Fiber Monday - Tangible objects... Or in which I get a little preachy

I don't have much to show you by way of finished objects this week. I am continuing to weave the fabric for The Dress and am probably about halfway done with the 9.5 yards of warp. I will show you my selvedges, though, because I am pretty proud of them. Just so you know, selvedges in weaving, the edges of the cloth, should be even and smooth. I'm pretty happy with these. The first picture is truest to the actual color of the fabric.

But really I want to talk about something else today. As most of you know, I use my hour or so cleaning the barn in the morning to listen to lectures and podcasts. It's pretty much the only time I can be sure of not getting interrupted. 

A few days ago I was listening to an interview with Clara Parked, who wrote among other things, Vanishing Fleece: Adventures in American Wool. (It's a very good book and I recommend it, especially if you are interested in the state of the American Wool industry. And I'll give you a hint. You really should be even if you aren't interested in spinning and weaving and knitting.) In digress.

Again.

Anyway, she and the interviewer were discussing about how hand spinning saw a sudden, large resurgence around 2005 or so. (I learned to spin in 1997, so was a bit ahead of things for once.) Ms. Parkes suggested that the rise in spinning and soon after a resurgence in knitting was directly correlated to the beginning of widespread use of the internet and much of people's work moving to a computer. She went on to suggest that people were needing something tangible because so much of their day was spent doing work that they couldn't actually hold and touch. 

This made me stop and think. (I completely agree with her, by the way.) There have been times that I have been doing work on the computer. It was needed work and I worked diligently on it. I knew I had done something yet I could never shake the feeling that I had not accomplished anything. My brain knew I had done something yet I didn't feel as though I had done something. I found it frustrating. (This doesn't happen with writing, probably because I can see the actual article or blog post.) I do like tangible results, so this goes a long way towards explaining the sensation.

I can also remember as a mother with many young children the absolute need to make things because it was the one instance of doing something and having it stay done. As a mother I did lots of things, but the vast majority of them were things that would need to be done again, probably in a matter of hours, or were undone by busy young children. Once again, it was that feeling of having been busy and doing things yet not really having something tangible to show for it. 

Finally, I worry that the generation of people who grew up with computers do not realize the importance of physical objects. I wrote again today to a younger mother that it was far more important that children tangibly experience their world before trying to teach anything that is more representational. I also wonder if so many of the metal health problems we are seeing arise in young people is a result of a complete disconnect with the physical world. I do know that in the horse community, there is great concern over the significant amount of students who are desperately confused by the physical nature of the sport and of working with horses, from buckling a halter to figuring out how to use reins and everything in between. 

We need to have contact with the physical world and not just a virtual approximation of it. We need to use our hands and experience things with our senses. It's how we work and how we thrive.