Huffington Post and whether feminists should knit. The definitive answer

If you have been on the internet recently you will know that someone on the Huffington Post has dissed the Yarn Harlot and essentially the internet has now ended because there is Fury. Well, I say, it is a shame the author of this piece about how we should all be tough like Sookie, whoever Sookie is, never read Dyke’s Delight comic circa 1993, where these issues have already been comprehensively explored and dealt with. I used to buy Dyke’s Delight and other indie comics from Forbidden Planet in London in the late 90s and sit on the commuter train back to Cambridge reading them, with men in suits looking at me thoughtfully. Forbidden Planet no longer have comics like this but I have a secret store for referring to in cases of internet crisis so we are very lucky and I can drag this one out tonight.

Rip Up Those Roles by Leanne Franson is the interesting story of Buzz, a Tuff Dyke, who feels herself trapped in the role of tough female. I don’t know if this is how Sookie, whoever she might be, feels, but I think we have to accept that it may be because it is never nice to feel that you can’t branch out.

Buzz the Tuff Dyke as approved of by the Huffington Post

Despite Buzz’s buzz cut, biceps and talent for motorbike maintenance, what she also – note, Huffington Post blogger – also wants is to spend time knitting, with her cat, and in a committed long term relationship with fellow Tuff Dyke, Bof. Oh the tragedy of attracting hoards of femmey chicks when what she wants is to escape the stereotype.

And this was pre-Ravelry so she probably had to make her own pattern

But triumph! In Yolanda’s Yarn Universe while buying a skein of Baby Sno Soft to knit pussy a mousie, Bof walks in, their eyes meet over a bin of Fancy Fluff yarns – mermaid bumfluff wasn’t yet being harvested in 1993 but you know, the next best thing – and Love Blossoms – because Bof knits too!

I don't know if they were into gardening and Hello Kitty but they may well have been

And they live happily ever after, baking cupcakes and knitting. But also being able to mend their motorbikes when necessary. So I am afraid the Huffington Post is a little bit behind the times but it has revealed that you do not mess with knitters, and we knew that, because we deal daily with terrifying things like Steeks and that is scarier than anything Sookie does. And don't anyone be putting any daft strictures on feminism because if you do I will have to show you Auntie Studs. What do you think she would say? Exactly.