Grassroots creativity and community in new media\ud environments : Yarn Harlot and the 4000 knitting\ud Olympians

This paper draws out the links between creativity, textuality and social relations in an online environment. It argues that the textual and social are often mutually constitutive. To ignore the textual aspects of online community or the social aspects to online texts is to erase at least some of their cultural significance. Using the blog of knitting writer 'Yarn Harlot' as a case study, the paper looks at the way the aesthetic and social aspects of the community formed around this blog are entwined