stereotypical single woman

Wikipedia definition of crafts:
craft is a skill, especially involving practical arts. It may refer to a trade or particular art.”

I will admit it - I am a proud craftsperson. I sew, spin, and knit in my spare time (also refinish furniture when the mood is right.) Normally I immediately follow that admission up with the statement “and I’m NOT krafty with a K.” In grad school it was very important that we made this distinction to people - we had crafts class twice a week and never did we use glitter or glue guns. Instead we studied the incredible fabric manipulation of Mario Fortuny that has never been able to be reproduced by another designer, the deceivingly simple looking draping of Vionnet, the weird and amusing applique and embroidery of Schiaparelli, the complexities of dying cellulosic, protein, and synthetic fibers, the basics of fabric structure, etc… I take all of this very seriously and consider those who master specific skills to be artists. However, this is not what the general public thinks of when they hear that you are a craftsperson, and I blame it on publications like this:

The fact that a publisher saw fit to give someone money to make a book on rock painting (and it’s not interesting rock painting - it’s painting cutesy animals and figures with acrylics - unfortunately cut off in the picture is an interesting nativity set the woman had painted - and honestly, Joseph looked like a turd with eyes. But the line was moving quickly and the woman at the cash register was giving me a weird look so I didn’t get a better shot) just degrades and devalues everything I do. Yes, I am being irrational and taking this too personally. Considering the place I found it I shouldn’t be surprised. I saw it while in line at Hobby Lobby - I am not proud to admit to being in that store. There’s just something about a store that has scripture mints at the checkout lane that creeps me out (what? Altoids are too racy and sinful???) and where you find three aisles of yarn, none of it I would willing buy unless forced at gunpoint (when is the novelty yarn craze going to end???? I’m so sick of trying to find something locally that isn’t fuzzy, or knotty, or hairy, or acrylic, or in horrible colors - if I want something that looks like a hairball I’m not going to spend my time making it - I have three cats - I’ll just look behind my couch.) However, when it’s 5:30 on a Saturday afternoon in Grand Rapids and you realize that you can only find 3 of you 5 size 4 double point needles and you need all 5 to work on some fingerless mittens you hope to have done to give to your coworker by Monday morning there really is no other place to go. And you find stuff like this. And it makes you exasperated and annoyed because you know no one in their right mind would take you seriously after seeing something like that. You immediately become classified as a glue-gun toting, glitter pen using, scrapbooking freak.