Handwork
Idle hands are the Devil’s playthings.
The Waldorf/Steiner philosophy holds handwork in high regard for the development of the mind through motor control (ha ha, I almost wrote ‘development of the motor through mind control’ — Waldorf joke!). The theory is that handwork can guide the developing young mind as well as express some inner traits not seen in traditional learning methods. Teach a child to knit and you give them a peaceful way to contemplate abstract and spatial reasoning as well as mathematics and even sociology.
Handwork, such as knitting, sculpting, sewing, even gardening, washing dishes, kneading bread or chopping vegetables, gives the mind an immediate task to work on, while other areas of the brain are engaged. If the task can be accomplished by rote, the brain can also wander blithely off to mini-fantasy camp.
Not only is there a huge mental component, but there is also the social aspect as well. Handwork brings people together - to share the work, to compare technique, to pass the time. Knitting and sewing circles, quilting bees, etc. are examples of traditional events that bring creative people together. (I once joined a craft circle of about 12. The next time it was three people - a craft triangle. The next time? two of us - a craft line. And then finally, I had to drop out, leaving a craft point. That was my friend Nicole who doggedly stitched on. But she did teach me to create LIFE in the form of a Waldorf doll.)
Handwork is win-win as not only does the brain get to rest and play, but the product of the work is bread, a pair of socks or a scarf, a clean floor, a new friend, or an entire garden of food and/or beauty.
Franklin Habit, who blogs at The Panopticon, wanted to say something about handwork, about knitting in particular. So he concocted 1,000 Knitters, a photography/portraiture project:
The goal is to celebrate through portraiture a creative community whose members have historically been either overlooked or sentimentalized, and whose work is often undervalued.
In the series, self-identified knitters are photographed singly while at work on the same wool scarf.
What is brilliant about this project is its natural structure: a knitter photographing knitters knitting. The community participates by simply knitting on one really long scarf, for the camera. Franklin’s statement that this work has been overlooked and undervalued is true enough, but I anticipate that what will emerge from the 1,000 photographs is far more complex than just validating the activity. Handwork, while pervasive, low-tech and mundane, is significant because it can guide and mirror how our brains work and what our souls crave. Knitting and “thread arts” (crochet, embroidery, tatting, etc) have a greater symbolic value - taking string and raveling it in ancient and artistic ways to create beauty, harmony and useful objects.
So, all that “busy work” that people do with their hands serves an immediate and practical purpose but also emanates from a deeper place in the human mind, satisfies deeper needs, and perhaps does indeed ward off the Devil!
So, go ahead - knit, make soup, braid a lariat, whittle, prune the roses, make a Sculpey dinosaur. It may not seem productive but it is very very good for you.