Stitch'nBitch

This past week, my class discussed cyberfeminism and one article we read titled "Stitch'nBitch: Cyberfeminism, a third place, and the new materiality" talked about the connections between knitting and technology. Here are two examples from the article:

"One approach to the combination of knitting and technology has been
taken by Jaya Srikrishnan, a knitting designer and a Palm Pilot fan. She
uses the Palm Pilot for a variety of tasks associated with her craft, including
sizing, databases of projects and patterns, and designing using the
grid on spreadsheets... Another example concerns two young women who
responded, independently, to calls from Vogue Knitting wishing to contact
Australian knitters. One of the women is an IT professional, a programmer,
the other an instructor in knitting. Their meeting with the Vogue
editor led to the women collaborating on the development of an online
hand knitting and yarn cyber shop called OzYarn" (Minahan 8).

So are these females using their craft to take control of the Internet and make it a more positive image for females in the IT profession or are they making it worse? The website for Stitch'nBitch has forums, groups, and allows one to post photos and videos. Check it out here. It would seem that they these females are expanding a traditional craft into a global phenomenon by making use of the technology available. So are these females that are knitters and professionals in the IT field promoting feminity into the IT field? I think they might be. As this blog has been focused on role models... females only need one role model to follow in their footsteps and with the success of such organizations as Stitch'nBitch I would say they are doing a pretty good job maintaining that goal.

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Minahan, S., & Cox, J.W. (2007). Stitch'nBitch: Cyberfeminism, a third place, and the new materiality. Journal of Material Culture, 12, 5-21.