Can you whittle me a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma?

I would prefer persimmon, on a rosewood plinth.

Also, my religious observances prohibit me from paying for materials or labour.

I suspect there's an awful lot of traditionalists out there and all the imagery on their site doesn't seem to fit that mould very well. I'm probably more typical of the average crafty type they'd encounter if they managed to get comments from a good cross section of the population. In my case, I love making things with pointy sticks and stringy stuff and those things tend to be useful and even attractive. I'm happy to be crusty. Representative responses would even include people who *ahem* scrapbook but I wonder how sniffy they'd be about it if they had a flood of responses form people fond of paper and glue.

However many responses they do get, I know there's a small but significant flood from other knitters at Ravelry, some of them who do it or something related (spinning, dying, etc) for a living. Hopefully, they'll take on board that they really can't ignore all the people who aren't simply producing strange metal blobs or vases with beaks in the name of innovation, but who are simply plodding away at something they love and find fulfilling.

>>> Mr B - I was well fresh when I wrote that; so much so that I'd actually forgotten about it completely. I don't disagree with my sentiments though. And I did like Battleship Potterykiln.

>>> Ms Yve, It's long irked me that the CC adopted the Arts Council model of focusing on the avant garde (from which I personally benefited, I have to declare). They did an effective job of raising the status and the incomes of a minority of makers, but pretty much sat by while a number of British craft traditions died of neglect. Like I said in my drunken post, the Japanese have proven that you can support both the avant garde and excellence in the traditional.

<edit> PS, Things made with pointy sticks and stringy stuff are generally known as 'bows and arrows'. </edit>