Distaff Day 2025
Hanky and Scrap Clothing for my New Year’s doll, Eve
Happy Distaff Day!
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Year of the Dragon touque for my granddaughter
In Days of yore, this signalled the end of the Christmas, and back to the needle, distaff, and loom for the women of the household! Nowadays some fibre communities celebrate the fibre arts on Distaff Day – but here you will see a retrospective on some of the fibre delights I produced in 2024…
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Shimmer Shawl for a friend
…of course the Quimper Hittys like to get involved with my projects!
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Tea Towel
…one of two tea towels I wove this year on a friend’s loom – one went to a friend in Wales, and I use the other as a hand towel in the bathroom!
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Noro Yukata Shawl for myself
I have worn this shawl all winter – I love it!
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Baby and toddler socks for a friend’s first and second granddaughters
Rose helped knit baby and toddler socks…
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Grown-up Socks for a friend
…and I knitted some grown-up human socks…
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Christmas Stocking and woven wash cloth
…and two Christmas stockings! Constance helped to hem a linen washcloth that went to a friend.
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Lavender flowers
We picked lavender in the summer with a visitor from Ontario…
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Lavender Scoop
…and dried it (for months my room smelled sweet and spicy-delicious)…
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Lavender Eye Pillow
…then loaded scoops of lavender and scoops of flax seeds into silk bags, making sweet and scented eye pillows for birthday and Christmas gifts.
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Triplet dresses
I don’t have photos of the process, but I constructed three small cloth-bodied dolls – one for me, one for my friend in Ontario and one for my friend in Quebec!
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Jacket
And I sewed a fringed leather Jacket, which went to my friend in Quebec via a niece who added some beadwork to it.
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36 pairs of Hitty Bloomers!
The biggest project of all was sewing 36 pairs of Hitty Bloomers and 36 Hitty dresses for a Hitty event in Missouri!
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Nevertheless She Persisted!
The human was busy in 2024!
Quimper Hittys 
Happy New Year!
This was a great round up of your industrious year!
Eve is lovely. Was she a gift to you? I’m looking forward to seeing her fully dressed.
Thank you for a reminder of the importance of Distaff Day to women and little girls from traditional Yorkshire farming families like me! In the 50s/60s we still only carried out essential dairy and cooking work between Christmas Day and Distaff Day. I could play outside, with my toys or carry out little projects of my own choice, but as Distaff Day began, so house cleaning, darning socks or sheets, plain sewing jobs and homework had to be completed before play. I enjoyed it all anyway but would keep glancing and smiling at my dolls, bear and golly ( yes we were still allowed them in those days) promising them at least a little of my time when essentials were done.
Oddly Plough Sunday is still acknowledged in Yorkshire farming communities, but Distaff Day seems to have been completely erased.
Thank you so much, Trumble’s Mum for sharing your memories of Distaff Day in Yorkshire. I love to think of you glancing and smiling at your dolls and bears, and promising them a little of your time. I am sure they waited expectantly and hopefully for you to finish your tasks!
I love Distaff Day! It feels good to do things that have been done for longer than I have been on this planet… it feels like a thread of continuity runs through us all! A Very Good Thing!
I hadn’t thought of it like that, but now I will! Thanks for the comment, and I agree threads of continuity are so important and reassuring and worth making much of!
Oh! It is a great joy to review all that you accomplished in 2024 via the needle arts. And, Trumble’s Mum, I surely enjoyed hearing your narrative of this special day. It was an unknown day to me.
I was surprised at the number of different things I made last year – more than I thought when I added them all up, there are even a few things I didn’t photograph! It was very satisfying, I think I will try to do this retrospective again…we have celebrated Distaff Day a few times, but it wasn’t a family tradition like with Trumble’s mum. I did enjoy her reminiscences too!
I loved too this “Distaff Day”, I haven’t known it before. Every project, every stage of your miniature world, really I want to jump in there. So beautiful,… and welcome to your new Hitty Doll, Thank you, Love and Hugs, nia
Thank you nia, we really do enjoy the textiles in this house too (and cats and dolls and friendships)…I think my home is a lot like yours in many ways!
You are welcome, I can imagine and I would love to be there… But yes, we are similar about this kind of things. Because of this I love your world, I feel lucky to know you, you are my peace and happiness in this world. Thank you, Love, nia
All of your projects are so wonderful!!!!! What a fruitful and beautiful year’s worth of creativity!
It was a lot of fun to add them all up and realize what a fun and productive year I have made for myself!
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Thanks for the ❤
well, you have been busy! Wonderful photos an beautiful work. Welcome Eve, is she from Jenny Barnett? I can see you have started on her wardrobe,
That is such a lot of making Kjerstin! And I know you also bake and preserve and garden and … A woman’s work is never done!
It is truly never done, and some of the work is more fun than others, but it’s a good life. I feel very lucky in lots of ways.
And a lot better than feeling bored!
what a year of production….so many garments and gifts made!! You are a marvel. I love Eve and look forward to seeing her clothed in 2025. In fact I look forward to all of your creations!!!
Eve is also looking forward to more clothing – she is a little neglected, not to mention chilly, sitting around in her chemise in the dead of winter! Thanks for the encouragement!
Some amazing projects!
We’ve certainly had fun…I am a bit surprised when I think about it, that there hasn’t been a single quilt – not even a tiny one!