History…Really?
I have reliably demonstrated that my memory isn’t reliable. So when I spout anything from my past, is it history really?
What Is History Really?
At the Men’s Knitting Retreat last week, I was chatting with a long-time attendee. He mentioned that he was at the first-ever retreat in 2008 and I was certain he wasn’t. He went on to describe two of the other guys who were there. I was convinced he was describing a subsequent retreat.
Once I got home, I started to look at photos and records from the 2008 retreat.
He was completely correct, and I was completely wrong. Again, not a surprise.
Then I was chatting with the only guy who has been to every Men’s Knitting Retreat at Easton Mountain. He was a resident-staff member of Easton in 2008 and he told me he had done the set up and the registration for the event way back then. How did I not know this? Or had I just forgotten?
But these interactions made me start questioning some of the statements about the Men’s Knitting Retreat history that I had been stating confidently for years. For instance, I have always said that there were 32 guys at the first ever Men’s Spring Knitting Retreat. Well, there were 32 guys registered for the retreat. But I’m pretty confident only 31 guys showed up. I’m trying to follow up on that information with the one guy.
Either way, it made me realize that I needed to start documenting this history a little better. So I’ve started doing that. For instance, I’ve done the electronic equivalent of writing the names of the guys shown in the photo on the back of the the image. I’ve also included the names of the guys not shown.
Fortunately, I was writing the blog since before the retreats started. And I have a lot of photos of most of the retreats. So re-creating more accurate history than my mind can summon will be a bit easier.
Current Crochet
I went back to work on the latest April Showers Shawl in silk lace-weight.
It’s looking pretty certain that I won’t have enough yarn on the cone to finish the full triangle-shape of this design. But even if it turns out to be a decent width trapezoid, I’ll be happy with it.
As a history major I love this little microcosmic look at why history isn’t as clear cut as most people think!
Since Thaddeus lives with someone with a less-than-stellar memory, he has read a lot on the accuracy of memories and all the reasons you can’t necessarily rely on them. Add into it the fact of how a potentially faulty memory is interpreted, and the idea of a clear-cut and accurate history is not seemingly not even possible.
I can’t imagine having majored in history…it was never something I had any aptitude for.
I was reminded of this phenomenon the other day listening to a conversation between Anderson Cooper and Stephen Colbert. Colbert was telling a quirky story about his family from his childhood and when asked “Is this really true? Did that really happen?” he realized that there was no one left in his family to ask that had first-hand knowledge of it. He repeated the story as he remembered it, but for all he knew, it may not have happened that way.
Good for you going back and creating an accurate archive for the MKR. In the grand scheme of things, it may not be the most important history ever recorded, but it’s cool that someone could go back and know who was at each one and maybe what classes were taught by whom and what was the most talked about show and tell that season, etc. You’ve got a 15th anniversary coming up. How fun would it be to see if you could put together a fashion show with one garment from each retreat?
Fortunately, most of the retreats after the first one have been well documented at the time of the retreat. So I’m glad I’ve added some level of clarity to the first one so that I can have more of an understanding of where and how it all started.
Great photo from 2008. Look forward to seeing this latest retreats photos? Footage?
Hope you are feeling better too.
On another note. I thought you have a video tutorial on how to use a latch hook to fix dropped stitches or ladder back up. I couldn’t find it on Youtube.
I now have the latch hooks and was gung-ho to use them to fix stitches. Couldn’t do a thing with them and resorted to a crochet hook. I know I’m doing something wrong.
Best wishes for October too!
PS. Found your video on laddering up with a latch hook. All set.
Thanks Mike…here’s the video in case anyone else is looking for it: https://youtu.be/WgqznE3Yuu8
Hope it gave you some level of success. The movement of the latch hook can be a bit awkward at the beginning…ask anyone that machine knits…but once you have a feel of the rhythm of the tool, it can be amazing.