Textiles and Bicycles

Are you a knitter and proud? Yo tambien! I love this brooch, which is handmade of recycled yarn. I think it’s got the perfect level of quirk.

Etsy always delivers…I guess I meant that figuratively. But it’s nice that it does literally too.

Handmade not by me. But by some Repetto shoe-makers in Paris.

This isn’t an advertisement for Repetto, but I respect craftsmanship, especially when done by the human hand rather than a machine–an art that seems to be becoming obsolete. There are a few episodes of the Twilight Zone (a show I watch every other day or so on YouTube) that stuck in my mind because of this very issue. One in particular is the”The Brain Center at Mr. Whipple’s,” where a factory manager becomes obsessed with replacing his workers with machines. Think of the cost savings–no paid vacations, no sick leave, no family emergencies. He believes that whatever a human can make with her/his hands can readily be replaced and even be made better by the use of a machine. Until the manager himself is replaced and he is confronted with both the obsolescence of the individual and the value of one–the value he sees in himself over another and especially over a machine. A machine couldn’t think, it couldn’t feel and it couldn’t give the thing it was making the character produced by human variation and error.

Even in the 60s, we recognized the romanticism of craftsmanship, but we still continue to ruminate on it in words and ignore it in practice. Several months ago I accompanied a friend to the opening of the new Bloomingdales in Chevy Chase. I was in the height of my China boycott and couldn’t believe how all the expensive Diane von Furstenbergs and Marc Jacobs were made in China…in a factory just like the ones used for the cheap Walmart and Target clothing. Overseen by humans, but mostly run by machines. Apparently I’m paying for the design, but at this point a wrap dress is a wrap dress and the same goes for a canvas jacket with jumbo buttons. I appreciate the innovation to a certain extent, but what makes Chanel Chanel is the couture. The unique and exquisitely artful designs of Karl Lagerfeld may be in a different class the normal, more everyday pieces being designed and sold by the aforementioned designers, but the pieces in the seasonal shows–the couture, the stuff made mostly (or entirely) by hand are what’s stunning. It’s the shockingly complicated and intricate handiwork, the knowing feeling that this could have only been made by a select group of people not because they are the only ones with the owner’s manual to the magic automated sewing machine, but because they have the skill to masterfully manipulate textiles running through their veins. This is why I have an obsession with Hermes–a label that has remained true to its traditional family practices and still makes its $5000 bags with multi-year long wait lists using stitch techniques that can only be done by hand.

I will never buy a $5000 handbag, but in my world, handmade is damn impressive and worth every penny. That price tag may just be justified.
But a machine is a machine and a design alone can’t be worth $500, especially when I can buy a knitting design for $5.

I made this last night after acquiring all my necessary supplies at a bead store in Dupont Circle and after spotting this necklace in a catalogue of a major chain store that shall remain nameless because I’m kind of embarrassed for shopping somewhere so…generic. I blame having to go to an office in DC. People dress pretty conservatively here and it seems to grab people’s attention when anyone even kind of steps outside the suity box, which isn’t really a good thing when you’re at work.

So here it is. The color is a little off, it’s more of a lapis blue than the turquoise it looks like in the picture. I haven’t strung beads and made a necklace since I was 12. And I didn’t completely know what I was doing. So the clasps are kind of screwy and required an emergency Etsy buy of brass bead tips (which are these fantastic devices that hide your knots, keep them more secure, and generally make the process much easier). So it’s not actually completely finished and will have to be restrung when I get the bead tips, but it’s functional right now.

I like the idea of seeing something in a catalogue and figuring out how to make it instead of buying the thing, which in this case is almost definitely made in China. The China thing is even more important to me these days as the Chinese government trashes the Dalai Lama. It seems shocking that this would be an advisable political move for them considering the worldwide, deserved adoration for him, but apparently invoking the strong nationalist identity of the Chinese is working among the domestic populace and they do in fact seem to agree with the government. That a group of people can be condemned for peaceful protest in the face of persistent human rights abuses against them is something I simply cannot understand.

Unfortunately as a normal American without much political power my identity is little more than consumer, so the power of the purse will be my vehicle for expressing myself.

I have never really made a “nice” necklace so this kind of proves it’s more possible for most (if not all) of us to substitute our ready-made purchases with home- and handmade stuff (not to mention I saved more than $50). And I learned from a coworker the other day that fabrics sold in the US are almost always made in the US because of tariff laws, which do not apply to ready-made clothing. I haven’t checked this statement out, but it sounds like I’ll be sewing a lot more than I have been.

Some of you Esty-ers may know about this already but there’s a cool little contest at StyleMob called Made It Myself.
Submit photos of stuff you’ve sewn, designed, crafted, etc and then they’re voted on. The prizes are Etsy gift certificates.

Not sure if I will enter anything (there are some crazy sewn FOs from a while ago), but I imagine lots of you will have something to contribute to the contest.

Things have been very exciting lately. My new Phildar catalogues arrived today!! Meaning the orange cardigan in this Winter’s catalogue is my next project, but it will be the black cardigan I’ve really been needing lately.

About 5 more knitting-related deliveries are expected.

Someday Classic Elite will have more soft chunky and my order of French Grey will arrive in my recycling bin…(Reggie, my postman is amazing and leaves our packages in the recycling bin with a little note slipped under the door so we don’t have to go to the post office to get our packages)

I also just discovered Etsy. I’m late on this I think, but I have 3 packages on the way as a result of this newfound addiction, such as…

Some lovely stitch markers and lovely needle case.

I love this handmade/vintage revolution. It’s such a great idea to have this marketplace for unique things made by actual humans…ones not in a sweatshop or something equally dehumanizing. It also makes sticking to my no-buying-anything-made-in-China rule much easier–though I should say I’ve strayed a few times…Twinkle yarn is made in China…boo.
People always ask why I do this…
Is it the human rights violations?
Is it the lack of environmental standards?
Is it the fact that because of lax US standards we get the stuff from China that the EU rejects? You know…all that stuff with lead in it (like candy and lipstick)?
I always think this is a funny line of questioning. As though I’m supposed to pick one but be alright with the other truths.
They all pretty much suck. So I try to not support it.
I haven’t cut out buying US products made in developing countries altogether, but that may be a next step. The thing is the Chinese share of imports into the US is astonishingly high and overwhelmingly the largest (at least for consumer goods).

In other news, the Fad Classic vest is almost complete and looks fantastic so far…hopefully it fits.
The yarn used was not made in China. We can all rest easy now.