While textures don’t come up properly on dark colors, I think you can see the pink Mystery Object, in a simpler variation on the King Charles Brocade.This is in Sugar’n Cream, very soft and good for texture stitches.

The Witty Knitter ( http://manainkblog.typepad.com/ ) has come up with a good word to express a concept in trendy knitting. Mayflower says she won’t knit if it gets too trendy, but I think it is not that knitting itself is trendy. That would be like saying that food is trendy, or reproduction, or music. Something people have been engaging in steadily for millenia can’t be trendy. However, some types of knitting have become trendy. There are some knitters who follow their favorite blogger or knitting celebrity or knitting trend slavishly enough to do always and only what Everyone Else is doing. For this type of knitter, the Witty Knitter suggests the term “knitlemming.”

If you read the knitting blogs, you will have instant recognition of this concept. Part of it is fashion. You see enough ponchos around, it is likely that at some point you will begin to consider making one yourself. Or you read about Koigu enough times, you get curious and go track some down. My desire to make felt clogs (ah, yes, where are those felt clogs?) is like that.

But some aspects of knitlemmingdom (knitlemmingitude?) are about peer pressure.

In my study group, we had a question about peer pressure. Now, all young readers know about this. Peer pressure is when you are persuaded, shamed, or bullied by your supposed friends into snubbing the unpopular kids, smoking behind the barn, or having sex on prom night. Or whatever. I think there are lots of opportunities for peer pressure when you are young.

But the women in the study group are in their 30s and 40s. We were a little at sea on this question. “What do you do because of your friends’ reactions, that you don’t want to do?” For the life of me, all I could think of was housework — and that is clearly a good thing. If it takes peer pressure for me to clean my house, then good for peer pressure.

Then one woman came up with gossip. And yes, it is very easy to get sucked into gossiping. You don’t want to be left out. The temptation to add that little morsel of information or judgement can be enormous.

Swearing is another. If you are surrounded by people who use rough language, it becomes easy to do so yourself.

Copyright infringement is another. It is hard to refuse to make illegal copies of the sheet music or knitting pattern for someone, isn’t it? You don’t want to sound self-righteous. Make that the DVD, CD, or software, for that matter. It is very easy to lift stuff nowadays, and people don’t hesitate to ask.

Materialism is another sin it is easy to get pressured into. As the holidays approach, we are surrounded by pressures to do more and buy more. If Everyone Else will have new clothes for that party, if All the Other Kids are getting new computers for the holidays, if the neighbors’ houses are more elaborately decorated — all of these are peer pressure.

So — are you adding to your stash just so your blog will have stash pictures like the others? Are you making those ugly variegated socks just because All the Other Bloggers did? The Witty Knitter includes Rogue in this group, but I disagree. Rogue is a beautiful sweater. You can make it just because it is a beautiful sweater, that’s all.