Reflections on the practical art of crafting

My blog friend Rebecca, who's life appreciations line up with mine quite nicely much of the time, linked last week to this nice blog post called Reflections on the Practical Art of Quilt-making, which looked at the elements of tradition and community, embodiment, usefulness and beauty. I liked it. I don't do quilting, and probably won't any time soon as one handicraft (crochet, and a little knitting) is about all I can manage at the moment, but the principles can be extended, at least in part, to other crafts. It was my grandmother who taught me how to crochet, and she has herself made a rug for all the grandchildren.

There seems to be a resurrection happening of the community aspect of crafting, though perhaps it has always been smouldering, just not so prominently as now. The utility of crafting has perhaps receded, with many of us crafting not so much because we need to, as the only means of obtaining particular goods, but because we want to. However, there also appears to be a revival in the idea of making your own, re-using and saving resources (and thus money).

My friend Ally's knit-ins and craft nights of the past are a community endeavour and they are a great way of bringing people together. I've had a number of coffees now with various friends at A Coffee and a Yarn too, and that's a nice way to do the "coffee" thing, while at the same time working at something at least semi-practical. Not many of the practical activities I need to do outside of work seem all that conducive to actually doing them with others (anyone want to come over and do washing with me? - though I did use to drop in often on a farmer's wife when I lived across the paddock in their old shearer's hut, and hang washing with her or join in with whatever else she was busy doing, which included cool stuff like preserving beetroot and quinces) and most of my catching up with people occurs in what is essentially leisure time (ie, outside of formal work hours), but it's a grand idea to make some of the things you are doing opportunities to share life with others also.

History perhaps defies the notion that 'men like to do things together while women just like to be together'.