A magnificent piece of lace work

 




This magnificent piece of lace knitting is on the Shetland Museum site.  https://www.shetlandmuseumandarchives.org.uk/…/lace-project  
More about the project can be seen there. I have been thinking about the project for some time now. It is the sort of thing I would love to be involved in but unfortunately is not likely to happen. 
Yesterday another blogger put the same link up on her site. I will be interested to see what sort of comments she gets from those who read her blog. They are mostly, if not all, knitters. 
I suspect their response will be positive but I had a much less positive response from someone here.
      "Why would anyone bother? Nobody makes that sort of thing any more. They don't have time and nobody uses it. It's a waste of money."
Well there are people who are bothered. I am bothered. I am bothered that there are so few people doing that fine work, that many people believe they no longer have the skills to do it.  I am bothered that many people don't find the time to learn a craft and excel at it.  I am bothered that people prefer "easy care" clothing that can be just flung into a washing machine. 
But, there are people who still use such things. They may use them only rarely but, when they do, they get great pleasure from them. The above piece might easily have been used as a wedding stole or a wrap for a grand lady to wear at a ball. There are wonderful square pieces used by a bride and then as a shawl to wrap each child in on their christening day. 
Pieces like this can take many months, perhaps a year or more to knit. The women (and they were mostly women) who knitted them were highly skilled. It was a skill which was recognised too. They were not able to do the rough manual labour on the croft because of the wool they used. They needed smooth hands to handle the very fine thread, some of it no heavier than sewing thread - cobweb weight  yarn. They needed manual dexterity, good eyesight and intelligence. It was not easy work.
Preserving what these women have made and making it available to another generation of knitters is not a waste of money. Some of the skills involved are useful for other things. (I know many surgeons have been encouraged to learn to knit to increase their manual dexterity.) Knitted fabric can lead to technical solutions in other areas. Lace knitting has special applications.
Knitting can be a solitary and soothing occupation or a social one. It can be intensely challenging or simply repetitive. Whatever the process it isn't a waste of time.
And simply making something beautiful can do so much for our mental health.  We need more projects like this.