Crafts and the Atlantic Thread
Good afternoon! Hope this finds you well. I wanted to give you a bit of a context for my journey.
Crafts, using our hands and tools to create, are a universal human activity. Skills and techniques have been shared across what we may think of different cultures for time immemorial, so much so that where they originated is often unknown, and to a certain extent, I believe irrelevant. What is produced by each craftsperson will definitely be influenced by the cultural context within which they work, and also by the commercial demands of their potential customers, but their inner world also comes out to play. What we generally understand by crafts is just one individual producing something from start to finish, and so it is inevitable that much of their own self is invested and reflected in their work; their thoughts and experiences and the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches that have come into their lives. Crafts, not requiring language to learn, teach or practise, are sensual and physical activities. Personally, I have always been a fidget- my hands feel idle if I'm not using them, and the crafts I currently practise mostly are knitting and crochet. Anyone who knows me is aware that there is little chance of me sitting still if I'm not knitting or hooking, so with so many bus and ferry trips on this journey, it's ideal.
The history of crochet is a little lost in the mists of time, perhaps from South America, Persia or China, perhaps even simultaneously developed in these places. It certainly didn't become at all common in Europe until the 1800s. We use the French word, crochet, and I find it a but clumsy to say I am crocheting. I prefer hooking, but then not many people want to announce that they are a hooker. Crochet had a particular significance in Ireland during the potato famine, when many people were organised into crochet cooperatives to make fine garments for much wealthier Europeans, and perhaps here we can see echoes of the sweatshops of today. It is tragic that people's skills and techniques should be exploited for massive personal gain by those who neither possess those skills, nor value the human beings who practise them. The history of knitting seems a little clearer, it may have developed independently in Scandinavia, but the oldest items come from ancient Egypt and the technique first arrived in Europe in the South of Spain and Portugal, when this area was known as Al-Andalus and ruled by a Moroccan dynasty. When people move around, they take their craft knowledge with them. Until printed materials, the only means to learn a craft would have been face to face, or possibly by studying a finished piece of work- either way there is a direct connection from one craftsperson to another.
I am not too interested in genetics- to my mind, there is only one race of humans who migrated all over the world and continue to do so all the time, influencing each other through every exchange. I am interested in the similarities along this route rather than the differences. What genetics shows is much similarity along this Atlantic seaboard, and where people move they bring skills and techniques with them. Travel along this route must be very long-standing; the earliest documented trade routes show the Phoenicians of what is now Tunisia going all the way up this coast three thousand years ago. In an age when the sea was a connector, not a barrier, it is clear that this history is much older. Much has been made of very real similarities between the music of Western Ireland and the Berbers of Morocco; the rhythms and the style of singing. This inspired the music of the wonderful Afro-Celt Soundsystem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LhIkAKJzs8
If you are interested in the cultural connections along this route, The Atlantean documentary by Bob Quinn is fascinating, you can watch the first episode here. It has also inspired me to begin my journey a little further north in Ireland in County Galway:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xscgzc
Anyway, thank you once again for reading. Love and light to you all. Billy xx
http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.crochet.org/resource/resmgr/pdf/history-of-crochet-rm.pdf
http://www.yarnia.co.uk/knitting/a-brief-history-of-knitting
Crafts, using our hands and tools to create, are a universal human activity. Skills and techniques have been shared across what we may think of different cultures for time immemorial, so much so that where they originated is often unknown, and to a certain extent, I believe irrelevant. What is produced by each craftsperson will definitely be influenced by the cultural context within which they work, and also by the commercial demands of their potential customers, but their inner world also comes out to play. What we generally understand by crafts is just one individual producing something from start to finish, and so it is inevitable that much of their own self is invested and reflected in their work; their thoughts and experiences and the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches that have come into their lives. Crafts, not requiring language to learn, teach or practise, are sensual and physical activities. Personally, I have always been a fidget- my hands feel idle if I'm not using them, and the crafts I currently practise mostly are knitting and crochet. Anyone who knows me is aware that there is little chance of me sitting still if I'm not knitting or hooking, so with so many bus and ferry trips on this journey, it's ideal.
The history of crochet is a little lost in the mists of time, perhaps from South America, Persia or China, perhaps even simultaneously developed in these places. It certainly didn't become at all common in Europe until the 1800s. We use the French word, crochet, and I find it a but clumsy to say I am crocheting. I prefer hooking, but then not many people want to announce that they are a hooker. Crochet had a particular significance in Ireland during the potato famine, when many people were organised into crochet cooperatives to make fine garments for much wealthier Europeans, and perhaps here we can see echoes of the sweatshops of today. It is tragic that people's skills and techniques should be exploited for massive personal gain by those who neither possess those skills, nor value the human beings who practise them. The history of knitting seems a little clearer, it may have developed independently in Scandinavia, but the oldest items come from ancient Egypt and the technique first arrived in Europe in the South of Spain and Portugal, when this area was known as Al-Andalus and ruled by a Moroccan dynasty. When people move around, they take their craft knowledge with them. Until printed materials, the only means to learn a craft would have been face to face, or possibly by studying a finished piece of work- either way there is a direct connection from one craftsperson to another.
I am not too interested in genetics- to my mind, there is only one race of humans who migrated all over the world and continue to do so all the time, influencing each other through every exchange. I am interested in the similarities along this route rather than the differences. What genetics shows is much similarity along this Atlantic seaboard, and where people move they bring skills and techniques with them. Travel along this route must be very long-standing; the earliest documented trade routes show the Phoenicians of what is now Tunisia going all the way up this coast three thousand years ago. In an age when the sea was a connector, not a barrier, it is clear that this history is much older. Much has been made of very real similarities between the music of Western Ireland and the Berbers of Morocco; the rhythms and the style of singing. This inspired the music of the wonderful Afro-Celt Soundsystem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LhIkAKJzs8
If you are interested in the cultural connections along this route, The Atlantean documentary by Bob Quinn is fascinating, you can watch the first episode here. It has also inspired me to begin my journey a little further north in Ireland in County Galway:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xscgzc
Anyway, thank you once again for reading. Love and light to you all. Billy xx
http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.crochet.org/resource/resmgr/pdf/history-of-crochet-rm.pdf
http://www.yarnia.co.uk/knitting/a-brief-history-of-knitting
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