Kim has some interesting thoughts concerning the knitting "revival" that may or may not exist.

I have some thoughts of my own on this...I think there was in general, a resurgence of interest in various forms of craft prior to Sept. 11. Quilting has been going strong since the 80s at least. I think the "rediscovery" of making things (I'm not sure if this "rediscovery" is media-driven or if there really are that many new fiber-craft people out there) may be in part a response to the increasing impersonality and mechanization in our world. The whole "paperless office" thing, where there are people who now sit in a cubicle all day and have little meaningful interaction with others.

I think wanting to make things is partly a desire to do something that feels meaningful. Also, if you have a job that involves lots of computer-work, or paper-shuffling, or even something like teaching, your work "goes away" at the end of the day - by that, I mean you don't have something you can actually point to and say "this is what I did today." It's hard to stay motivated when everything is intangible, when it's all electrons on a screen.

So some people turn to cooking.
Some people turn to restoring old cars
Some people make their house a beautiful showplace
Some people "drop out" of the career arena to spend more time raising their children (which can be an intangible activity itself...)
and others, they start making stuff.

I don't know, though, about the "new" crafters. I've always "made stuff". The one time of my life I was unhappiest was when I was living alone, in a v. small apartment, in a big isolating city, and I didn't have a sewing machine or any craft supplies with me (and there was no craft store within walking distance, and I didn't have a car). My mom sent me some embroidery kits, and that made all the difference - then I learned there was a yarn shop in town, and since I didn't really knit at the time, I picked my crochet hook back up.

Ever since then, I've recognized the power of "making stuff" to keep me happy, to give me a backup sense of accomplishment when things aren't going well at work, as a way to spend rainy weekends. It's something I need, I've discovered, as much as I need physical exercise and meaningful work and fruit and vegetables. If I'm away from "making stuff" for too long, I get sad and cranky and listless. For me, it is simply a part of a balanced life, and it almost always has been. Perhaps the reason we might be seeing a resurgence (and again, I emphasize that the "resurgence" may be more that the media has picked up on it) is that people are realizing more what is needed for a balanced life, after the various monomanias (hours at the gym, bizarre diets, working 80 hour weeks, whatever) that we've seen in the past 20 years.