Are we alone?

I am sat in Starbuck’s in Canterbury, tea and cake in hand, with a whole host of tourists and busy locals outside.  A slab of peace and quiet would be brilliant right about now!  Alas, the 21^st century coffee shop has become the Macdonald’s of the late 1990s and so, I sit, in the darkest corner of the shop, desperate for some space.  Which is totally bizarre; I work from home in my workshop six days a week and I don’t see people every day- so why, oh why, did I require peace and quiet to write my blog about crafting!

Crafting has always been, and remains to be, a social activity.  Growing from Mother’s teaching their corseted daughters, to the home economic courses of the late 1960s, to the stitch ‘n’ bitches we se today.  Yet, for me, crafting is not social time, its head space time.  Sometimes I will listen to podcasts or the news channel, sometimes a movie (most likely one of the Harry Potters!) and sometimes, sometimes, hours of silence.

In my case, craft lets me tap into something other, something intangible, but very centring and peaceful.  Listening to some of the back episodes of Sister Diane’s podcast, The Craftypod, her Mum, being interviewed, tells us how she and Diane craft in silence and how not many people understand!

It would seem that there are two fairly distinct crafters then.  The sociable stitch ‘n’ bitchers, the ones who primarily feed off the hubbub of crafting with others.  The others, tend to thrive on the silence and the peace that comes from crafting alone.  As with everything, there are shades of gray, and I am sure we all fit into both of these camps at different times, but I think, it is important, to find which encourages our creativity, which, for want of a better phrase, feeds our soul.  Once you find this, you can build your crafting into something helpful and supportive in your life, something that, in the end, you won’t be able to do without.