Folk ARE rather amazing when you think about it.

I snagged Folk Shawls in pristine, awesome condition at Half-Price Books this afternoon.
I'd seen it many times in many places and had been in too much of a rush to really look at it. The author looked at lots of shawls from lots of places and de-constructed them (she's got LOTS of degrees in lots of things, so I am quite sure that deconstruction is an appropriate word!) for the rest of us. Faroe shawls, Irish shawls, a silk Japanese tea shawl, a Tibetan prayer shawl. At least half of them have lace work and her inclusion of charts AND descriptions look like they will be helpful.

But I was really thinking about the just plain folk who made these in the first place. They had time and materials and the desire to improve ever so slightly on what their mothers or grandmothers had done. And then some industry or something wiped out the need for this, that or the other. Some would surely include knitted lace in the "nonessential" category! I wish I'd known my great Aunt well enough to improve on her pie pastry. Ha! Not likely.

My point is, even if you think you "just" scrap book, or "just" tinker with a banana bread recipe, know that you are part of folk craft, folk art and the thread that links craftswomen and craftsmen together; continent to continent, religion to religion, hemisphere to hemisphere.