Crafting ! Is it becoming a lost art?

Just answer this simple question. How many young people do you know that knit and crochet? Lets divide it up into age groups.

• under ten ____
• teens ____
• in their twenty ____
• in their thirties ____
• in their forties ____

Just what I thought. The numbers are pretty sad aren't they ?

It's easily explainable. Todays life style is just too busy. The households of today are mainly put together of two working partners.

Look at how much time is used up just trying to make the average home run smoothly.

It also seems that people have to travel further from home to work, I guess that's because the work fields are more specific.

I would assume that the majority of crafter of the past would have been women. Therefore lets have a quick peak at a working mothers average day : Get-up and get ready for the day. Get the kids ready for school, make lunches, drop the gang off at school. Get to the workplace . Pick-up kids from school . Prep something for supper, eat. Drop the kids off at soccer, hockey or ballet. Get groceries for the next few days. Pick-up kids, supervise and help with homework . Throw in a load of laundry . Ready the little rug rats for bed, bedtime story . Whew, now it's nine o'clock. Is it time to set up the sewing machine onto the kitchen table ? Heck no , by the time every-things set up it's time to put it all away again . Hey it's now ten , fold up that laundry and get ready for bed just so it can start again tomorrow....

The average life just doesn't leave time or energy for crafting anymore.

It's gotten so far that hand crafts aren't in fashion anymore (unless it's home decor)either. Years back, people who couldn't or didn't craft went to church bazaars or craft stores etc. to get the hand-knit sweaters or tole painted flowerpot.

One of my friends came by last week all upset because the second hand clothes store she just visited had racks and racks of hand knitted sweaters and baby bonnet sets, very obviously they had never been worn or used . Those items that someone had worked over with love for many,many hours were not appreciated. Even the almost pennies only, price tags didn't inspire people to buy these hand-made items anymore.

I wonder how many of these traditional skills will be lost forever? Will the next generation be able to "reinvent" the crafts of yesteryear?

Unfortunately with the disappearance of crafts comes the loss of family closeness too. The time Moms, Dads, Grandmas and Grandpas show and teach the little sprouts how it's made by hand ...

That amazing feeling of having accomplished a project with ones own hands will also be lost.

I would guess and hope there will always be the true crafting professional and some of us old-timers who will not give up on crafting no matter what. We have to come up with a plan of resurrecting the love of crafts.

Let's face it a manufactured machine quilted cover might look nice , same as that machine knitted scarf and hat set, but the personal touch, the love that someone poures into a creation can never be produced in a factory.

So crafters young and old I challenge you all. It's up to us to invite, show, and teach the next generations everything we know.

If fashion flips and decides to feature handicrafts again, maybe somehow the world will dig up an hour or two in which to resurrect the lost art of crafting...

Oh!I gotta go, there comes my seven year old granddaughter for her first embroidery lesson.