Fair Exchange
Tuesday 5th April 2011
One of the things I love best about knitting is that it forms its own community, with a happy cross-border relationship to fabric, patchwork, embroidery etc. And passing on the craft (which I always think sounds rather magical: the craft of magic, the craft of knitting – well, there is a good deal of casting and weaving involved in both, I suppose), is part of the community.
When a friend of mine said her daughter wanted to learn to knit, that the daughter lived in my village and that she’d like me to teach her, I was very happy to do so. Problem: the daughter, (not, if I have given you that impression, a child, but a grown woman with her own business) refused to have lessons and not to pay. I on the other hand, only teach many friends and friends-of-friends to knit, or anything that I can do if they want to know, for nothing.
Solution: my new student has her own beauty salon. I, for all my utter addiction to beads, sequins, glitter, pretty shoes etc, have never really ventured into the world of beauty treatments. I gaze, enviously, at gel-nails and think: would they survive turning out the compost heap? Sadly, no, comes the faint reply. I’m so clumsy, I might not even manage to do up my buttons if my nails were longer than 5mm…
So I thought of the idea of bartering. I teach knitting and in return, I get to choose some treatments. The brochure is mystifying. And very, very alluring. I can have hot stone treatments, I can have arm and hand massages, I can have a luxury pedicure. I just know I am going to love this.
And it neatly resolves the payment issue. My pupil is a star, today she learned to make bobbles and (just like me) is now eager to get onto a real project – and that’s after only 2 lessons. I am very proud of her. And very much looking forward to having a few treats of my own, in her salon.
Fair exchange, I think.
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