Homestead
BDN’s Homestead section is a celebration of rural life. Our writers cover small farms, animals, DIY solutions and fascinating Maine people who find unique ways to live simply. Read more Homestead stories here.
For centuries, the tail end of the Christmas season has brought with it a special, obscure celebration for spinners and fiber enthusiasts that’s made its way from Europe to Maine.
“St. Distaff’s Day” — celebrated the day after Epiphany, or the 12th day of Christmas — once marked when women would return to their daily work of spinning wool and flax for clothing and thread after the holiday festivities. It’s named not for a real saint, but the rod that fibers are wound around in preparation to spin on a wheel.
Men traditionally didn’t go back to work until the following Monday, according to the American Folklife Institute, and would sometimes pull pranks to try to get women to stop spinning, such as trying to set fire to their flax.
Today’s spinners make yarn because they enjoy it, not because their survival depends on it, but many still observe St. Distaff’s by gathering on or around the day to spin together — minus the flames.
“It’s women getting together to celebrate women,” said Joyce O’Rourke, who is organizing a Distaff Day event in Stockton Springs on Saturday, Jan. 10. She sees the modern observation as a way to share love of the fiber crafts and honor the history of women’s labor in textile production. “I don’t know why we would celebrate going back to work, but we do.”
The observation is an annual social event and look back into history for Maine’s fiber artists. This year, it’s also expanding into an area of the midcoast that doesn’t often hold gatherings for spinners.
Spinning fiber is the foundation of making fabric and thread to sew it together. Hand spinning was traditionally women’s work; it involves brushing and preparing fibers and spinning them into yarn or thread using a wheel or drop spindle.
“For women of all social classes, the work of textile making was constant and unending,” textile researcher Elliot Rockart wrote in a Tatter journal article on the holiday last year.
When the Industrial Revolution began, women and girls were then often employed working long, sometimes dangerous hours in textile mills.
In more recent decades, small groups have kept spinning, weaving, knitting and similar fiber skills alive — something O’Rourke said sets Maine apart from some other places. In today’s world, it’s a relaxing, meditative task for people like her, and a practical tradition participants want to pass on to younger generations.
Here, hand spinners typically come together around St. Distaff’s Day to work together and socialize, she said. Like most gatherings for fiber artists, it involves gathering in a circle to work, talk, learn from each other and enjoy some good food.
“As soon as you learn to spin wool, you just get involved with it,” she said of the holiday.
It historically has been celebrated locally at the University of Maine’s Page Farm and Home Museum in Orono, she said, which has hosted a spinning group. The museum will hold its own holiday celebration from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, according to its website; people are invited to bring any form of handwork project to work on.
O’Rourke’s event at Bucks Cafe in Stockton Springs on Saturday also invites people to bring their projects or learn about new ones. The celebration runs from 10 a.m. to noon.
Anyone who’s curious is welcome to come and learn about using a spinning wheel or sewing machine, along with experienced crafters of any type.
“You never know if you have a knack for it,” O’Rourke said of spinning. “It’s something everyone should try.”