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Put that on your needles and knit it

Posted by ESC on June 10, 2004

In Reply to: Stick to your knitting posted by SR on June 08, 2004

: : Does anyone know where the phrase "stick to your knitting" came from and what it means?? Thanks Guy Andrews
: : It sounds very much like a chauvinistic reprimand, such as, I will decide what will be said or done, and while you may think you have something to contribute, just "stick to your knitting." A very outdated view of man/woman related responsibilities is suggested but I have no idea of the origin.

I was looking up "put that in your pipe and smoke it" (see above) and found: "put that on your needles and knit it!" The reference says: "This forms the feminine counterpart of - or rather, complement to - put that in your pipe and smoke it!: latish 19C-20..." From Dictionary of Catch Phrases: American and British, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day by Eric Partridge, updated and edited by Paul Beal, Scarborough House, Lanham, Md., 1992)

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