[Nfb-krafters-korner] A Manly Craft ...

[qubit]

I like it.  *smile*
I had heard about trucking slowing down, but not about trucker hobbies.
I'll have to call a trucker friend of mine and see if he does any crafts, or 
knows someone who admits to it. *smile*
--le

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "eileen scrivani" <etscrivani at verizon.net>
To: "Nfb-krafters-korner" <Nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 8:48 AM
Subject: [Nfb-krafters-korner] A Manly Craft ...


    Again, here is the link to the Wall Street Journal article and I'll post 
in the actual text below it:

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB20001424052748704896104575139990857438962
-lMyQjAyMTAwMDIwOTEyNDkyWj.
html


Truckers Pick Up Quilting and Knitting - WSJ.com
By JENNIFER LEVITZ

WALCOTT, Iowa-Semi driver Dave White happily sequestered himself in his rig 
at a truck stop on a rural stretch of Interstate 80, waiting to pick up his
next haul: 45,000 pounds of Spam. He used to loathe the downtime in his job.

Then, he bought a sewing machine.

Since last year, when the economy left drivers with fewer hauls, Mr. White, 
a 6-foot-2, 240-pound ex-Air Force mechanic with a bushy mustache, has 
hunkered
down inside his truck in his many off hours, making quilts from patterns 
with names like "Meet Me In Paris." When he's not sewing, he's daydreaming 
about
it, he said as he ran a square of yellow cotton with little violets through 
his machine. "Oh, there's many a time you're just going down the road at 
O-dark-thirty
in the morning and you just start thinking about a particular pattern."

Some truckers are finding themselves with more spare time on the road. Loads 
of goods delivered by truckers fell 15% in 2009, to 170 million loads, the
largest drop in modern history, said Bob Costello, chief economist for the 
American Trucking Associations. That came on top of a slow downswing in 
hauls
because of what the industry laments as "miniaturization" of goods: It takes 
less space to move flat-screen TVs and iPods than their clunkier 
predecessors.

With declining freight, truckers who drive hundreds of miles to make a 
delivery may not immediately have a load lined up for the return trip. So 
they bide
time at truck stops, where they can shower, dine and sleep in their rigs. A 
couple of years ago, a driver might drop off a load and pick up a new one in
two hours; now the wait can be two days, said Mr. Costello.

Though evidence is anecdotal, industry groups and trucking-company owners 
say the increase in spare time has spawned more hobbies. "We've got guys who 
are
into opera, photography, skydiving," said Norita Taylor, spokeswoman for the 
Owner-Operator Independent Drivers' Association, a truckers' group.

Mr. White's employer, Iowa-based Don Hummer Trucking Corp., last year 
started a loosely organized "sewing club," and encourages drivers who are 
nimble with
a needle to show off their handiwork at headquarters. "We want them to pass 
the time to make themselves happy, rather than get frustrated waiting," said
Dena Boelter, Hummer's human-resources manager, an avid sewer who calls the 
hobby a great stress reliever that can be done almost anywhere.

Kevin Abraham-Banks, a 37-year-old trucker with a shaved head and dragon 
tattoos, passes time at truck stops with his cocoa and knitting.

Mr. Banks, who lives in Sioux Falls, S.D., and hauls romaine lettuce between 
California and the Midwest, learned to knit last year after load-volumes 
slowed.
Creating something tangible beats sitting around the truck stop "talking 
about who has a bigger radio," he said. He's finished a scarf and socks, and 
is
working on a sweater for his wife.

"The fact that you can take strands of thread and basically make something 
out of it, that's awesome I think," he said. "It's pretty cool stuff, man."

Still, trucking can be a macho world that doesn't feel conducive to knitting 
or sewing. Some 95% of truckers are men, said the ATA. At the Iowa-80 Truck
Stop, whose signs bill it as the "World's Largest Truckstop," a top request 
at the theater is for "Smokey and the Bandit" and the on-site dentist, 
Thomas
Roemer, often sees drivers only after they've tried to yank their teeth out 
themselves. Crafting with fabric and yarn is "nothing I would do-my mom does
that," said Mark Sanchez, 47, a long-haul trucker.

Thomas McConnaughy, a married grandfather from Hemet, Calif., hauls cereal, 
reads his Bible, plays Sudoku, and talks trout fishing at truck stops. He 
doesn't
let on to other drivers that he keeps 15 coils of yarn in his cab and makes 
what he describes as "really cute slippers."

"In the truck stops, it's usually a bunch of guys watching football," he 
said. "If I sat down with my knitting, I think there would be some funny 
remarks."


Mr. White, the quilter, who is 53, came to his new passion last summer after 
feeling he was wasting time "waiting on freight."

He drove 2,600 miles a week on average in 2009, versus 3,200 in 2008, even 
though he spent the same amount of time-about three weeks at a stretch-on 
the
road.

He struggled to find a hobby, having burned out on reading. He tried carting 
along a remote-controlled helicopter, but it kept falling on him from a 
shelf
in the truck. His wife, Dee, an accountant at their home in Colorado 
Springs, Colo., is a quilter and suggested he try it. By August, they had 
outfitted
his truck's sleeper cabin with a $179 sewing machine, supplies, and a 
starter's pattern. "Boy, let me tell you, I created a monster," she said.

Since then, Mr. White has made seven quilt tops, which are finished with a 
filling and backing between trips. He spends three hours a day on his hobby,
sitting on his bed, with his sewing machine next to his mini-fridge. 
Flowered "project boxes" sit next to neat stacks of blue jeans and baseball 
caps.
Quilting, he said, "gives you a little bit of ownership. You've actually 
accomplished something with your time off."

He pulled over once to visit the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Ky., and 
if time allows, visits fabric stores in towns he rolls through.

In his truck, he showed a quilt with illustrations of fruit, and emphasized 
the importance of strategically placing quilt blocks so that "you don't get
three lemons in a row or two plums in a row."

His blue eyes widened behind his glasses as he moved to the topic of thread. 
"There is a variegated thread that goes purple to white then back to 
purple,"
he said. "Oh! Just beautiful."

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A1

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