The internet has done some good
With all the negative attention given to websites like Myspace and Facebook, it seems like people tend to associate the internet with negativity. And if they do think of it for shopping, they think of Amazon.com, or maybe Overstock.com. Most people don’t really think about the almost-underground crafting population on the net.
As this article from the BBC talks about, a lot of crafters are turning to the internet to view and sell their wares, because there’s a much bigger market. If you were to go onto Ebay and search anything along the lines of “crafts”, “homemade”, “crochet“, “knit“, etc, you would get pages of results, private crafters selling their products to like-minded people around the world. Ebay’s not the only place you can find crafts though. Etsy.com is one of the biggest crafting communities online. It’s basically an internet craft fair, with vendors selling nothing but homemade goods, be it needlepoint, paintings, crocheted items, knit items, you name it.
Crafters are also getting on the net to socialize and share ideas, patterns, finished products, craftalongs, and more. Web forums like Craftster.org and Crochetville.org are growing every day. There are also sites like Ravelry.com, which are slightly more geared toward the act of crafting, allowing members to record their “stashes” and keep a going record of “works in progress” and finished works.
Crocheting not just for little old ladies
I always seem to run into people who see me crocheting, and give me the strangest looks. I can just see the confusion, the familiar “isn’t that just for little old ladies?” look flit across their face. Well, Bob Cooper certainly doesn’t fit that category. Bob’s a retired corporate manager from Texas. He crochets afghans with portraits of famous people on them.
Not only is Bob not an older woman, but he taught himself to crochet, designs his own patterns, and even designed his own form of crochet. He taught himeself to crochet without using any knots, because he didn’t know you needed them. This is the kind of ingenuity that crafting is supposed to be about. Maybe, if we’re lucky, more Bobs will start to come out of the woodwork and open the range of people’s thoughts on needlecrafts.
It’s not just for grandma anymore.
