I am not ARGUING anything with you , I am saying /writing , both from life experience as a woman and as a person living in a different climate than yours , and having lived in various different climates, and having lived through various Different places and times with different levels of having to do manual work, and housework . THAT YOU , like anybody else , CAN NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS like that,about How many hours women in another time/place and circumstances, could `find` to knit or do any other chore, unless you find written evidence to that , Also i declare that using the term `could find 20 hours` , is not a very complimentary word.
I am going further to say that , being a man , you can`t measure a woman`s ability to work. All your calculations are done /made on your own ability , a man who grew up in 20th century, with all the better food , better health etc,, than those women. Many of whom had Rheumaticism in an early age, or other illness or bodily problems. have you tried to work with painful arms and or fingers. Have you tried to work with a sick coughing child next to you,,,,, Unless you live in SAME Conditions , like they did, without Any of the contemporary luxeries , YOU CAN NOT use your measurement of speed as a FACT , about their lives. You are not the only person , who does THIS mistake. you remind me of the male doctor, who couched us [years ago] for labour , and ended his course with ; "when we want it we can have LOADS of milk to feed our baby ",,,, the whole group of ladies had the best laugh in years ,,,, every single one of them reacted like me ... that we would Love to see him nurse a baby at his `breasts` .... You also remind me of a student, who came to me , because he couldn`t proove that `all weaving was done on a Triangular Warp`,,, his starting point were the Greek and Egyptian drawing where the warp on a hanging loom was sort of drawn as if all warps met at the middle.... Thus we built a similar loom , i hung up a warp with weights , wove some wefts and asked to measure EXACTLY the place of each warp and weight , Than i invited him to coffee and we let it hang in the air... we discused other matters and after an hour + we went back to the loom ,,, and measured ,,, the weights slowly pulled the warp thread towards the middle , after 2 more hours he understood it.
The only point i do agreewith you , is about women not getting enough credit , so what else is new ????? If you think that by your calculations you give them credit? you ruin your own Pronounced Goal ,,, by using words as ..."could not find 20 hours".... because this is full of assumptions , if indeed you claim , that knitting those sweaters was THE MOST importnat thing, and at the same time you use this terminology , you pull the rug out from under your feet. Women, esp in soceities like those , you are trying to talk about, Don`t find time, they use every moment , to do one two and sometines 3 chores at the same time. They are in constant moove, from one chore to the other!!! they do the knitting both out of need , but also a lot of times as a means to sit down for a while , without feeling guilty about `sitting`. You cannot research such craft , by isolating it out of the `normal` stream of daily life. We have been at another point of this debate before. I have told you the same things, you assume to much , and don`t even have the respect to those people by adding this 2 plain words ;I assume. mirjam