Okay 20 odd years ago i was oddly terrified of home economics classes because:
d. can’t household worth a damn
The teachers back in grade school tended to assume we were taught crochet and sewing basics by our respective mamas and grandmamas and kinda zipped us along in class. I didn’t learn how to properly operate an old school non-electric sewing machine until high school, because FINALLY there was one student to a sewing machine, so I could figure it out and realize “WELL SHIT SON I CAN MAKE MYSELF NICE THINGS AND I LIKE IT.”
(I made myself a quilted bag. It lasted all four years of high school.)
Also, there was the whole uncomfortable subtext of “YOU WILL BE A FAILBOAT AS A WOMAN AND A WIFE AND MOTHER IF YOU CANNOT HOUSEHOLD” which gets my gander up because FUCK THAT NOISE, WHY AREN’T YOU TEACHING THIS SHIT TO BOYS TOO? I WAS NOT BORN TO BE THEIR FUCKING MAIDS.
(Obviously, I more or less got through this because actually, man or no man, knowing how to household ARE USEFUL SURVIVAL SKILLS THAT ANY PERSON SHOULD KNOW - SO MAKE YOUR OWN DAMN SANDWICH AND SEW YOUR OWN DAMN BUTTONS.)
But now it’s not about being a “proper lady” - it’s simply knowing how to make things with your own hands, using string and needle and hook and yarn and creating pretty things that you can admire, use or both. It’s knowing that you created an actual work of art with needle and thread - and embroidery/cross-stitching is an art form, even if you’re following counted cross stitch patterns. THAT SHIT IS HARD AND TAKES PATIENCE AND CARE AND CRAFT, OKAY?
It’s finally picking up that crochet hook and yarn and relearning an old skill and learning new tricks along the way and making something pretty and useful knowing that it’s not about grades, it’s the satisfaction of having made something pretty and useful.
And God bless the internet because I can quietly lurk on youtube and watch tutorial videos and figure stuff out. God bless the Internet because I no longer feel like my clumsy, idiot nine year old self who couldn’t seem to follow along Teacher’s apparently simple and easy instructions, who kept being told that my stitches were “too tight” and who was made to feel like I’d be a failure at life if I couldn’t pass this “simple” class.
Now when I feel the need to “unplug” from Real Life, I can just grab my craft bag of threads, needles, yarn and hooks and choose whether I’ll make myself a doily or continue my current cross stitch project.
