We are losing craft skills

at an alarming rate.
A friend sent me a link to an article about Burano lace yesterday. (It is long. I won't bother you with it.) Now I don't make lace. Even if my paws were able to do so it is not something I would want to do. I like my crafts to be a little more practical than that - which probably says something about my Scots-Presbyterian upbringing.
But I can appreciate the work that goes into making lace. I can appreciate the skill involved - and, believe me, it is very skilled work. I do not want to see those skills lost.
I can appreciate the skill that goes into a great many other crafts too. Skills we are losing.
The Senior Cat was a hobby woodworker. He made furniture. He made toys and boxes. He made conjuring apparatus for magicians. He used his skills to repair things around home, for other people and for the women's shelter. 
The Senior Cat also belonged to a woodworking group. Over the years he has collected tools and timber - and more timber. 
I understand all of that. I know a little about woodwork through watching him, listening to him talk about it and more. 
He developed all sorts of skills through his woodworking. He also developed friendships.
My mother sewed more out of necessity than pleasure until she retired and then she went off to machine embroidery classes. Again, not my "thing" but there were skills involved and she became friendly with people in the group. She also knitted - again more out of necessity than pleasure. I never knew her to knit anything other than plain stocking stitch garments. It gave her a certain degree of satisfaction. She was clothing the family.  
My brother does woodwork - and now, like the Senior Cat, he does more in his retirement.
My sisters paint and draw and the Black Cat also does some origami. 
And yes, I knit. I crochet too. I write patterns. I teach knitting. In doing so I have met many people. They have also taught me a great deal. I have more ideas than I can ever hope to carry out. My craft hobby has allowed me to come into contact with people from all over the world.  (I have other hobbies like reading - and writing.) I know knitting is not like lace making - even fine Shetland lace knitting is not like the finest Burano lace.  All the same there are skills involved, skills that can be developed to a high level.
But all these things are important. We need to pass these skills on. People need to find the time to do them.
There are all the manual dexterity skills we can develop through doing them.  And there is all of this too....
I have "borrowed" that from a public post but I believe it was originally from either Jamieson's or Jamieson and Smith - both Shetland wool companies. 
The lace makers offered to teach lace making in Venetian schools - only to be told that needles and scissors were not safe. Recently there was a call for people to teach knitting in Shetland schools. I hope they found enough competent people - and that they don't get told knitting needles are not safe. 
Serious art and craft has almost gone from schools here. They are too busy teaching other things - like computer coding and politically correct social skills.
And there was yet more in the paper this morning about the dangers of children spending too much time looking at screens - in preference to making friends and interacting with them. Something was also said about the way too much screen time delays language development and social development.
Ms W is saving pocket money for "a set of those special water colour pencils". Hooray for that.