354 – Labor’s Fruit
***NEW!***
1-206-350-1642
Call in and leave an audio comment!
How to call from outside of the US.
| Current Book |
Chapter 36 (Vol 2, ch 11) of North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell, with many thanks to our reader, Barbara Edleman. Book talk begins at 29 minutes.
The first N&S episode is 331.
If the iTunes feed ever goes down, please head over to the Libsyn site.
This Week | Sponsors | This Month | Every Week
| This Week |
Literary Links-n-Stuff
- M’appen = May Happen (perhaps, maybe)
- welly = nearly (e.g., “Fire’s welly out”)
- would fain = with pleasure, gladly
- aught = various uses (everything, anything, nothing) so Higgins’, “There he went, ossing to promise aught, and pledge himsel’ to aught—to tell a’ he know’d on our proceedings, the food-for-nothing Judas!”
means
“There he went, trying to promise everything and pledge himself to everything and tell everything he knew about our union business.” - a-that-ens = to those ends, that way
- “To a Mountain Daisy–On Turning One Down with the Plow, in April, 1786”—poem by Robert Burns read by Craftlit’s Resident Scotsman (the Awesome Arlen) with a proper burr (and Scottish bróg)!
Images in the video–“Robert Burns” —original uploader was Yallery Brown at en.wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
His home–“Ellisland Farm and the River Nith” by Wilson. Land of Burns. 1840. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. - ill-redd-up = unmade, ashy fireplace
- butty = (back then) any kind of bread with… anything (butter, salt, fat)
- The connection between vinegar and fainting
- London up, Milton down? What gives? Let us know!
Fun Stuff
Robotic Arm! (Couldn’t get permissions for the other videos)
Prince Eric (not so generic)
No Frogs this week. [sad face] I think it was a little too cold at night.
- Request Heather speak on Cognitive Anchoring or teach (sock heels, etc) at CreativeLive or Stitches or VOGUEknitting LIVE!
- Vanessa at Survival Organs found the most amazing gluten-free, calorie-free, food jewelry you will ever want to wear!
- Tara–Wurster-Weight on Ravelry–of the curtain coverlet and Heather’s Quilt (in case you wanna say Hi)
- Christine—who brought up the idea of Morsbags labels that also say CRAFTLIT! (Any ideas on where to/how to make them? Lemme know!)
- GoFundMe site for Saving Sifu Design Studio
For cool window art:
![]() |
Episode Sponsors |
![]() |
| This Month |
July Raffle
Our July Giveaway has TWO parts—a copy of Stampington’s Stuffed and Stampington’s Somerset Life. Visit our giveaway page to enter.
Other Stuff from this Month’s Shows
- Make a Morsbag, and our CraftLit Pod
- Knit a Nest article and Knit a Nest site
- eMail me with info on homeschool diplomas
- Women in Podcasting link hosted by Marina Martinez
| Every Week |
![]() |
![]()
Need More
|
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Shop in the Shoppe!Audiobooks, Print & |
Premium Audio!Streaming and |
Use Our App! |
- Bleak House Bundles 1-4 are in the Shoppe. FORTY hours of awesomeness with another 10 hours coming as soon as the book is finished for subscribers.
Return to the Top


Want a button?
![]() |
![]() Swag |
![]() |

…and more in the Defarge/CraftLit shop!
![]() |
![]() Grounded Updates |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Be the first to find out when the Grounded sequel–Shattered— will be released! |
Check out this episode!
Heather, I have been loving listening to the podcast and so glad I found someone who loves “old” books too. I love Lambertsville and New Hope. Did you hear about the Shad Roe Festival in Lambertsville? Here’s the link from last year’s festival. http://www.nj.com/hunterdon-county-democrat/index.ssf/2013/04/shad_festival_2013_in_lambertv.html It is a wonderful crafty day with good food.
Oooh! Are you here?! Nearby?
And oh my, yes! You’ve found lots of people who love ‘old’ books.
[grin!]
Welcome to our happy home!
The Burns poem reminded me immediately of Catullus 11. At the end of this poem he says of the lover who has disappointed him that his love for her has been destroyed like a flower at the meadow’s edge which has been touched by the plough. If the two are connected (and I’m sure they must be- they’re too similar not to be) then it’s interesting that Burns has taken Catullus’ simile about the damage done by a thoughtless lover and turns it into a musing on mortality (and it’s so fitting that Mr Higgins, with his daughter dying young as the unwitting outcome of industry, is affected by the Burns poem).
Hi,
Weirdly there has been correspondence on this issue in one of the national papers this week. The consensus seems to be that we go “up to London” because of its status as the capital. I was bought up North of Manchester (Milton) and can remember my father correcting me when I said that we were going down to London. Seemed very odd to me as a child.
Liz
Zeitgeist!
That is so wild that it’s a topic! And how funny… I’m with you. I would have found it curious. 😉
The KnitMoreGirls have been offering labels for their various knit-alongs that came from here–http://www.sterlingnametape.com/ My understanding from listening to the show is that Sterling provided the labels for free and the listeners just had to donate (through Paypal) a nominal fee to cover shipping. This may be what you’re looking for for the Morsbags. Check it out.
Great idea! Thank you for the link, too!
Listening to your show, i realised i never questioned the ‘up’ ‘down’ business in Britain before, because we use the same terminology in Japan — ‘up’ for going to the capitol city and ‘down’ for going everywhere heading away from there. i’d be interested to see what the definitive answer is 🙂
Heather,
Regarding the “up to London, down to Milton” question, I think this goes back to the railways, yet again. The London direction was known as the up-line, and the opposite as the down-line. Hence, up to London, down to wherever the train had come from.
The up to London part is still very common usage, the down part is more driven by north/south direction. I live halfway between London & Cambridge (so due north of London, due south of Cambridge, roughly). I would say I am going up to both of them. However, I regularly go down to Bristol, which is due west of London.
Interestingly, on a recent trip to Glasgow, I found out that they go “through” to Edinburgh (roughly due east).
There is also the usage of “going up” to Oxford or Cambridge University, and being “sent down” if you have been expelled. In my experience, that’s limited to those two universities.
Thank you for a wonderful podcast – many happy hours of listening and knitting, often on trains!
Alison