Jane Brocket

The Gentle Art of Domesticity  was published in the US right around the time I started Craft & Sew Studio (which just had its third anniversary on July 7th!).  I can’t remember how I found out about it, but I believe I saw a small blurb about it in Country Living magazine.  I was so excited to find a book all about bringing back the domestic arts and crafts and adapting them for the modern era because that’s exactly what I was aiming to do with sewing through the Studio.  Jane Brocket is a staunch feminist with a very intellectual take on things.  And yet she still recognizes that there is something inherently fulfilling about making something by hand, being domestic, and nesting.  Nowadays, most of us don’t need to make quilts or sweaters to keep warm–we can buy them cheaply enough and save ourselves the time.  We don’t need to make our own bread; and it has been argued by many that sitting around embroidering tea towels, making feedsack quilts, rearing children, and stitching aprons is equivalent to accepting that women are inferior to men, incapable of doing the same kind of meaningful work they do, and that such activities even make us complicit anti-feminists.

Jane Brocket says (quite well, and I wholeheartedly agree) that engaging in the domestic arts actually validates the work women have done over the years.  Not only has women’s work always been meaningful, there’s actually something personally fulfilling in doing it.  We don’t do it because we have to any more–we now do it because we like to and we choose to.  Creating comfort and beauty is worthwhile.  I would also add that basic life skills are good to have.  I’m not waiting for the apocalypse or anything, but I really believe that everyone should have at least a basic knowledge of how to provide food, clothing, and shelter for themselves.  Practical skills are dying out because we don’t necessarily need them anymore.  But what people forget is that it’s satisfying to make something with your own two hands–even if you don’t need to, you might want to.

Anyway, enough diatribing!  The Gentle Art of Domesticity is not at all dry.  It has short chapters by project and theme that I go back to again and again.  It’s a great nightstand book because you can read just a chapter or two and it’ll send you off into crafting dreamland.  (Yes, I do dream about crafts in case you were wondering).  It’s not a book of patterns but you will find inspiration for many projects.  She also gives lists of books and movies that I am still working my way through, and loving every minute of it.  The baking recipes are delicious and very English but make sure you consult the errata because the measurement conversions in the original printing are very wrong and will screw you up.

There are so many wonderful things to inspire you in this book that I can’t even describe it completely.  But some of my favorite things in it are:

• the bread recipe, which got me baking bread at last
• the Battenberg cake (just how I remember it tasting in London)
• the lists of domestic books, movies, and art
• the crochet ripple blanket (which inspired mine, below)
• the flapjack recipe (rave reviews at multiple 7 Cities Crafters meetings)
• the chocolate box quilt
• the hand embroidery

Suffice it to say, you need it.  Get it now, thank me later!

The new book is The Gentle Art of Knitting and it is smaller in scope but just as inspiring.  Jane Brocket really lets the reader know that you don’t have to be some super-advanced expert sweater-knitter to make lovely and useful projects.  As in Domesticity, her sense of color is surprising and infallible.  Everything is explained clearly, made to seem non-intimidating, and photographed beautifully (although they aren’t JB’s photos like on the blog and in Domesticity).  Any project would make for delightful knitting and you could watch a movie or chat while knitting most of them (always a bonus).  Among my favorites are the fluted rib scarf, the simple dishcloths, all the tea cosies (gotta love a tea cosy), the covered clothes hangers, the crochet chevron blanket (a close relative of the ripple), and the Chanel-style bag.  I haven’t had a chance to test any out yet, but boy am I going to!  I’m feeling much more inspired to knit now.

The Gentle Art of Knitting has just been released in the US and is available on Amazon.  Jane Brocket has written quite a few other books as well, some of which I own, and all of which I’m sure are wonderful.  You can find a list of them in the left sidebar of her blog (and you should read her blog as well!).

I hope you enjoy exploring her world–her work has really inspired me a lot.  Also just a reminder–don’t forget to enter this week’s fabric giveaway!