Monday, November 10, 2014

This isn't your grandmother's...

Photo credit storebukkebruse

This isn't your grandmother's...


I adore the handmade movement. I'm all for people making things and I love to see how people reinterpret and recreate things. What I am tired of though is the phrase- "This is not your grandmother's insert craft here".      

Thank goodness for my grandmother's craft. My grandmother worked a full time job and yet she would find the time to crochet. I remember taking summer vacations with my grandparents driving across the United States and hearing my grandmother muttering to herself as she counted stitches. She makes gorgeous afghans using Tunisian crochet. A style that is just now coming back into fashion. 

While the phrase "This is not your grandfather's..." does occasionally get used, it is not in reference to things that a grandfather would make. Why? Because more often then not when men make something it is a craft, yet when women make something, it is craftie. There is a big difference between the two, which we wrote about here

I admit that my grandmother and I have completely different styles but I also learned how to be a craftsman from her and for that I am grateful. I only wish I was as good as her.

We should honor what our grandmother's taught us and, while I understand the desire to make 'crafting' cool, let's do it without mocking our grandmother's. 

Originally Published 9/3/13 

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