How Cold Is It?

We're experiencing a cold snap here in Virginia right now.  So how do I determine it's really cold?


You know it's cold and you're obsessed with knitting when:

Off now to feed the horses (what color fair isle matches a buckskin pony?)

St. Distaff Day or Why I Have Time to Knit

*Distaff Day, also called Roc Day, is 7 January, the day after the feast of the Epiphany. It is also known as Saint Distaff's Day, since it was not really a holiday at all. It is, in fact, one of the many unofficial holidays. In many European cultural traditions, women resumed their household work after the twelve days of Christmas. The distaff, or rock, used in spinning was the medieval symbol of women's work.

      *Source-Wikipedia

If you are a spinner, or have ever been interested in spinning, January 7th is officially St. Distaff's Day. After reading the description, I zeroed in on the line about "women resumed their household work"... Seriously, which household work were they talking about?  I don't believe for a minute that the women didn't continue to cook and clean up (or red up from where I come from) after their families for 12 days after Christmas.  

I discovered while wrapping Christmas presents on Christmas Eve (yes, I am that much of a procrastinator) that I had purchased Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's latest book All Wound Up while on vacation (along with two t-shirts that I'm not sure who was supposed to get them for Xmas). If you are unfamiliar with this author, she goes by the self-proclaimed name, "Yarn Harlot", has written a series of wonderful knitting themed books and has a fantastic blog at http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/. (Yes, she is my idol and if you read nothing else, her book Knitting Rules! is great for reference and humor.)   I finally got to start reading several days after Christmas, and in the first chapter, she broached the subject of sitting and knitting while waiting for an appointment, and a non-knitter making the comment of "I wish I had time to knit."  If you knit/crochet/spin in public, you are bound to hear this type of comment.

Going back to St. Distaff's Day, knitting was once considered part of the chores and if Mom didn't knit, there were no warm pieces of attire to wear. Clothing items were also mended, handed down, if fabric, re-hemmed, cut and redesigned.  These crafts were considered to be a part of daily life.  When did the ability to take time and craft become a luxury?  Everyone has the same 24 hours every day. I guess it's how you personally choose to use it.  To me a luxury of time is being an adult and playing video games on the computer or x-box.   I admit, when I started working in a yarn shop and ultimately became the owner, I didn't seem to have as much time to do personal knitting, but have since learned to reach a reasonable balance (unfortuately, the yarn gnomes that live in the shop don't knit samples, they just throw yarn off the shelves when I'm not looking...)

I used to knit during sports practices, and music lessons, but lost that time when sons' could drive themselves.  I still knit while waiting for appointments and during wrestling tournaments (which, alas, ends this year).  I truly don't see the time I spend knitting as a luxury, I see it as time well spent in a productive endeavor. To me it's not a waste of time.  I see the fruits of my labor every winter when husband and sons go to do outdoor chores in very cold weather and thank me for the very warm hats and socks I have knit for them.  I see the appreciation in the smile of a recipient of handmade gift, and that makes it worth while.  If nothing else, I won't wish I had the time to knit, but I will make the time to knit.

Happy New Year everyone, and now I shall go try to figure out who was to get those two t-shirts.......