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The Quiet Pleasure of Email Lists

© Suzanne Griffith

After almost three years on the Internet, I'm spending more and more of my time on mailing lists -- mostly reading and occasionally posting. There's a pleasant intimacy about email lists that's lost in the flashing ads of many websites. There's the possibility of communicating quickly and easily with an interesting person that just isn't possible on the telephone anymore. And for knitters and spinners, there's a rich, diverse community on email lists -- you'll find grandmothers who've been knitting for over half a century, excited new spinners, college professors with expertise, sheep farmers, yarn store owners, knit designers -- people from all walks of life from all over the world able to share their experience and encouragement.

KnitU is an exciting new list that I joined this week. It's KnitList without the non-knit chat, and it's great so far. KnitU also offers Meg Swansen -- designer, writer, and owner of Schoolhouse Press -- as resident expert on a short-term basis, and in the three digests I've received so far, Meg has personally answered a lot of questions. Designer Sally Melville is also on the list. The list is run by Amy Detjen, who is also the administrator of the KnitList, and archives of KnitU will appear in the discussion section of the Knitters website.

The KnitList is the gathering place for knitters worldwide, with over 2,000 subscribers. It's the place to get the latest news about knitting and knitters. I can't imagine not subscribing to it, although I can't always read every post, to my regret. This list, composed as it is of many opinionated knitters, has had its flame wars (trans., fights), but over time the membership has matured in the ways of the Internet and most of us have learned that flapping our tongues will fan the flames, while holding our tongues will put them out.

With over 600 subscribers, the Spin List is a friendly resource for handspinners with a really responsive membership -- if you ask a question about a detail concerning spinning, say Navaho plying, you're likely to get many responses within 24 hours. I really like the way this list is managed: In the digest format, which I subscribe to, the posts are numbered, so on a busy day I can go through the list of titles at the beginning of the digest and note only the numbers of posts I really want to read. Lenore, the listmom, has recently changed the Spin List to make it a little shorter, and this subscriber thanks her for her business-like ways.

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