How many times have I, and probably you, sat down in front of a YouTube knitting tutorial with a hopeful heap of wool and a head full of dreams? Too many to recount. This gesture is usually followed by maybe an hour long session, at a push, where a few rows are stitched, a couple of complicated techniques are painstakingly learned, and visions appear before your mind’s eye of you in your soon-to-be knitted garment. This initial session is typically followed by a week of light bragging to your acquaintances (“yes, I’m actually knitting myself a pair of gloves right now”). In this time another row might be knitted, maybe two. There might then be a fortnight during which you don’t pick up your needles, but covertly throw them a few quick resentful looks where they lie in the corner of your bedroom. Then you might pick them up again only to fling them down in despair, realising you’ve forgotten every technique you learned in the beginning. This series of events is generally concluded with a half-finished, undefined piece of knitting and a deflated sense of self-worth.
But, despite the gloomy picture rendered here of engaging in so-called ‘grandma crafts’, I ask you to stay with me a moment. I offer you the suggestion that this drawn-out process, associated with sewing, crochet, embroidery, knitting and others, is something which is important to us as humans, and has been for most of our history. Between the studies on cognitive health and the knowledge that our ancestors made everything by hand, it’s no wonder that so many of us crave these slow and sometimes painful activities. According to modern society, crafting is not a good use of time — it’s not fast, improvement can be difficult to measure, and it’s not something you’re ever likely to be well paid for. But it’s not a coincidence that ‘grandma crafts’ took off a few years ago, at a time where the need for speed took a decisive increase. Our enthusiasm for crafting betrays a shared awareness that just because our culture is obsessed with efficiency, it doesn’t mean it’s always right for us.
Things worth learning aren’t usually things that can be learned overnight. Hence the term ‘grandma’ being affixed to the title. To master these complex techniques, it can take a lifetime — and that’s something which should be celebrated, not resented. Instead of getting frustrated because you can’t create the perfect colourwork cardigan months after first learning the basics, we should acknowledge the skill of those who can. In a world where ageing people are all too often written off, the skillsets possessed by so many of them are just one example of how we undervalue the experience that accumulates with age. Many elderly people, at least, can remember the merit of spending a good amount of time on something.
So if you partake in these crafts, I commend you. Despite their seeming insignificance, they speak of a quiet decision to resist the rising tide of speed; and if you have never dabbled in anything that could fall under the discussed category, I would urge you to try something that does. Or something, anything, which might slow you down for a moment and remind you of how we used to be. Who knows —perhaps one day you’ll be the elderly person who can boast a wardrobe full of handmade items.
Illustration by Izzy McBroom for The Student