When I was a teenager, my grandmother told me how - when she was my age - she had to weave towels and sheets for her future household. Every girl apparently needed a large "hope chest" of homemade linens before getting married. Enough for several months, in fact: in summer women washed sheets and towels in the river, drying them by hanging them over bushes. But they couldn't do that in winter, so they needed enough linens to tide them over in winter months.
I laughed at the idea! Girls in my generation simply went out and bought what they needed! In fact, it appeared that many traditional skills like knitting and weaving were becoming obsolete. I knew how to knit and crochet, but these were no longer considered essential skills.
A few years later, when I was in my twenties, there was a resurgence of interest in traditional crafts. My mother began to teach spinning, weaving, yarn dyeing, as well as knitting and crocheting in her home economics classes.
Since then, interest in traditional crafts has continued to grow.
Many traditional arts now have a "modern" twist... like these interesting "log cabin" designs.
... leaving "traditional" knitters and quilters like me madly trying to keep up!
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