Femininity from Scratch

How can a Catholic Maiden be involved in Politics? (REPOST)

November 03, 2023

+JMJ+

Please note: This is is a repost of a post I did for the Maidens for Mary blog several years ago, and has been updated.

Now why in the world would I bring up such an unpleasant subject as this?

Well....I'll be honest in revealing that I take a lot of inspiration for posts from what is going on around me. And elections have been on the forefront recently.

Every single political decision affects women in some way, shape, or form; so I firmly believe that women and girls should at least have an understanding of the issues at hand, if not actively keep abreast of political happenings.

What sort of issues should Catholic maidens be concerned with?

Women are more naturally drawn to socio-political issues, leaving things like economy, war, and law to men as a general rule. (Edit: This is not to say that some women individually may be drawn to these topics. This is a generalization.)

Fighting for the rights of the unborn, the family, the aged, veterans and the poor are perfect causes for women to be involved in politically. Education and healthcare are also good ones to be involved in.

How can a Catholic maiden be involved in politics?

Our role in the political scheme of things is rather small, even for us older maidens that are of voting age. But, there are still some important things that we can do to fulfill our civic duty.

1. Research and Advocating for Candidates

I cannot stress the importance of this rather tedious and stressful process, especially during a primary election.

Catholic voters cannot, under pain of mortal sin, support a political candidate that supports abortion, homosexual "unions", human cloning, embryonic stem cell research, or euthanasia. These were called "the five non-negotiables" by Pope Benedict XVI.

I would also frown upon voting for a candidate in favor of feminism and anti-school choice (as this takes away from the parent's right to educate their children). Also look at a candidates moral position - do they support vices such as gambling, or are they living a life of horrendous public sin?

Now, how would you know what a candidate's positions and morals are?

It requires a lot of digging - through campaign materials, social media, news reports, and if they have been in office before, voting records. The latter of these can be found at VoteSmart.org or through government websites.

Some Catholic parishes will also publish voter guides for the current election. My diocese sends out a survey to all the candidates with key questions and then publishes the results online and in the print version of the diocesan newspaper. It certainly is an eye-opener!

Even if a maiden is not able to vote for a particular campaign because of her age, she can still search for good candidates and advocate for them via online and to family and friends. A woman's gift to influence is one of her highest talents, and it can be used for much good (or much evil!) in these cases especially.

2. Rallys and Counter Protests

For those who are blessed with the virtues of fortitude and patience, there are those positions at the front lines. These can take the form of Rosary rallies and sidewalk counseling at an abortion clinic to being involved in the Counter Protests for the liberal "Women's March on Washington" (yes, indeed, there were brave Catholic women on the sidewalks shouting the truth as hordes of liberals passed by!)

3. Voting

For those that can, voting is not just a right, but a moral obligation! With the vote, we have direct responsibility over the choice of our leaders. If we choose not to vote, we are basically saying "I don't care what happens to my country". This sentiment is against the virtue of Piety, of which "love of country" is a subset of.

It's not just a question of voting every four years for the next president. The vote also controls which lawmakers are put into office, who chooses candidates, and also who is in charge of the local government. All these factions require good, upstanding citizens in order to produce good just laws and enforce them correctly.

There really is no excuse not to go vote. It is easy to find out where you need to go through the county website. Voting registration can be done at the DMV (at least in my state). And if you can't physically make it to the voting site, apply for an abstentee ballot!

Note: This section contained paraphrased ideas from this article (http://www.catholicapologetics.info/morality/general/voting.htm). I highly recommend you to read this gem of an article!

Bonus: Celebrate Civic Events/Holidays

Would you believe that Memorial Day was originally instituted by women performing a corporal work of mercy?

By celebrating civic events, I don't just mean throw burgers on the grill. I mean actually going and caring for veterans graves on Memorial Day. Visiting a veteran on Veterans Day. Go to historic sites, town celebrations, and reenactments. Read the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Learn the history of why these civic holidays are special to this country.

In Conclusion....

As unattractive as politics are, it is extremely important that we keep a close eye on them - an even closer eye than we do on threatening mold in the kitchen. As women confirmed as soldiers of Christ, it is our duty to fight for Him in whatever way that we can. With our politics being in as sad of a repair as they are, it is high time for some good men to come in to office - and we have the obligation to make sure that they get there.

In Corde Mariae,

Catherine

I'm an Official Spinster Now (My Spinning Wheel Restoration)

October 08, 2023

+JMJ+

Blessings, all!

I will admit, this is a rather odd title. Many of you already know that I have been a spinster for many a year, in terms of my marital status. Still praying for that spouse to come around...

However, when I say "spinster", I mean it in the most literal of senses.

Several years ago, I started on a fiber journey, which I documented on a post in 2020. Three years later, I'm *still* working through this fleece. At this moment, I'm about over three-quarters finished with the carding and am about halfway through spinning it.

Previous to this, I had been spinning and plying on a drop spindle. It's been a great journey learning how to use it but it's a slow process. And so, for years, I had been on the lookout for a spinning wheel. I knew that they sold for hundreds of dollars online, but I felt that was a bit much for my frugal little heart to spend.

In June of this year, my brother informed me that there was an estate auction that was happening next door to him. The late owner had been an old soul and had a lot of antiques in the house. One of the things listed in the notice was spinning wheels, and so, I decided to go.

There were indeed two spinning wheels in the lots, and they were among the last of the lots to go. I fully expected to shell out $100 for one wheel. So imagine my shock when I got the bid for $5 and the auctioneer practically begged me to take the second one for the same price!

I had to leave them at my brother's house temporarily, since they didn't fit in my car, lol. When I came up again the next day, I took a full evaluation of them. I did discover that in the move, some of the pieces of the two wheels had been accidently switched, so I fixed those.

At the same time, I discovered that both wheels were missing parts, including flyers (which hold the fiber being spun) and footmen (the connection between the treadle and the wheel). Undaunted, I started to research how to fix them. Surely other spinsters had restored similar wheels to working condition.

I got both wheels home safely and continued researching. I discovered then that while the footman would be a simple fix, the flyer was another matter entirely. It would seem that flyers of antique wheels were custom-made to the wheel itself and that wheels without flyers were doomed to being decorative pieces. Maybe this was naïve of me, but I found that to be a little ridiculous.

At this time, I decided to focus on only one of the wheels because it would have been much harder to create leather bearings for the second pair of maidens. Not only did they not match, they didn't have the holes drilled into them (my guess is that they were replacements for decorative purposes).

While poking around, I discovered one day that one of the parts I had was a quill spindle. Since it was an older form of collecting the thread than the flyer, I thought I could use it for one wheel and got excited. For an experiment, I tied a string to one of the footmen and tied a temporary drive band around the wheel and the quill whorl to see if it could work. I had to hold the spindle with my hand because of the lack of leather bearing on the other maiden, but it was exhilarating to see it turn!

While I was attempting to figure out the quill/flyer conundrum, I started creating the new footmen. One of the wheels had a degraded leather footman, so I used it as a guide. I ordered a roll of leather strap from Amazon, cut the holes with an awl and knitting needles and tied them to both wheels. I had to jerry-rig them with string between the wheel itself, but they worked like champs on both wheels. I also bought some narrow strapping to help repair some of the wooden pieces and make a temporary bearing for the back maiden, and shimmed one of the wheel supports that had come loose in the repair process.

After I finished the footmen, I turned back to the flyer/spindle problem. I discovered that the quill spindle was meant for a walking wheel, and not the Saxony style (which is what I have). The original bearing was also indeed meant for a flyer, and would not be able to hold the quill properly. So it was back to the drawing board with even more measurements being taken.

This all happened in the space of about a month. For the rest of the summer, I was in a rut trying to find a flyer that could fit the wheel. I discovered that modern flyers for spinning wheels were simply too big, and many vintage ones were too degraded to safely use. When buying one didn't seem to be an option, I looked for resources for making one. I soon found that while there were some craftsman and plans available, I was in over my head. So I abandoned that idea and decided to keep looking online.

Fast forward to late September.

I found a listing for a vintage flyer on Etsy, estimated to be about 1910s. One cool thing was that while the seller was from Wales, the flyer was originally from Sweden. The measurements looked about right and the condition looked decent, so I took a chance and ordered it. Once it arrived, I did a fit test and it was just about right!

On closer examination, the orifice and the hooks had a little more rust than I had anticipated. In order to safely use it, that had to come off. Using vinegar, WD-40, some steel wool, and a lot of elbow grease, the majority of the rust was able to come off. As of right now, it still needs a tad bit more work, but it will be ready soon!

Meantime, I made a more permanent bearing for the back maiden, and found a string that I can use for a permanent drive band. All I need now is to buy some oil, finish the last bit of cleaning, and then I can...take it for a spin. Sorry, I couldn't help making that pun.

All in all, I really enjoyed stretching my brain to figure out how to make this spinning wheel work again. In spite of the sometimes discouraging setbacks, I'm really blessed that this $5 find turned out to be fairly easy to get back into shape. I'm really excited to get to spin my wool on there - I've been carding like crazy over the summer so I have enough to play with!

Have you ever restored something? What was that like, and was it successful? Tell me down in the comments below!

God bless,

Catherine

The Cantankerous Crosses Quilt

July 04, 2023

+JMJ+

Hello my dear friends!

It has been such a long time since I came on here. Part of that reason is the new job, of course, but mostly it's because I've been digging into my workbasket again. And one of those projects was...a scrappy quilt!

Back in the fall, I talked about potentially making a scrappy quilt on my newsletter. I had inherited a lot more scraps from my mom as we were cleaning out the basement...and they were taking up way too much space in my room! While I loved the previous quilt I had done during the pandemic, I wanted to experiment with a new quilt design.

After some looking, I decided on a design featuring whirlwind blocks. However, I discovered that this style of block took much bigger scraps than I had available, and the test blocks didn't turn out very well. So I abandoned my original design.

Later, I found another block design on Pinterest that featured much shorter horizontal stripes and nine patches, which I really liked. After sorting my scraps by color, a great color scheme of reds, yellows, pinks and blues started to form.

The quilt top came together pretty well, except the vertical stripes. I stretched them a little to make them fit and it warped the design. It's a little noticable upon looking at it, but it became a huge problem when quilting it.

I nixed the idea of batting at this stage, as the knit fabric I had chosen was a pain enough. It took several tries for me to center and pin the quilt top to the backing without puckering, and the fact that the backing barely puckered at all while quilting was a sheer miracle!

I hand-quilted this one, as my machine would have chewed the backing to ribbons. My handstitching leaves much to be desired. But with the rest of the problems I had with this quilt, it was a minor thing. It took several weeks to finish, and the pins kept dropping out of it (which really annoyed the dickens out of me). I edged it with red binding tape as red was one of the main colors of the quilt.

So you probably have been asking yourself, why did I choose a knit fabric for the backing?

The answer is that, at the time, this is what I had. It had been stashed for years, and was slated to be some kind of blanket anyway (it was terrible for clothing).

It turned out well, but I will NEVER use a knit fabric as a backing fabric ever again!!