Today, as you may or may not know, is St. Distaff's Day, aka Rock Day. Traditionally celebrated on January 7, the day after the feast of the Epiphany (the last of the 12 Days of Christmas, for you trivia nuts), it was the day that European women returned to their household work. The spinning distaff or rock was the medieval symbol of "women's work", and on this day, according to the Robert Herrick poem "Saint Distaffs day, or the Morrow After Twelfth Day", men and women would play pranks on one another. These "pranks," by all accounts, consisted of the men setting the women's spinning fiber on FIRE, and the women spraying the men with water. Sounds to me like the women should've "pranked" the men a little harder. But the first 2 lines of the poem say:"Partly work and partly play
You must on St. Distaffs Day"
So that's what I did today: a little work, a little play. I took advantage of the break in the weather to get some natural light photos of yarn (up tomorrow), and then spun a new type of yarn (tease!). The play involved sorting through this MASSIVE stash of fiber that came in the mail today. It is somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 POUNDS of wool!!! There's Romney, and Jacob, and Cormo, and more Romney, and Corriedale, and Shetland, and Merino, and alpaca, and some hemp and a little bit of something called "breeder's cotton". All packed in these great muslin bags, too. (And don't you just lurve the 'Beaver Feed' sacks? Gotta find something to do with those.) WOWZERS! This is my introduction into the world of barter... And I'm hooked! Thanks, Mary!! Now I've *really* got to come through on my end. I sent her a big ol' box of heirloom seeds from my mother's garden so far, but, clearly, there will be more. Much more. Off to fondle fiber. Happy St. Distaff's Day All!
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