(no subject)
Oct. 1st, 2012 07:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cme posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
knittingWhen you cross from Canada to the USA by rail, you have to fill out a form saying (among other things) how much money you spent on stuff you're bringing with you. Today I had the following conversation:
Customs Agent: Okay, you got 200 big ones. What'd you spend it all on?
Me: Well, yarn, and yogurt-
CA, incredulous: YARN?! What kinda yarn you BUY?!
Me, slightly guilty: Well, silk-
CA: OH. Wow. I was thinkin', how you spend $200 on yarn?! Okay, you're just fine, you go ahead now!
Me, to myself: Wow, he sure doesn't know much about yarn.
Customs Agent: Okay, you got 200 big ones. What'd you spend it all on?
Me: Well, yarn, and yogurt-
CA, incredulous: YARN?! What kinda yarn you BUY?!
Me, slightly guilty: Well, silk-
CA: OH. Wow. I was thinkin', how you spend $200 on yarn?! Okay, you're just fine, you go ahead now!
Me, to myself: Wow, he sure doesn't know much about yarn.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-02 03:20 am (UTC)A lot of people still have the impression that knitting is a money-saver ... I mean, I think it still is if you look at your handmade items as one-of-a-kind excellent quality, but it's not as cheap as people imagine, sadly.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-02 07:05 am (UTC)"craft supplies" are defined to be for "women and kids" so they also have the attribute "low value".
The extra funny thing is that what's happening AT THE SAME TIME is that not only is this stuff an expensive luxury item that's produced to be as attractive as possible (and therefore expensive), I think it's *also* not a coincidence that when women started working outside the home, the marketing industry noticed that they could now be induced to SPEND MONEY, and pretty much no one with a marketing degree has looked back since, and "yarn is for women". In fact, in general, women are marketed to much more heavily and can be induced (as a population- not saying anything about individuals here) to spend *more money* on average than men. Since they also *earn less* than men on average, this is a double whammy of economic injustice- along the lines of having fewer toilet facilities for women (no urinals) while also requiring them to wear clothes that make it take longer to use the bathroom.
(I *think* the bit about marking to women came from Reviving Ophelia, but it might have been one of the cluster of other books I read about the changing definition and role of "woman" in the 20th century. I read a whole bunch of them at the same time because they cited each other.)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-02 12:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-05 07:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-20 07:03 pm (UTC)This makes me want to pick "yarn and things" as my paper topic, LOL.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-05 07:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-05 07:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-16 05:52 am (UTC)You know me. I spend my time at Rhinebeck, etc. squooshing fiber and enabling all of you. :) And I don't even knit!
digitalemur may end up teaching me to hand spin one of these days, though.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-02 03:23 am (UTC)Crafting keeps the free world economy moving along.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-02 07:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-02 05:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-02 06:56 am (UTC)The last time I went to Montreal I spend about the same as you did. :) Handmaiden is amazing stuff.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-03 06:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-02 06:01 am (UTC)... With NORMAL yarn at $7-$8 a ball, and requiring 25-30 to do a mid-thigh cardigan in five ply.
Erm. DUDE DOESN'T HAVE A CLUE.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-02 06:54 am (UTC)Also I love your username. :D
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-03 12:34 am (UTC)I'm on a yarn diet until I finish some projects. Unfortunately, I hate doing tension swatches and my death grip on the needles means that I've just knitted 3/4 of a sock that I can't actually fit over my heel. :( And now I have no motivation to finish it.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-02 03:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-03 12:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-03 02:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-03 02:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-03 02:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-02 12:18 pm (UTC)I declared yarn and lego, and was similarly dismissed.
My yarn was from Habu, and the Lego was the kit for Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater house.
So yeah. Probably more than Customs assumed.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-03 03:57 pm (UTC)My wallet is now hiding in fear.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-05 07:55 pm (UTC)Based on my example and yours, I'm leading with the yarn every time I cross a border from now on. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-20 07:05 pm (UTC)