Here are the dachsund andirons my great-grandfather made that I referenced in the previous post. Aren't they wonderful?
I appreciate things made by hand. At the Fair Isle Design Workshop earlier this month, Stephannie Tallent (Ravelry: StephCat) gave me these lovely Venetian glass stitch markers:
They are not only good looking--they are also very well made. I have a growing assortment of handmade markers that give me great pleasure--I remember every person who made them while I'm knitting along.
The value of making things has been receiving more public attention recently with the publication of Shop Class as Soul Craft, by Matthew Crawford. Here's the Publisher's Weekly Starred Review:
Philosopher and motorcycle repair-shop owner Crawford extols the value of making and fixing things in this masterful paean to what he calls “manual competence,” the ability to work with one’s hands. According to the author, our alienation from how our possessions are made and how they work takes many forms: the decline of shop class, the design of goods whose workings cannot be accessed by users (such as recent Mercedes models built without oil dipsticks) and the general disdain with which we regard the trades in our emerging “information economy.” Unlike today’s “knowledge worker,” whose work is often so abstract that standards of excellence cannot exist in many fields (consider corporate executives awarded bonuses as their companies sink into bankruptcy), the person who works with his or her hands submits to standards inherent in the work itself: the lights either turn on or they don’t, the toilet flushes or it doesn’t, the motorcycle roars or sputters. With wit and humor, the author deftly mixes the details of his own experience as a tradesman and then proprietor of a motorcycle repair shop with more philosophical considerations.
Sounds like a book of interest to any feral knitter--it's going on my birthday list for sure!
Thanks for that book link. I just requested it from my library. I agree whole-heartedly.
Posted by: Linda | June 25, 2009 at 09:21 AM
Thanks for the book idea I just downloaded it from audible!
Posted by: Trish | June 25, 2009 at 09:23 AM
the dogs are really amazing! they are spot on!
Posted by: heidi | June 25, 2009 at 10:22 AM
love the dogs.
we still use the lamp my husband turned in shop class.
Posted by: vanessa | June 25, 2009 at 12:37 PM
i almost forgot about the lbrary! i'm 5th in line for the book :-)
Posted by: vanessa | June 25, 2009 at 12:44 PM
No wonder the colloquial name for andirons is 'fire dogs'....
Posted by: Caroline | June 25, 2009 at 12:49 PM
Matthew Crawford wrote an article for the NY Times magazine section recently: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html?_r=1
After reading it, I have plans to steer my two boys, currently 9 1/2 and 11, into taking some sort of "hands-on" class(es) in high school, where I expect they will most likely be in a college-bound track. I think it would be great for them to learn a "trade" of sorts, like woodworking, in addition to computer science, calculus and physics. I'd like them to be able to work with their hands, something completely different from the desk job life-style that many people end up in today.
I studied to be an electrical engineer and worked in the field for many years before "retiring" to stay home with my two boys when they were babies. I always felt I had my knitting (and other needlework) that was quite different from the things I had to do on my job. I felt being able to make things with my own hands was a nice way to get away from all the "cold" technology!!!
Posted by: Nancy | June 27, 2009 at 05:21 PM