Knutselling

I remember the time when I first heard this word. A daughter of some friends asked if she could go "knutselling" in my room. I thought; "aren't you too young for that?" But no, once I found out what she meant, I was all for it. In fact, I love knutselling. I seem to think I am very good at knutselling. So, I usually only knutsel by myself, so it was fun to do knutselling together.

Okay, if you are unfamiliar with this word, then before you call the police or send a pitchforked possy to pay me a visit, read the definition.
Knutselen: to tinker, to potter about, do-it-yourself, to do arts and crafts, etc.

If there is a word that the English language needs, "knutselling" is it. It is so perfectly descriptive of what people do, specifically in two scenarios.
Case Scenario 1:
A guy who likes to make stuff in his own workshop. The workmanship might be a little shoddy, he might not have the most efficient working methods, and he probably doesn't know anyone who has much use for another coathanger-slash-birdhouse. Still, it's his hobby. Now, the current best way to describe what he is doing might be "handymanning", but I don't like to use that word because I once accidentally saw a movie by that same name. Worst movie ever! Let's just say that the plot involved a very different kind of "hammering" than what I was expecting.
So instead, a slight Englishification, and "knutselling" is a great way to describe what men do in their garages and workshops. Well, that and meetings for the National Organization of Men Against Amazonian Masterhood ("NO MA'AM) meetings:

Case scenario 2:
It's a known fact that children like to make crappy things. The three things that children are good at making is noise, poop and fridge-decorations. Knutselling is exactly the right word for how they make these fridge-decorations. Basically, knutselling is anything they make from paper, scissors, colouring pencils, glue, glitter, macaroni, egg cartons, sea-shells, feathers and any other crap they can find. Currently, the best way to describe what these children do is "arts and crafts". But which is it? It certainly isn't art, or my university education in Art History was a complete waste of time (which it clearly wasn't, right? Right?). And there is so little craftsmanship in what children make to justify it as craft. The Dutch have done well to recognise this activity with such an appropriate word, and they sometimes go even further by having a "knutsel table", and even a "knutsel room" instead of a rumpus room. This might even be the reason that Holland was ranked as the best country to raise children. Although on the other hand, it might also be the worst country to be raised as a fridge. "oh... Thanks honey. It's, really... Wow... Thanks. I'll go and put it on the fridge now."


Example Sentence:"Not even McGuyver could beat me at knutselling."


Update: Even Miffy knutsels!
Well, she might be knutselling, or since all Dick Bruna's characters are made from paper, she could be wearing someone else's face.