don't recall you leaping to your feet with an attack against your party colleague Doug Young, the defence minister, after he rose in the House and called the hefty Reform MP, Deborah Grey, "more than a slab of bacon."
You didn't ask how your defence minister could possibly condone large-size women in the Canadian military if his mindset towards such women was "more than a slab of bacon," as in M-o-o-o-o, as in cows, which I would suggest is a genuine insult towards women as opposed to a dog in that a cow is dopey-looking and slow-moving while I've seen some pretty nifty, classy, upscale dogs that I, personally, would be proud to be.
If you, Ms. Stronach, weren't such a bawl baby, and made of stronger stuff with a sense of humour, you would have countered the alleged MacKay dog reference with: "You got it right, Peter, I'm a high-class Lhasa Apso."
Ha! I don't have to stay home and knit...I just bring it along with me. :-P
As a long term knitter, I have to warn you.... you just said the equivalent of "I just bought my first rock of crack and hope to be completely addicted soon." ;-D
i am quite sure there are some knitters who are full on HOs! ; ) present company excluded of course!!!!
Well, not at the same time. Someone could lose an eye.
that truly made me LOL!!!
Hey, get back to us when your yarn stash fills 2 plastic tubs, which you hide under a table, you own two of every size knitting needle, and surfing for free knitting patterns becomes more fun than FR! I give you a month to be at that stage. A knitting book is the gateway drug, the big one, the herion of knitting, has to be felted purses and mittens. There are no 12-step programs for knitting. Stop. Think about it...then knit on!
knit ping! to a NON-Ho knitter ; )
"when your yarn stash fills 2 plastic tubs, which you hide under a table"
Piker. ;-D
I'm more at the stash level of the Yarn Harlot....
http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/
The problem isn't projects. The problem is UNfinished projects. I am halfway through a very complicated shawl-collared cable vest from a Vogue pattern, which I started two years ago. The back was fun. The front panels are not fun, so there it sits.
I have a 3/4 length sleeve fuchsia wool sweater that only needs to have the cowl neck knitted on. It is not knitted on.
My husband thinks it would be brilliant to have a group of knitters trade unfinished projects; that way, every project would be new to US and our attention span might last all the way to the end.
"I am only allowed to have one knitting project going at one time."
Brain.... cannot.... absorb....concept...cannot...process... concept....brain...shutting....dowwwwwwnnnn....
Be careful when you do the math and figure you'll save money if you take up spinning to have handspun wool to knit with.
No acrylic allowed in my house!
And then there's the matter of what breeds of sheep make the nicest spinning fleeces.... =:-0
I am almost sure my neighborhood is not zoned for sheep and other livestock.
Life has gone totally crazy, probably until mid December. Once we get moved and settled in enough, I will start posting much more...but I haven't had as much online time for a couple of months.
Only one project? Such discipline...such strength of will...you are made of stronger stuff than I am....
Ssshhhh...you're talking about my work basket there...last count three unfinished scarves, one unfinished sweater, and a pair of unfinished socks (that one has the best chance of being finished, I believe). If I haven't worked on it in 3 months, then the yarn becomes fair game for new projects.
But I have an excuse now. Most of my yarn and unfinished things are in storage. I even had to buy some emergency stash needles so I could be sure to have something to work with until we're finished moving.
KIP away, sister. People who can't stand to see people knitting in public have problems.
Okay, that's hard core. I concede the "addiction" field to you.
I do buy some bulk acrylic to make baby blankets to give away...on the principle that the recipients probably won't know how to deal with shrinkable products.
And I do buy the occasional weird novelty yarn, but it's for scarves, so it's never too many skeins.
But as a spinner with a large stash of fiber, yarn is not the problem...
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