i had a friend say, women don't have hobbies, since hobbies by there nature are slightly impractical, and all of women's "hobbies" were practical in nature. but i think emanuela, you are right when you say they could not afford hobbies!
i knit as hobby, (as fiberbabe quilts) we could, easily buy articles that are as useful, cheaper and faster than it takes us to complete the things we make.
my mother knit as a practical matter. yarn used to be cheaper then ready made sweaters, and we children needed warm clothing...sweaters and mittens, and hats, and scarves. most of our sweaters and stuff were very ultilitarian, no fancy work (my mother didn't enjoy knitting enought to follow fancy patterns)
in earlier days, there were no ready made quilts to be had, and never enough warm woolen blankets. Now, you can by very pretty quilts, all hand quilted in china for less than the cost of the fabric and batting. quilting is now a hobby. (there are a number of reasons not to by the chinese quilts, but that is for a political forum) but even in Penn., i found you could buy double bed quilts for $200 to $300 dollars (since hand quilting a double bed size coverlet takes over 100 hours, the quilts were really quite cheap) the quilters might have recovered the cost of the material, but they valued their own labor as almost free!
(and while looking for something else, i found this comment, "a young woman was expected to spin (and have woven) a full set of linens for her bed, her table and her body before she married. So, an unmarried woman was employed as spinster, (till she completed her task) and married, or long after, if she never married.."
vitiate
