This is a bad picture, I know.  I apologize, greatly.  The midwest has been under a ginormous cloud for about the past week and a half, and I was getting tired of waiting for sunlight to take pictures, so the picture above was taken without flash under a whole lot of indoor lights that make it look all kinds of crazy.  But the intent’s there, and you can kind of get the gist of what I’m talking about here.

See, over on Ravelry.com, there’s this fabulous group I think I mentioned before, called “Reclaiming the Home”.  (If you’re a knitter, don’t skip Ravelry because you think it’s too trendy or too much of a timesuck.  I mean, it IS a timesuck, but some of the gems include a whole lot of organizational tools and groups like RtH where you can get TONS of information on things that you wouldn’t really associate with knitting per se.  Sooooo worth the wait for an invite.  Seriously, people….)

On the RtH group, someone posted this fabulous meme, full of questions about homekeeping and wifely goodness.  I thought about posting it intact, but many of the answers deserved their own entries.  So in an effort to post more often, I’m going to go through them here, and try to incorporate some new habits in the process.

 Question A:  Aprons, y/n?

I love aprons.  No, seriously.  But I love them on a kind of abstract level.  Like, I love the IDEA of aprons.  I love the function of an apron.  I really love vintage aprons, especially the ones intended to be used on a daily basis, and the ones for showing off when company comes over.

I don’t USE aprons, though.  It’s kind of sad, really.  I have this collection of vintage aprons, some from my mom’s mom, and some from various flea markets and thrift stores, and they’re all sitting in a drawer, folded nicely and waiting for me to get my head out of my tail-end.

The problem is that I’m not a small girl.  So while the ties fit, the waist-aprons (the kind I have) cut me off right in the middle, and hang down all funny, like it’s just shade for my legs.  It’s the same reason I don’t wear full skirts — just either short ones or pencil-skirts that cling to me from the hip down, since my hips and legs are pretty darn good, but that belly has to go.  That kind of thing.

The one in the picture up there is my favorite “for showing” apron in my collection.  It’s sheer-ish.  Chocolate brown.  Long ties that hang off a decorative bow in the back.  (For me, it’s off the back.  For skinny girls, it’d probably wrap around back to the front and tie, to be honest.)  The band of cotton in the front has five rows of rick-rack — three chocolate brown to match the rest, and two contrasting bright aqua strips.  And I *love* chocolate and aqua.  My whole house would be some variation of those two if I could get away with it.

Starting tomorrow, I’m going to try to use my aprons.  Not this one, since it’s for company, more than utility.  But one of the 1950’s cotton ones that are obviously well-used and were well-loved while in other hands — those would be practical.  And since I’m doing a fair bit of baking tomorrow, it seems like an apt time to try them out, both for nostalgia and for practicality.

So I guess the answer to the meme question would technically be no, I don’t wear aprons.  But I do love them, and WILL be wearing them, so I’m good with a tenative yes.