Quote Originally Posted by piperdbh View Post
Shenanigans!
I'm a "hobbyist" sock knitter and am currently in the middle of making a pair of kilt hose for a man whom some of you know. When I attached the cuff to the first sock I discovered that there were some technical problems, so now I have to rip out 5 hours' worth of work and redo it. I could leave the sock the way it is, say "it's good enough" and never think about it again. But I can't do that. The hose have to be right. In other words, I have to answer for my work, I have to make the socks the best I possibly can (I think that's called the "search for excellence"), and if I didn't believe in "good, better, best" I wouldn't be using the best Merino yarn I could find and I wouldn't undo work that wasn't right and I wouldn't be making bespoke, custom designed hose.
Similarly, the Mrs. and I (again, "hobbyists") make cakes for weddings, parties and whatever else someone wants a cake for. To make the icing the best texture it can be, I have to buy shortening in a 50-pound box and pay $50 shipping, on top of its cost. I could say, "Crisco's good enough; I'm not a craftsman, after all." But if it were your daughter's wedding cake that was ruined by inferior ingredients, you (or her, either) wouldn't care what I called myself; you'd be calling me a few choice names of your own.
But you prove my point! You are a Craftsman" especially if you make those decisions and answer to those standards day after day. That's where all this started---in the very different decision trees that different sorts of people/makers face. And the results that spring from those choices.

There is, if nothing else, a coherence (honed over years of studying this issue and years and years of experience) that flows through all of this dialog...at least on my part. I suspect you missed it. Maybe you don't see that reading one or two posts but over the whole thread it is there. I am careful about it. I need it to be there.

That too is Craftsmanship.