I was having an online discussion earlier with my friend Amputeehee and she mentioned Sleeping Beauty. Since both of us are spinners.. we started thinking about what on earth she would have pricked her finger on since nothing on a modern wheel is sharp. Google-fu to the rescue!
In the story of Sleeping Beauty, Princess Briar Rose/Rosamond is cursed to prick her finger on a spinning wheel, thus causing her to fall into a death-like sleep. The origins of this folk tale are sometimes debated by spinners, as most modern spinning wheels themselves lack a point upon which pricking a finger is possible. However the very old spinning wheels lacked the modern flyer and bobbin, and spinning was done off of the point of the spindle (see “Great Wheel” illustration above)and the constant wear made the spindle extremely sharp. One suggested explanation is that Rose pricked her finger on the point of a distaff. Another theory, proposed by master spinner Alden Amos suggests that Rose caught a bit of moldy flax (called boon) under a fingernail and suffered an allergic reaction.
That information is courtesy of Wikipedia’s spinning wheel entry.
By the way.. I’ve finished a toe-up sock and cast on for the second! I’m also half way through the Koigu toe-up sock that I posted about in the pointy sock post. I can’t knit on it right now because its in recovery from undergoing sock-toe reconstruction surgery… I’ll be posting some photos of its ordeal later in the week.