Last week I was lucky enough to speak with Doris Silcox and Margaret Olsen. The women had a showing of their knitting and embroidery work last weekend, which had people coming and going throughout the day. Sadly I had a few other events that day and was unable to make it on the Saturday of the showcase, but I was able to sit down with them the day before.
The women spoke about how their mothers taught them their skills and the different lives people had when they were growing up. They kept saying that in their youth, life just wasn't as busy as it is today. I would beg to differ. I know I wasn't anywhere close to even being a thought in the 1930s, but I think society has changed in what people were doing, not in how busy people were. Today people are always on the go taking their kids to sports, practicing music, and constantly working because today they are able to take everything home with them through the internet and smart phones.
When they were growing up, however, people were busy working for their livelihoods. They literally grew most of their own food. My Granny has said she remembers her mother canning absolutely everything from vegetables to meat. They didn't have electricity on their farm so they didn't have the convenience of freezers and needed to can items in order to keep food for long periods of time.
While speaking with Silcox and Olsen both implied that people today were too busy to learn the art of embroidery, crocheting, or knitting. It's true I haven't met many people who do embroidery anymore, but I'm sure there has to be someone out there. I have seen many people selling items which are crocheted at various markets.
The skills aren't taught in school anymore, which is where my Granny remembers doing much of her knitting when she was a youth, but they are still being taken up by people. From my experience, knitting is probably the most popular, so it wouldn't surprise me if the other ones are still being utilized by many.
Granny taught me how to knit when I was around 10, I'm not entirely positive with this, but approximately this age. I remember she always had something on the go whether it was a pair of slippers or mittens to dish clothes and giant afghan blankets. One night she was taking care of me and I simply asked if she would teach me, so she showed me how to straight knit.
At 23 I'm still only able to straight knit, but I can knit which is the point. I can make dish cloths and scarves, what I think of as the easy items, and could probably figure out how to follow a pattern if I tried. She's told me multiple times how to pearl, but for some reason I forget every time. It's supposed to be easy, I think she explained it as a backwards stitch. I'm very thankful I asked her this question when I was so young because it ended up being a perfect way to enjoy some of my spare time while creating something useful.
I was also thankful for learning a bit about knitting, so I could happily tell Olsen and Silcox that it is not quite a dying art form. I told them that I knew how, but failed to mention there were many girls at my university who liked to knit as well.
I found university to be quite interesting in fact. We had study parties with BYOB, Bring Your Own Books, tea parties with animal crackers, and in my first year we in fact had knitting parties. There were a few of us who would gather in the common room and knit, either while watching a movie or visiting. Sometimes we even quizzed each other on certain subjects if we happened to be in the same class as we worked away on something.
I in fact have one friend whose knitting creation made it onto the Craft Magazine website. Her pattern for Hotshot High-tops was featured. They were knitted high-top converse sneakers, the upper part being knitted and then sewn to the sole of the shoe.
So I do know first-hand that knitting is not quite a dying craft, though it is not as popular as when people needed to hand-craft their own clothing in the early part of the 1900s; but, it is still being utilized
