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[MUSIC]
My name is Diane Gilleland and I live in Portland, Oregon.
I run a craft blog called CraftyPod, and I run a
crafting website for my hometown of Portland, Oregon,
which is called DIY Alert.
And all of those things just center around trying to make
craft accessible to people.
I actually use Google products dozens of times a day.
Hadn't really occurred to me that I might find craft books
in Google Book Search until a friend of mine here in
Portland emailed me one day and said, you know, you should
really check that out.
There's a lot of craft material there.
And so I went to Google Book Search, started hunting
around, and lo and behold, I was delighted to discover a
real richness, and fascinating differences in perspective on
craft from what we see today.
I use Google Book Search for the most part to find
inspiration for craft projects I'm doing now.
So I might search on crochet, or I might search on bead
work, and I also use it for just a window into crafting's
past.
I think my most interesting find on Google Book Search has
got to be spool knitting, which is done just with a
wooden spool and some nails in the top, and you use a tiny
little crochet hook and you just pull loops over loops.
And then, eventually, out of the bottom of your spool
emerges this very pretty little knitted cord, which can
be made and all kinds of things.
So when I discovered what was going on on Google Book Search
for crafting, I definitely went straight to CraftyPod and
blogged about it immediately because I was really excited.
And people were thrilled.
I got a lot of comments saying things like, oh, please don't
share this resource, I won't have time to investigate all
of these new ideas.
If you want to know about crafts, you really don't have
to go very far on the internet at all.
Google Book Search has something really unique, which
is the historical perspective.
The craft movement in this country is still a fairly
shiny new thing.
There's the whole sentiment of, oh, you know, this isn't
your grandmother's knitting.
I'm really interested in my grandmother's knitting.
And I can learn all about that on Google Book Search, and I
love having that resource for the history of crafting.
I love it.
I try to make something every day.