What does the future hold for us? for spinners, knitters, crocheters, and weavers? Viewing the past gives us 20/20, predicting the future, not so much. Who knew Apple, Xerox or cell phone airspace would make a few men multimillionaires and there stockholder rich? We would have bought into them with our grocery money, but we didn’t and so we spend our grocery money on yarn. LOL But, will our favorite hobby, art form and for many, livelihoods, still look familiar? Will, there be brick and mortar yarn shops, classes teach yarn arts? How do we hang on to what we love and pass it on to the future?
What will knitting and crochet look like a 100 years into the future? Why would I even think they would still be around? Why not disappear as many things do over such a large span of time? I have a couple of thoughts on that.
- Knitting looks pretty much today as it did 100, 300 even 500 years ago. Two sticks, fiber and the creation of a fabric for wearability and warmth. There are now machines that do massive knitting for the world and yet hand knitting is still growing in popularity. We seek out the best, coolest and prettiest yarn, to make Andrea Mowery’s Find your Fade shawl or the new craze of Lopi styled sweaters such as Caitlyn Hunter’s Sipila. I think there will be more homegrown fibers such as bamboo and hemp as these fibers have a smaller carbon footprint. Natural fibers such as wool. alpaca, llama, and yak, in their natural colors, will have its own following. But the need for us to grow, spin, knit, crochet and weave is in our DNA.
- For so many of us, we have a need or a calling to create…this can take many forms-printing, building, cooking, writing including making things out of yarn. Being creative is central to our very being. Painting, paper crafting and sewing we recognize as creativity, but so is music, cooking, organizing and so much more. Each one of us has a creative spark inside, I know this is true because a very wise person once said it to me, my wonderfully creative sister in law. I failed at so many things, I thought I was hopeless. But I could cook, I could set a table of home cooked food down in front of you that your belly would be doing a happy dance, (my hubby wishes I still cooked liked that-I do at Thanksgiving). My cooking was my creative outlet for years. We each have something inside of us, once we find it we need to take the time and effort to develop it. We have a need to be creative and to create; that will not change in us 100 years from now.
- The crochet stitch cannot be replicated by machines, and compared to knitting it is a youngster. Started by the French sometime in the early 19th century; it was used to make fine expensive lace. Due to the Irish Potatoe Famine, it was introduced in Ireland to the impoverished people. There were schools started and the women and young girls turned out beautiful lace to sell to the rich in France and Italy. Once lace making hopped a boat and came to America, thicker fiber was used and what we understand as crochet was here to stay and expand.. Using one needle (hook) and having only one live stitch at a time will always draw people. Bunches of people, such as myself, have learned both knitting and crochet, we don’t want to miss out on any type of fun. Not everyone needs to knit and not everyone needs to crochet, but they can!
So what will the handmade yarn market look like 100 years from now? I truly believe it will look very familiar; tools may morph and yarn fibers and stitches may be different, but the need to handcraft will still be in the hearts of many. We can also guarantee that what we love to do gets passed down the generations by sharing what we love.
Teach two, and then they teach two-self a self-preserving philosophy.
This is Rachael Yarning Off
Creation Station
Catherine & Rachael
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