Hello, I'm from a "Generation"

Dollek (my name for it, haha) by Mimi Kirchner

I am often amused lately about how "craft" is becoming so big and seemingly taking over the world and spare time of every woman and girl (& some guys too) in America (not just me). I'm not sure if this is an impression caused by my sort-of addiction to craft blogs, or the sudden blossoming of knitting stores that cater to upper-middle class women with some time on their hands, or my time wandering the aisles of Beverley fabrics and realizing that they had to knock down a wall and add a new wing.
I sometimes have a hard time discerning if something is actually a craze or if it is just where my attention is directed.
The idea that a craft revolution might be happening was solidifyed yesterday by our attendance at the Make Faire, a fair in San Mateo where DIY types of all stripes gathered to show off their robots (men) and handmade recycled fashion (women)*. The whole place was filled with putterers, basement geniuses, revolutionary recyclers, mad scientists, and people who must keep busy making things of intelligence and/or beauty and/or function (or things that shoot huge balls of fire) ALL THE TIME. Basically, Mykle and I fit right in.
I didn't have anything to do with any booth or anything, so as a secret nod to my craftiness I wore a skirt and earrings that I made. (Sometimes I take handmade roll-call on myself and realize that hat, jewelry, wallet, scarf, t-shirt and haircut are all selfcrafted and that's when I feel most like me). There were people there of all ages, but the fact that something like this (the fair) is happening NOW makes me feel like some part of a generation. What was in the water around the 70's when we were all born? Why has the urge to Do It Yourself inate in some of us? I admit that a large part of America is obsessed with buying things they DIDN'T have anything to do with the production of, and so that craftiness and "product-hacks" and making your own LED bicycle wheel are probably all reactions to this.

I need to take some pictures of the billion knitted things I made this winter (mainly while siting on the beanbag watching Buffy with Michelle and Orion). I need to maybe stop being such a craft dilletante (I have gone from crocheting silk string flowers to knitting lace with mohair to coiled silver spiral earrings to fake-flower hairclips to a growing obsession with felting and making my own cloche. This is in the last 4 or so months) and settle on one thing so I can make a bunch and perhaps sell them. I KNOW that I won't stop making stuff, right? Might as well be a good Capitalist and try to profit from it.

The Make Faire was utterly inspiring in a way. If I am going to be part of a "Generation" I would be proud to have it be one like this. A return to cottage industry combined with high-tech communication tools. Yup.

Next post I swear will be all mouth-watering poetry and luscious paintings and no sense at all!!

Look at Insructables and Craftster to get an idea of all this. Both are awesome sites, with SO MUCH INFORMATION!

*a joke about the gender differences at the faire. Grown-up boys still largely seem to go for robots and grown-up girls go mostly for dolls.