She spinneth wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands! Proverbs 31
For my 25th birthday, my dear friend, Katie Adams, took me to a sock knitting class. It is so fun, knitting socks!
Knitting socks, is a lost art, and I am trying to get it back in. It was an important skill for the girls in the old days, in the days of the American Revolution, and earlier. Bringing back the lost arts, I think is part of the works of a Feminine Revolution! The Feminist Movement, wants you to take your life the next level, and make the career of your life, something other then the mundane life of a housewife.
Another lost art, is that of making soap and candles, for your home. And cooking a meal for the family. Most of the girls I have talked to, do not know how to cook, or sew, or any of the important arts of Femininity!
I am not saying, that everyone is cut out to knit socks, but I think it is a skill we have not been taught, because our grandmothers, or our mothers, were too busy, working, or just not taught themselves, how to do those things. If you wish to learn these arts, you must find a person doing these classes. Go to a community college, to learn the basic art of cooking, find a woman who knows how to sew, and learn from her, and anyone who knows how to knit, or crochet, learn from her. I know, that these are more worthwhile then learning to be a lawyer, or a associate in a firm, or a secretary to a large business. Find an older lady, who is skilled in the skills you want to know about. The lady I am taking sock knitting classes from, has been knitting them, since she was ten years of age. I think that is great!
In the time of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Ma Ingalls, sewed all their clothes by hand, including the buttonholes, until Laura was 18 years of age. Then Pa got her a treadle sewing machine, to help her sew clothes for Laura, when she was getting married. But for the first 17 years of Laura’s life, her mother sewed her clothes by hand! What a lost art! Now we barely make the clothes, and when we do, it is usually a poor job!
Then in the American Girl Collection, Felicity Merriman’s mother, made her clothes by hand, and made Felicity’s ball dress, of blue silk, for her ball. It was a gorgeous dress, and she was escorted by Ben, to the ball. She was considered a lady, then, with such a beautiful dress!
Most of these arts, I have done. I have made soap, I have sewn(both by hand, and on the machine), I have cooked(still do), and I am now currently knitting socks. By the time I was 10, I have learned to sew on a machine, and make my own clothes. I have not had to buy too many things, because I have made them myself. I still do not know how to make jeans yet, but am in the process of it. Sewing is so much fun, when you see your flat piece of fabric, turn into a beautiful piece of art. Making soap, was a one time venture, but I hope to make some more in the future. I have not as of yet, made candles. I have books for all these arts, some I got from the library book sale, and some from Half.com. I hope to someday have as my skill, helping ladies deliver her babies. And I tell you, it is a wonderful thing to put on your homemaking resume, all of those skills. You never know if you will need to use them again, soon!
What happened? Did our mothers become lazy, because of the sewing machine? Did they turn to placing rivets, and making weapons for the WW1 effort? The grandmothers who were too old to work out, made the socks at home, for the men who fought in the war, and taught the younger daughters who stayed at home, to knit them too. I think that that is why, the socks are not totally a lost art!The mothers, liked their job so much, as it was a break from the mundane, traditional duty expected of them, that they didn’t learn to come back home, after that! It escalated into women in most of the important offices in the world.
Hilary Clinton is trying to run for President of the United States! What is she thinking? No woman, no matter how strong she thinks she is, cannot hold the responsibilities of that important office. The stresses, that the president goes through, it not for the constitution of a woman. She is a die hard, Feminist.
As time went by, the women of this country, made themselves more involved in the lives of men, in a bad way. People think that the Kings of England in the old days were run by the male figure, but it was mostly the woman in their life, that made the kingdom rise or fall. It was because, since the men were not brave enough, the women made their hearts hard, and ruled the country, in their husband’s stead. That is what happened with Ferdinand, and Isabella, William and Mary. No man is different now. Where are the men of valor, the men of the Bible? We were reading of Ahab and Jezebel last night, and it seemed that Ahab was a child, and Jezebel was more his mother, then his wife. She ruled his kingdom, because he moped, and pouted for something he couldn’t have. Pathetic! Let us try not to be a Jezebel!
We as a new generation, need to make ourselves useful in the lives of men, in a GOOD way! We are to make their lives happy, and be there for them, when they come home from scratching a living in this horrible world! It would not be pleasant for a man to come home, and find his wife gone, and a TV dinner waiting for him, on the counter, to put in the microwave. A man likes a home cooked meal. And he also likes to know, that his sweet smelling wife, with her long flowing dress, and simmering hair, is waiting for him, a sweet smile playing on her rosy lips. She smells of lavender and lilacs, for she has bathed herself in her own home made soap, and she brings out for him, a new pair of socks, she has just knitted for him, and then a cup of fresh brewed coffee, if he drinks it! THIS IS A LOST ART, LADIES! The Lost Art of Homemaking, of staying at home, and making our man’s world the most perfect it could be, with the children happily playing, and you happily smiling. Let us bring back this art, and then, we will dazzle the world, in a way we never imagined would happen!
