Veblen, Artisans and New Old Clothes

I just finished reading The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth MacKenzie, which is a lovely book. There is a section in there:

"The medical business had so many arms. In a daze, she [Veblen] fixated on how many product lines were in her range of vision at any given angle. Pharmaceuticals, latex gloves, sanitizers. Monitors, data retrievers, linens. Mechanized beds. She thought of the multitude of crafty sales reps coming around and acting fun and sassy just in order to shove all this stuff down the hospital's throat. And yet, so what? What was the point of noticing this? Was the hospital supposed to be thrown together by local artisans and craftsmen? What was there to do?" (page 359)

Given my injured knee, I think there might be a place for artisans and craftsmen in the healthcare world. One of the challenges of wearing a giant brace is finding reasonable clothes. My good friend Fiona helped me design some pants that fit over the brace.  I've revived three pairs of yoga pants from years ago. I've found clothes that I bought that I hadn't really even worn. I found a light wool dress that I got at the Title 9 annual clearance sale. This is a long sleeve hoodie dress from one of my favorite shops, and it was such good deal I couldn't pass it up. I really couldn't find a great places to wear it. Until now. Now, it is a perfect dress to wear around the house with my massive brace. I also made some soft wool pads to insert into my brace so my suture wounds don't press against my brace.

When I was at the Fred Hutch getting my breast examined for a lump, the gift shop there sold lots of knit caps that look like they were made by local knitters. There is something comforting about that.