Ivete wrote on Wednesday about her craft heritage. It's interesting - I always like hearing how people got involved in what they do. Here's a little of mine:

My mom does just about any fiber craft - she quilts (that's her favorite, I think), knits, crochets, does needlepoint and cross-stitch, and sews fabulous clothes. She made a lot of my clothes when I was growing up (sometimes to my dismay when I was a young teenager; I remember in particular a top that was really nice and well-made, but was so counter to the style that the other kids at school were wearing that I refused to wear it. Yes, I feel bad about it now, but I felt like I couldn't give the kids ANOTHER thing to tease me about...). When I was "little", I wanted to be like her - she taught me to sew as soon as I was old enough to know not to put the needle up my nose or something like that. The first things I made were stuffed animal toys - it was like magic to me as a kid that I could make my own toys, and I made a lot of dolls and animals.

I still have some of those. In fact, my most prized and treasured possession, the one thing I would grab and take with me if the house were on fire, is one of those very toys that I made as a kid.

I also learned how to crochet. And when I was ten, I learned how to knit, but didn't do much with it right away (I preferred the more free-form nature of crochet).

My grandmother (maternal; as far as I know my dad's mother knew how to sew and knit but never did) also did fiber craft. She sewed a lot of the family's clothes when my mother was young; my mom talks about people stopping them on the street and asking my grandmother where she bought my mother's clothes (and these were things made out of cut-down men's suits or unpicked old coats! My mom's family didn't have much money but my grandma was brilliant at making do). She also knit, I guess - but I think that was for utility and her crochet was for joy. She crocheted many doilies and pieces of filet crochet. I still have some that she passed on to me - she was in the habit, towards the end of her life, of giving people things she knew they would appreciate because she feared they would either get lost in the shuffle of the will settlement (which as a matter of fact, happened to many things) or might be fought over.

I did a lot of crochet in college, but never thread crochet. I'm not sure I quite have the dexterity for it. I've tried it, but I find that my hands perspire excessively when I'm concentrating that hard, and the fine thread soon becomes dirty and sad-looking. I made a lot of stuffed toys out of crochet, and also "fridgies" and that kind of thing.

When I moved back with my parents to attend grad school, I took up quilting, which I really enjoy although I have far less time now than I did then to devote to it. I made a lot of small, wall-hanging sized quilts - just sort of playing around, like painting with fabric. I did a lot of sort of improvisational stuff that I don't do as much of now because my time feels so precious, that I feel like I can't "waste" it on experiments.

When I was approaching the end of my dissertation work, I got interested in knitting again. And it's been my main craft-passion since. I love it because it's portable - I've even smuggled it into my office for those days when I have to sit and read through boring stuff - and that you can use it to make things that are both useful and beautiful.

something that is both useful and beautiful has high merit in my world. it brings me great joy to make things like that.

I like that I'm doing craft (and I use it in the older sense of a "practical art") that my foremothers (and I suppose, some of my forefathers) would recognize and understand. It feels like going back and shaking hands with all the people who went before me. And it's nice to be carving a path into the future with my yarn and needles - tools and supplies that go back millenia - in my hands.