Handmade versus Store-Bought

I belong to a knit and crochet group that meets once a week. Our leader Paula always reads something from a book of knitting thoughts. Most of them are appropriate for crochet too, except maybe when the author commented on how wrong crochet was – but that’s another story.

A few weeks ago, Paula read a piece about why people bother spending hours and hours making something when they could just go buy the same scarf or afghan at the store.

It made me think about it. There is definitely something magic about watching a ball of yarn turn into some usable item. But it’s more than that. There is something about a handmade item that a store bought one can never measure up to even if it is more perfect than the slightly crooked edge of the handmade version.

I think when you make something, you put something extra in it. Call if love, your vibrations, or your feelings – the item carries something of you with it. Why else would my agent Jessica Faust tell me she likes to use the pot holders her grandmother made even though they are old and stained. Why else would Karen write a post to my last week’s blog and mention the crocheted items she has from her grandmother and how she wants to learn to crochet so she can leave things for her grand kids. It isn’t the what the items are, it’s about who made them.

I read a post on the Crochet Partners list about a woman who had lost someone close and the people in her office wanted to do something for her and so they got together and crocheted a blanket. She kept it on her chair at work and wrapped it around herself and took it home and did the same. It was as if the feelings, the caring, and the time the makers had put into it had all became part of the blanket and it helped the woman through a terribly painful time. Just buying a blanket no matter how lovely would never have done the same.

In my crochet series, the Tarzana Hookers are always making something for charity. In HOOKED ON MURDER they all make squares that are joined into an afghan for an auction to raise money for a pet charity. In DEAD MEN DON’T CROCHET they make shawls they call Hugs of Comfort for women at a shelter. In DEATH AND DOILIES they make book marks for a library sale and blankets for traumatized children. As I wrote about their efforts, I realized how much more meaning there is to donating something that has been handmade.

Obviously it doesn’t have to be crocheted to have meaning. Anything handmade is the same. It is all about putting something of yourself into the making. My mother didn’t knit or crochet. Her only craft work was a few needlepoint pieces she had turned into pillows. And every time I look at them, I think of her. My husband treasures the toy dog his mother made even if it’s head is not completely attached anymore.

And there is a gift for the makers as well. What could be more satisfying than knowing you’ve created something that is going to mean so much to someone else? Somewhere a preemie is going to be cuddled by a pink hat with a pom pom you made. A friend’s spirits are warmed by the scarf you made just for her in her favorite shade of purple. Or your grandchild naps peacefully under the sunny yellow coverlet you made.

Handmade things always come from the heart.