Crafting our way out of economic tough times is an idea from Before Our Time PLUS a Giveaway!!

Crochet, for many of us, has suffered from its connection with 1970s fashion when an acrylic granny square armchair cover or a crocheted string bag was the height of the craft. With samples of crochet being dated as far back as 1000BC it is certainly a long-lived craft but one that has suffered swings in popularity. Prior to the 1800s the craft had largely disappeared in Europe, confined to monasteries and the homes of wealthy ladies of leisure where lace was crocheted for religious garments of the time.

An example of intricate 19th century Irish (crocheted) Lace.

This was until financial disaster struck. Crochet was revived as a widespread pastime during the Irish potato famines of the 1840s and 1850s when it became a major cottage industry for farming families looking to make money any way they could. Now well to do ladies could have their delicate crocheted collars, cuffs and shawls made for them to order. Irish Crochet is extremely delicate lace-work unrecognisable from the crochet we know from the 1970s. By the 1870s it is estimated that there were between 12,000 and 20,000 women in Ireland producing crocheted items for sale.

Fast forward to 2009 and I wonder are we seeing a new resurgence in home-based craft businesses? If evidence coming out of newly bankrupt Iceland is anything to go by then the answer is yes. Reports are that sales of thread, yarn and fabric are high in the tiny nation as its inhabitants are turning to crafting to make money.

And we need only look to the online world to see that home-based crafting businesses are alive and well regardless of the economic climate.

A beautiful child's beanie made by Stacey

Stacy Murray of http://www.sheepsclothing.com.au/ has a love of knitting. She started her home-based knitting business when she found it difficult to find high quality knitted clothes and accessories in contemporary styles and colours for her children. Seeing a gap in the market she launched Sheeps Clothing with both children's and adults styles and now sells her range online and direct to children’s stores here and internationally.

Tracey's Philip is an Astronaut Quilt. Imagine your child's face on this fabulous piece!

Tracey Petersen of http://www.imaginethatquilts.com/ is a passionate sewer and is motivated to create beautiful and unique quilts by order. Her home-based quilting business started when she found herself sitting down to sew for pleasure after midnight each night after finishing work and then putting her children to bed. Exhausted from her sewing in the wee hours she realised that with the sewing skills she had developed she could make sewing and creativity her main job. Tracey now works less, creates more and has achieved an enviable work-life balance.

The common element with these women is their love of their craft and their commitment to the skills, processes and creativity of their products. This weekend seek out a local craft market and you will see many highly skilled craftspeople selling their knitting, beading, crocheting, quilting, photography and sewing. Home-based businesses such as these not only contribute to family income but to the survival of crafting skills generally.

A craft-led economic recovery? A damn fine idea I think.

And now, A GIVEAWAY!

On the theme of crochet and home-based crafting we’d like to giveaway this beautiful hand-crocheted scarf. Crocheted in 100% machine-washable wool from Bendigo Woollen Mills (colour: silver) this scarf will be posted to one of our readers.

All you need to do is promote this giveaway in some fashion – via your blog, twitter or email to friends (don't forget to link to this page!) – then come back to leave a comment that you have done this, preferably with a link to your promotion because we’d love to visit your blog and/or twitter site too!

We will draw the lucky winner out of a hat. This giveaway is open worldwide and will be open until a week from today.

Good luck!

* please note: Before Our Time does not get paid to promote any items. Any reviews positive or otherwise come direct from the heart.

Trading the Victa for a Hoover*

Before our time, the Great Aussie Backyard looked something like this photo taken in the early 1970s in suburban Perth. A huge expanse of lawn (often spiky buffalo), a concrete path and a Hills Hoist. Litres of water were poured onto the lawn via sprinklers, with the water sometimes originating from a bore in your own backyard. A hose could be used to water the lawn, wash the car, clean out the rubbish bins (as above), water the pot plants and cool off hot children.

With the tragic events of the past weeks, I think most of the world is now aware that parts of Australia are in severe drought (and have been for some time). With this drought comes stringent water restrictions which completely prohibit the watering of lawns in any way, shape or form.

So, most lawns around here now look like this:

But not the lawn in my new backyard (we moved house last week). It is lush and green. It has no dead patches. It provides an even texture with little maintenance.

Because it's fake.

At first I was appalled by the idea of having a synthetic back lawn. It seemed almost un-Australian. But I have to say, after living with it for a week or so, it's growing on me. (Not literally, obviously.)

There are distinct advantages of an artificial lawn - it requires no watering, or fertilising. It doesn't need to be mowed. It lasts up to 20 years without fading, and it always looks green.

After putting up with dustbowls for playgrounds for the past few years, many of the schools around our area are also turfing their outdoor areas with synthetic lawn. The children's clothing stays cleaner, they have a soft, 'green' surface to play on and the overall appearance of the school is improved.

A new house in our neighbourhood has gone one step further than just artificially turfing their own front/backyard, they have also done the 'nature strip' (the piece of ground in front of each house between the street and the footpath/pavement/sidewalk). As you look along the street it is brown, dead, crunchy, patchy, lush green, brown, dead, crunchy... Could this be the end of the nature strip as we know it? Soon to be the un-nature strip?

In places where you are permitted to water lawns, it is estimated up to 80 percent of a household's water use will go onto a lawn. Replacing dead, brown lawns and dusty ovals with synthetic turf seems like a simple solution to the watering issue, when we don't have the water to use. However like all things in life, nothing is simple. In researching this post, I discovered the down-side to the artificial acres of verdant lushness.

Synthetic turf is, quite obviously a man-made product, made of polyethylene or a combination of polyethylene and nylon, sewn into a rubberized plastic mat or a netted backing. So, in manufacturing the turf, carbon emissions are created. And then, the artificial lawn itself replaces a living (sometimes), breathing real lawn, which in normal circumstances would be sequestering carbon and producing oxygen.

In order to make the individual blades of synthetic grass stand up, the lawn is in-filled with granules of a variety of substances (sometimes granulated rubber) and there are concerns about whether toxic substances leach out of these granules and into the ground water.

This article at the Sustainable Gardening Australia website contains an excellent summary of the points for and against real and fake lawns. Who knew grass could have so many issues?

Where do you stand on the lawn? Real or fake?

* You wouldn't really vacuum an artificial lawn - you need to sweep it. But 'Trading the Victa for a Broom' just didn't have the same ring to it.