Knowing Our History

 

Going through Allison's books has been a bit heart wrenching, to be honest.  As I thumb through each one, assessing condition, trying to think about what value I am holding in my hands, I can't help but think about my own library.

And all libraries, really.

If we don't remember our history, we don't know where we come from.  And we forget to honour those who came before and kept the craft alive.

Many of the authors of these books are no longer here, but some are.  Some of us are aging, and I'm seeing a *lot* of books about weaving in the marketplace.

I know that I have made some hard decisions when it came to Allison's books - what to keep for our guild, what to re-home if possible.

But mostly I am reminded of just how much there is to know about the craft and I treasure those who chose to try and document it.  To share the history - some of it not always very positive.

And that's the thing, isn't it?  If we don't know our history, we lose a part of what makes humans, well, human.  Sometimes the purpose of history is to shine a light on injustices and once we know about those, we can try to do better.  

But first we have to know the facts.  The more we know, the better able we are to make good decisions.

So I have included a couple of textile science books because too few weavers know that the information already exists.  And just because a book was published 40 years ago doesn't make it less accurate.  

If weavers want to really understand the craft, knowing the *science* is a good thing (imho).  So I'm hoping that people will not overlook those books, or the historical books.

The latest listings should appear on eBay in a couple of hours (it seems to take that long for the site to process the listings before they go public.)  You can 'follow' me or just keep checking here.