Distaff Day - January 7th

"In times past, January 7th, the first free day after the twelve of Christmas was known as St. Distaff's Day. It had no connection whatsoever with any saint but its place in the folk calendar gives an indicator of the importance of spinning at a time when this was the only means of turning the raw wool, cotton or flax into thread capable of being woven into cloth. The day, which was also know as Rock Day (referring to another name for either the distaff or the spindle) indicated that this was the end of the Christmas festivities and the return to the normality of spinning whenever there was a spare moment." from Maureen James

In honor of distaff day, today I made my own wrist distaff. I used bits of wool left over from past knitting projects, old buttons, unpaired earrings, and little charms that have spoken to me in the past.
I used the yarn to make some rope with a fringe twister and then secured each charm on the end of some silk which I then crochet chained. Once I had enough of those done ( I saved a couple), I secured them onto the two endsof the rope and finished it off with wrapping the end in some of the blue seasilk yarn, and...
And here it is in use, I had to test it right away!


The guild in Duncan celebrates Distaff Day every year, and since as I will be at the shop and not able to go, I figured we should celebrate Distaff day and do a short workshop in the afternoon. As well, people are welome to bring their wheel, drop spindle and come spin!