Respect The Craft (seriously)

A few years (and tears) back, I picked up the art of crochet at the age of 22...again.  I actually started when I was 11, thanks to a couple of old friends in middle school.  My only problem was that I was clumsy and irresponsible (I was a kid, don't fault me for that), and kept losing my hooks.  Picked it back up when I was 16, but I had the same problem...my hooks would go AWOL.  But never mind my brief history of how I got "entangled" with the craft (sorry for the terrible pun).  I'm curious why some people around my way never respected the craft or the work that the ladies at the local park put in to make their crowns.

A friend and I would crochet and sell crowns every Sunday at Leimert Park (if you've never been to Los Angeles, this is the first place you should go) when we have our weekly African Drum Circle.  And we would wonder why nobody ever bought our items.  At that time, we did business with a local shop owner nearby.  We would bring bags of crowns to him just to make sure we had a little something in our pockets, only to realize that he would give us "chump change" for our pieces and sell them for at least quintuple that amount.  At first, I really didn't care; I just needed some money for my TAP card (public transportation in L.A. is a hot mess).  Then the more I did business with this guy, the more I noticed I was being undercut a certain amount of money.  So I started going to him less.  Then my friend and I had a talk one Sunday.  What she told me had sort of depressed me, but weighed on me like Shaquille O'Neal's body mass.  "Cut him off," she said.  The last time I went to him was toward the end of August, I believe.  I haven't been back since, but at least I had other connections in L.A. County.  I can safely say business is gradually picking up in the crochet department.

Now let me tell you why I call this little story "Respect The Craft."  Because some of the folks who buy our work in the neighborhood try to nickel-and-dime us for what our crocheted pieces are really worth.  Not only do you need the cost of materials, time and overhead, but also the energy and love that these ladies of the park put into the pieces to make them beautiful.  So when I say "Respect The Craft," then damn it be like Nike and Just Do It.  Your life will be more fulfilling.