bunnyjadwiga

(Yes, it's

yarnharlot's fault. This contrast was so... ew.

From a comment on Yarnharlot's blog:

a passage from "Women's Work, The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times.

The notion of female deities creating a life by spinning a thread is particularly Greek and runs through Greek mythological thinking at a very deep level. It may have begun from the association of childbirth with attendant women who did their spinning while waiting to act as midwives in the birthing room. The parallel between bringing forth new thread and new humans -- both done by women -- strengthened the image. The Romans, for their part, equated the Greek Moirai with their minor goddesses the Parcae, who presided at childbirth but were not necessarily spinners. Scholars also compare the Moirai to the Germanic Norns, of Wagnerian fame. These female deities had indeed to do with fate, but their function seems to have been to warn humans of impending doom by speaking out shomehow -- their name has etymologically to do with vocal noises -- and sometimes to produce destinies by weaving cloth.

Compared with this geek comment by the husband of a relatively new spinner (http://www.fuzzylogicknits.com/blog/):

Anyway, I was spinning in bed, and Spiff came in and sat down next to me. He watched me for a while, and I saw this bizarre look begin to creep over his face. (No, no...I'm quite sure he didn't suddenly develop a spindle fetish...). He said, "I was very wrong to say that this is a dumb activity. This is almost medieval...you're actually doing in real life what your elf character in World of Warcraft would do, and that's actually pretty cool...."

I think I just sprained something in my brain.