Here's a look back on my more notable knitting and embroidery projects.
My grandmother used to knit up a storm. When I was younger she made teenage mutant ninja turtle sweaters, matching sweaters for me and my sister, gloves, hats, doll clothes... She was a knitting machine. When I was twenty I begged her to show me how to knit despite her arthritis. She was patient with my failed attempts at purling and eventually it clicked. I moved onto bigger projects with Debbie Stoller's Stitch N' Bitch and now I can make more than scarves and potholders.
Every winter I have a solid month of knitting as many things as my hands can handle. Knit on the train, knit at work, knit on the couch with Basil preying on my ball of yarn. These are from two winters back.
This year I consumed myself with embroidery. My mother [the most crafty lady I've ever known] let me ransack the attic for hoops and floss and gave me some tips and showed me her methods, first and most importantly- patience. I found my favorite patterns in Jenny Hart's Embroidered Effects. This type of needlework came more naturally to me but boy is it time consuming yet insanely relaxing.
Debbie Stoller on needlecrafts with NPR:
But at a certain point I sort of realized that these needlecrafts were in general sort of stigmatized in our culture, looked down on a little bit. And as far as I could tell, the only reason they really had this bad image was because it was something that had traditionally been done by women. And as a feminist I wanted to try to change that. Because I thought all of these needlecrafts really deserved to get some credit and some value.full interview.
I love needlecrafts, and I love Debbie Stoller. But what's interesting to me about the third-wave reclamation of needlecrafting is the blind eye it turns to feminists' past work to free women from the social expectations of engaging in needlecraft.
ReplyDeleteAt the turn of the last century, feminists (i.e., suffragettes) had a problem with needlecrafts, because such projects--tatting, embroidery, etc--required the women working them to be sedentary. As feminists were agitating for women to be free--to not just vote and work, but also to move freely, without corsets and such--their work problematizing these sedentary pursuits was important.
So not all of the stigma against needlecraft is because it's been traditionally worked by women! :)