Skeinspotting

Sia
Soon We'll Be Found

As well as using my hands to knit, I used to use my hands to make my living in another way. I was a sign language communicator for a Deaf school and was fluent in BSL. There is something wonderfully rhythmical about the way you can talk using BSL, and sometimes your emotions come flowing out, not hindered by the part of the brain that turns visual language into words to be spoken.

I also love music. It would be quite incorrect to think that the Deaf do not appreciate music. There are loads of degrees of deafness, and even with the most profound they often enjoy rhythm and vibration. And there is the signed song. A poem, lyrics that flow in time to music with the flow of sign language keeping the rhythm.

That is why I just love this lady, I love her voice and her songs but I also love the tremendous amount of thought put into her visual performance and costume design. We all need something to watch that feels like a dream, and for me, trying to grasp what she is singing and work out the signing is just like a dream. I can almost grasp it, but not quite for despite my fluency in BSL this is in a completely different language, ASL.

One of the myths perpetuated by the hearing world is that the Deaf's own language was decided for them by the hearing, and that this language is like a code, therefore it should be international. People are shocked and cannot understand when they learn that visual language, exactly like spoken language develops within pockets of cultures and is organic. It is not a code, it is the Deaf's own language constantly changing and updating but within each international version, there are also dialects. The sign for lemonade in one part of the UK, means something very very rude in another.

Long may the Deaf own their language, and may they constantly find new ways to communicate to keep up with society and our technology based culture.

Anyway, enjoy this video of Sia. When I saw her hands moving I felt a huge amount of grief for the loss of movement in my own hands and the inability I have to truly communicate in this way. I used to love sign singing. Knitting has been a way to fill the gap that loss of signing left for me, I had to do something with those hands!

Oh yes, and my eyes ain't what they used to be.
I have changed the blog and tried out a new lighter easier text hoping it will be better to read and write. Not easy to choose, as knitting and photos look good against a dark background, but reading text is better on a light background.

I have enlarged the text as well. I will have to check with the experts though, to find out if it is truly 'accessible'

And as well as going green, I have gone lefty too. It all seems to look better with sidebar options on the left hand side. There is a lot more space to lay out my list of patterns and long tutorial headings too. I didn't mean to run my website from my blog like this, but it is taking a little longer to get a new website than I had planned.