According to tonight's thelondonpaper it seems that I'm a "Yappy". The article doesn't seem to be on their website so I'll summarise here for you.
Apparently a "Yappy" is a Young Aged Pensioner; young people who rather than go out, instead stay in and knit, make jam and tend their allotments. In an article by Johnny Vaughan he asks whether or not this is a result of the credit crunch that's currently hitting us, or possibly something else.
Thinking about it I've probably been a Yappy for a while now. I don't (yet) have an allotment, but do enjoy staying in and baking and knitting in an evening. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy going out (especially to nice restaurants in my case) but I do like the simple pleasure of activities that my Gran's generation may be found doing.
When I started knitting it certainly wasn't as a means to find a cheaper way of clothing myself (yikes – I'd probably freeze to death before managing to knit a whole jumper) but instead I just wanted to take up a new hobby that I'd found to be very relaxing. There was also something in me that wanted to learn the skills of my grandparents generation. I do enjoying going to Stitch and Bitch nights in London, but again didn't start as an alternative to more expensive nights out. I wanted help with learning to knit and my friend and I thought it would be a good place to go and meet like minded knitters.
I'd assumed that I was "getting old" now that I was married, or just being comfortable about the things that I enjoyed doing. I'd never realised that there would be a name for my "condition". Now that there is I'm not sure how I feel. Should I embrace it, or does it just mean that I'm part of a larger trend? Now I am confused.
One thing that I am sure about is that I know what I enjoy, and I'm pretty sure that I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing!
How lovely that there are a generation of young people who still get pleasure from the domestic arts… I never knew you were called yappies though!
Well then I put my hand up for yappy-ness. Unless, of course, I’m considered too old.