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I never thought of grandma as a feminist, but she did always want to be the pope, so maybe she was a feminist who just didn't go by the name. Still she saw crafts as a great thing for girls (and boys, too) to do for entertainment, to keep us busy and to show us that we could make something with our own hands. She saw crochet (which I never was able to pick up, though I'm trying again) as a great treatment for arthritis and a way to pass the time while watching Wheel of Fortune.
When I think about crafts I often think back a few generations to when things we do for fun like knitting, quilting and candle-making were necessities of life. I guess it's for that reason that people don't tend to think of crafters as being particularly liberated, because crafts have always been associated with the ideal of female domesticity, but I think being crafty is a great symbol of feminine power.
Crafts connect us with earlier generations of women, within our families and around the world. When I knit I think about the blankets (probably really crocheted) that my grandmother made that we found in her house after she died. When I quilt I remember the quilt hanging in my mother's bedroom made by my great-grandmother.
Even if you don't come from a long line of crafty women you can embrace your inner feminist crafter. In a way its like we are taking back these activities, making them no longer be symbols of repression forced on women who literally used their arts to clothe their families and keep them warm. Now we can use crafts for frivolous purposes, but it is always good to remember those crafty women who came before, who preserved these arts that we might get to enjoy them in our leisure.
This section of The F-Word will offer you an easy project you can complete with little prior skill, and a simply fabulous column on diy farm and gardening.
Enjoy!
Sarah White