Loved this episode! I also got giddy when Angela talked about Autistic Culture Podcast being inspired by Maintenance Phase! I feel like so many Autistic Culture Podcast listeners would love that podcast too. I'm a superfan of both! 😀
She lives rent free in my head with her instructions and ways of teaching that just click for me and I love him! He was also the one who turned me on to the Autistic Culture Podcast. (I definitely got way too excited and hit post instead of finishing typing because brain not connecting to hands.) This is also my birthday podcast and I have class tonight and I am just gonna go shimmy in happiness now!!!
So it feels scandalous to just leave this in a comment instead of sending it in an email, but that's what you asked folks to do, so that's what I'm doing!
I take Arielle’s dance classes and love them to bits. And now I adore her even more because she introduced me to your podcast! Once I found it I promptly proceeded to listen to all of the back episodes (on x2.5 speed because that’s what my brain likes).
And now for the scandalous bit...you asked for episode suggestions. May I propose “knitting is autistic!”
I say this as an autistic person who started knitting as a hobby while in grad school, accidentally turned knitting into a business (writing knitting patterns), published a whole bunch of knitting books, and eventually bailed out of grad school because this knitting thing was more fun than trying to be a historian.
You’ve got all the classic signs:
- Monotropic focus! A lot of us get *into* this. I spend a lot of my work time going ‘ok, settle in, let me explain how the structure of this fabric works, so you can understand how you can manipulate it, and then how you can decorate it, hold on lemme go get some markers and a whiteboard.’ Then there are those of us who fell down the ‘let me learn every single thing I can about the domestication of sheep and the history of textile production’ rabbit hole. Or the ‘right, let’s discuss the knitting traditions of different regions and how they’ve influenced each other over time’ rabbit hole.
- Stimming! Have you watched someone’s hands as they knit? Go on, tell me that’s not a stim. And pretty much all of us know that a few minutes with yarn and needles in our hands does something really good for our brains. And a whole bunch of us have a project or two that live in our purses or our cars so we can work on them when we’re out in the world if we need to (so so so many tshirts saying ‘I knit so I don’t kill people’).
- Collections! Yarn. So much yarn. Hundreds and hundreds of skeins of yarn in my closet right now (and I have a small stash compared to many). And I can probably tell you what each one is and where I got it and what it’s made from and what I’ve used it for at a glance. Oh and then there are the tools. Why yes, these nearly identical looking tools actually all do slightly different things. Here lemme show you...
- Community building and socialization opportunities, but in a less scary way! Knitting group is fantastic because literally no one will get mad at you for not making eye contact, and everyone understands ‘hold on a second, I’m counting,’ and you’ve got an easy built in way to start a conversation ‘ooooh, what are you working on?’
Really...not everyone who knits is autistic. But a whole damn lot of us are. And wow would that be fun to talk about.
Oooor, failing that (or if saying ‘hey, lemme blather about my special interest is indeed too scandalous), please oh please oh please consider an episode on Martha Wells’ Murderbot. Because Murderbot is absolutely positively autistic in the very best possible way. And oh, oh it’s a delight every single time.
Loved this episode! I also got giddy when Angela talked about Autistic Culture Podcast being inspired by Maintenance Phase! I feel like so many Autistic Culture Podcast listeners would love that podcast too. I'm a superfan of both! 😀
This is the way!
Wow.
I enjoy IF BOOKS COULD KILL by one of the makers of MAINTENANCE PHASE.
And I do occasionally listen to PHASE.
THIS IS MY DANCE INSTUCTOR!!!
She lives rent free in my head with her instructions and ways of teaching that just click for me and I love him! He was also the one who turned me on to the Autistic Culture Podcast. (I definitely got way too excited and hit post instead of finishing typing because brain not connecting to hands.) This is also my birthday podcast and I have class tonight and I am just gonna go shimmy in happiness now!!!
Yay! Happy birthday!!!! So glad we could help you to celebrate another successful trip around the sun!
Shimmer and swirl and swish on Li!
So it feels scandalous to just leave this in a comment instead of sending it in an email, but that's what you asked folks to do, so that's what I'm doing!
I take Arielle’s dance classes and love them to bits. And now I adore her even more because she introduced me to your podcast! Once I found it I promptly proceeded to listen to all of the back episodes (on x2.5 speed because that’s what my brain likes).
And now for the scandalous bit...you asked for episode suggestions. May I propose “knitting is autistic!”
I say this as an autistic person who started knitting as a hobby while in grad school, accidentally turned knitting into a business (writing knitting patterns), published a whole bunch of knitting books, and eventually bailed out of grad school because this knitting thing was more fun than trying to be a historian.
You’ve got all the classic signs:
- Monotropic focus! A lot of us get *into* this. I spend a lot of my work time going ‘ok, settle in, let me explain how the structure of this fabric works, so you can understand how you can manipulate it, and then how you can decorate it, hold on lemme go get some markers and a whiteboard.’ Then there are those of us who fell down the ‘let me learn every single thing I can about the domestication of sheep and the history of textile production’ rabbit hole. Or the ‘right, let’s discuss the knitting traditions of different regions and how they’ve influenced each other over time’ rabbit hole.
- Stimming! Have you watched someone’s hands as they knit? Go on, tell me that’s not a stim. And pretty much all of us know that a few minutes with yarn and needles in our hands does something really good for our brains. And a whole bunch of us have a project or two that live in our purses or our cars so we can work on them when we’re out in the world if we need to (so so so many tshirts saying ‘I knit so I don’t kill people’).
- Collections! Yarn. So much yarn. Hundreds and hundreds of skeins of yarn in my closet right now (and I have a small stash compared to many). And I can probably tell you what each one is and where I got it and what it’s made from and what I’ve used it for at a glance. Oh and then there are the tools. Why yes, these nearly identical looking tools actually all do slightly different things. Here lemme show you...
- Community building and socialization opportunities, but in a less scary way! Knitting group is fantastic because literally no one will get mad at you for not making eye contact, and everyone understands ‘hold on a second, I’m counting,’ and you’ve got an easy built in way to start a conversation ‘ooooh, what are you working on?’
Really...not everyone who knits is autistic. But a whole damn lot of us are. And wow would that be fun to talk about.
Oooor, failing that (or if saying ‘hey, lemme blather about my special interest is indeed too scandalous), please oh please oh please consider an episode on Martha Wells’ Murderbot. Because Murderbot is absolutely positively autistic in the very best possible way. And oh, oh it’s a delight every single time.
Knitting is A+
100% autistic culture and I have so much to say about it... but then also DYSPRAXIA...
Sooo... this is a big yes! Comment. Email. We love talking to our listeners however and wherever the comments come. THANK YOU!
(And Arielle is awesome with a capital A for ALLLL THE THINGS!)