Do Amish Women Knit?

Since my book series, Amish Knitting Circle, came out with Trestle Press, I’ve been asked if Amish women really knit. Most people think they only quilt. I’m so glad to say, yes, they knit too!

            The Amish came to America in the early eighteenth century. At that time it was typical for women to know how to spin their wool and knit. Amish women knit shawls for warmth, usually in dark colors to match their dark clothing. Between1860-1920 Lancaster County women had more colors accessible to them and knit fancy colorful socks to wear under their long dresses and boots. These were called wedding socks and worn only by married women as part of their wedding attire.

As the Industrial Revolution produced more yarn in mills at affordable prices, Amish women  set aside their spinning wheels. But, they still made socks, mittens, shawls, and other apparel. They made their own knitting looms, now called Amish Knitting Looms, that require no needles and where made of wood and nails. Most are about 32 inches long, the right size for a shawl. When items became cheap enough to buy in stores, the need to knit was replaced by a want to knit. To this day, Amish women knit  mats to put under their oil lamps, placemats for their tables, rag rugs to warm their floors, and much more.

 Today the traditional Amish Knitting Loom is replaced by plastic ones, although the Amish still make their wooden ones. Lion Brand Yarn sells them in different lengths. But if you go into any craft store you’ll find knitting looms, some as kits, for sale. The top rated knitting loom book on Amazon is Loom Knitting Primer: A Beginner's Guide to Knitting on a Loom, with over 30 Fun Projects.

If you’re reading The Amish Knitting Circle you’ll know their making shawls to send to tornado victims in Joplin, MO. Why not get a loom and knit along with Granny Weaver and her circle and give your shawl to someone in need. Happy knitting!

I think it's safe to say that some things never change. Men aren't made to knit ;)

Do the Amish give to charities? Do they help the poor?

Can you picture a group of Amish men flying cows into Romania to start a farm to feed orphans? How about Amish distributing Bibles door to door?  How about Amish women processing 400,000 cans of chicken, beef and hamburger to give to the needy? The latter seems Amish, doesn’t it? We see the Amish as folk living quaint lives on the farm. Let me help blow your mind!

Christian Aid Ministries (CAM) is a worldwide Amish and Mennonite charitable organization run by volunteers that log in over 200,000 hours of work a year.  Annual donations made by mostly “plain people” are $116,168,060, according to Charity Navigator.  BUT 98.8% of this money actually goes to ward relief efforts in the US and around the world. (Some charitable organizations give less than 70%  to their actual cause)  CAM is run by a volunteer board and has only three paid positions, the top CEO making $45,895 a year. CAM has staff, bases and distribution networks in Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Haiti, Nicaragua, Liberia and Israel. I don't know? I was blown away completely. CAM is doing a top-notch job.

So what is CAM doing right now? According to their newsletter, their international focus is the ongoing devastation in Haiti and the famine in Africa. In the US, they're helping Hurricane Irene victims.

Plans are for CAM’s Rapid Response Teams to help victims of Manville, New Jersey, clean up from flood damage caused by the hurricane. Leroy Heatwole, a Rapid Response Team director, says, "We are in Manville walking into the flood area with the homeowners who are just returning to their homes. There are a lot of homes flooded, from six inches to all the way to the roof. Plans are to do more investigating and then start mucking out homes as soon as the water level goes down. We will be needing lots of volunteers from the PA community.”

CAM has a wonderful mission statement:  Glorify God and help enlarge His kingdom.  “. . . whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” (I Corinthians 10:31)

For more information on Christian Aid Ministries, visit their website, run by less conservative Mennonites who use electricity and the internet ;) http://www.christianaidministries.org 

I've chosen to really spotlight CAM in my Amish Knitting Circle Series with Trestle Press. The women in the circle will be knitting scarves and shawls for Joplin, Missouri hurricane victims. I hope it will raise awareness for this wonderful ministry.

Blessings!

Karen Anna Vogel

Amish helping Hurricane Irene victims...

The Amish and Lasagna

When I went to my Amish friend’s greenhouse in rural Pennsylvania, I bought lots of eggplants because I love eggplant parmesan, and all my plants died. I asked her what she was making for dinner for her family of ten. I expected to hear something like ham from their smokehouse and potatoes and vegetables from their garden. She smiled and said, “Lasagna.”

After knowing Amish families for twenty years, I’m always taken back. I wanted to ask, “So, you know how to cook Italian? Do you want some recipes from my grandma who came from Riccia, Italy?” But I’ve learned the Amish are tired of assuming they limit themselves to recipes from Little House on the Prairie Cookbook.  

But since there are Amish in 27 states now, some in really rural places where it’s two hours to Wal-Mart, some probably do eat more like pioneers.  One rule of thumb in the Amish community is they don’t consider a meal complete unless there’s a dessert after supper, every night. Left over pie is usually served for breakfast. So I wonder what my friend is making for dessert…Italian ice?  

Amish Recipe ~ Plain and Simple

Hello dear readers. I'll be coming out with an Ebook with Trestle Press called The Amish Knitting Circle. It will be a monthly serial following the lives of six women in Smicksburg, PA. It all starts one day when Granny Weaver spins her wool and sees the fibers are stronger when they come together. She thinks of five women who are unraveling, so she starts a knitting circle to bring them together.  I'll take you on a journey with these six women through an Amish year filled with their seasonal activities. Since November is their wedding season, I thought it fun to start there.

At the end of the book, due out Mid-September, is a recipe. As a mother of 4 preschoolers, long ago, I needed a quick and easy dessert. An Amish lady in NY said Cinnamon Flop was my answer. I call it the lazy way of making cinnamon rolls. They taste the same but made in no time. Little hands love to poke the dough too….

                                                Cinnamon Flop

3 tablespoons melted butter or margarine

 1 1/2 cups sugar

 2 eggs, well beaten

 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

 2 teaspoons baking powder

 1 cup milk

 1 cup light brown sugar

 1/4 cup butter

 Cinnamon

Directions

Cream butter with sugar.

Beat in eggs.

Sift flour with baking powder and add alternately with the milk.

Pour into well-buttered 9-inch pie plate.

Sprinkle top with brown sugar, dot with butter, and sprinkle with lots of ground cinnamon.

Bake in preheated hot oven (375° F.) for approximately 30 minutes.

Enjoy!



What do the Amish read? Do they read Amish fiction?

What do the Amish read? Do they read Amish Fiction?

Someone asked me recently if the Amish are reading all the “Bonnet Books” or Amish fiction out there on the market.  She wondered if they read fiction at all. This question makes me realize that there’s a big misconception about how separate the Amish are from society at large.  It reminded me of my daughter’s shock at seeing Amish at Kennywood, an amusement park in Pittsburgh. Or when my husband and I took a train ride out West; Amish people were on the train and people whispered, “They must be moving somewhere to bring ‘new blood’ into a settlement.” We had to hide our laughter. They were on vacation! The Amish really do like to have fun, believe it or not.  An Amish friend, Noah, hopes to go with my husband deep sea fishing someday.

Now, back to the question, do Amish read fiction? Yes, if it’s good clean reading. I take books I’ve read to my Amish lady friends in Smicksburg, PA, anything from Jane Austen to Wanda Brunstetter. Their reaction cracks me up. The middle age women and teens dive into them like kids getting presents under the Christmas tree.  The older women shake their heads and say, “Silly. Just read the Bible. It has the best stories and they’re real.”   

But it can get a little complicated. When it comes to Amish fiction, they can get a little touchy. They want their people represented correctly. Amish fiction authors can be banned by certain church districts. Each church is approximately 200 people and each has a bishop. A complaint about an Amish fiction writer went to the bishop and he banned this dear author, whose my favorite. She wrote about the Old Order Amish using powwow medicine in Lancaster. The Amish bishop thought it made his people look uneducated and silly. So, he threw out the baby with the bath water and banned all books by this author. 

They are also tired of Amish fiction books that make the bishop the villain. They’re insulted by this because they say the bishop has to be the most humble among them. Like Jesus who washed his disciple’s feet, the bishop has to act like a servant. We all know a good story needs to have an antagonist, but the mean Amish bishop is getting really old to them. "Totally unrealistic," they say.

For more info, read The Amish Way by Donald Kraybill. He addresses how the Amish are at a real crossroads, not knowing what to adopt from modern society and what to discard. He talks about Amish ministers using Max Lucado and Rick Warren books while writing sermons. The rule of thumb on books is that they should line up with a Biblical worldview. It’s the same with fiction.   

Hope this helps. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Blessings!

Amish in Smicksburg, PA Make Hay While the Sun Shines

Yesterday it was over 100 degrees in Smicksburg, a small town sixty miles NE of Pittsburgh. While I was comfortable in my air conditioned Jeep sipping a cold frappuccino, I passed by men out in the fields, making hay. There was a weather warning not to be outside. Should I stop the car and tell them?  I thought for half a second and drove on. I know by now what my Amish friends would do – laugh. These Amish men are the ones who put a new roof on my house, built our barn and addition, sometimes during a major heat wave.

While visiting a friend in Lancaster, we passed Amish who used John Deer tractors pulled by a team of horses. Their hay machines shot out cubes of hay. They were shocked when I told them my Amish friends in Smicksburg use the old-fashion hay rakes and stack their own hay by hand. When I told them they dam up a creek and make their own ice for their iceboxes, their mouths gaped. "They don't have refrigerators? You're joking." They have natural gas or propane refrigerators. They were Old Order Amish, but were constantly challenged by modern technology, what to allow and what to ban.  

I came home having more appreciation for my Amish friends. They’re similar to the Amish in Western New York where I used to live. They face the same challenges technology throws at them, but they stick to their old ways. I wish people didn't feel they need to drive to Lancaster to see the Amish. The Amish live in over 28 states now and their population is a quarter-million strong. If you do your research, you may find you have a in your own backyard.

Hope you enjoy these pictures I took, once the men looked the other way. Taking a photo of Amish faces will always be banned....I think.

Learning to Grieve the Amish Way

Writing words help me heal, so I’m writing today.   My Uncle Jim passed away yesterday. I’ll always remember him as that handsome man that looked like a Ken Doll. My aunt was his brown haired Barbie.  He wore Boss Cologne and I loved giving him a hug because he smelled good. A chiropractor by day and a good husband and father by night.

I didn’t know what to do when I got word of his death. A family member told me my aunt needed time alone with her immediate family to make plans. Numbly I went to see the new Winnie the Pooh movie with my husband and daughter.  I kept thinking, I need to be with my aunt. I want to be with my aunt. Then I thought of how the Amish grieve, and became clear to me what to do.

 We went and sat with my aunt while she reminisced about her high school sweetheart. How sad she was that two of her daughter and now her husband are gone. We didn’t say much. Just hugged and listened.  I was told today our visit helped so much. This is the Amish way, and they learned it from Jesus. Jesus wept with those who wept. He took time to be with people.

When someone in the Amish community dies, they come and sit with the person, much like Job’s friends in the Bible. They came and sat for seven days and didn’t speak. It comforted Job to know they were there. The presence of someone next to you that loves you has great healing power.

The Amish don’t have drive through grief either. They take their time. They have suffered a great loss. The immediate family wears black for a year and they make sure the widow isn’t alone. The community schedules weekly visitors who bring food. A notice will be put in the Die Botschaft, a national Amish newspaper. Cards are sent from across the country from complete strangers. 

Time and thought given to someone shows love, and love, in time, brings healing. Below is a picture of my Uncle Jim and my Aunt Virginia. I will miss this gentle man...Please pray for my aunt....