An Old German's Knit Blog: For a change a pair of non-short row socks

Happiness is finding two skeins of hand-spun yarn that you didn't realize you had. Spun by my youngest daughter from Corriedale roving. The color is a light gray with a tinge of perriwinkle and I mean a tinge. The yarn is spun in a heavy sock weight and tightly twisted, so it should wear well. I think I found just the right pattern for it. The pattern is by Sonja Koehler and can be found on Ravelry under Sonja's Sockenland . While the pattern is written both in English and German, the group is almost all in German. It's a good thing I can still read German; however, my writing abilities have deteriorated over the years. At times, I have difficulty remembering which words are masculine, feminine or neutral, particularly with words that have been adopted from American English.

The name of the pattern is "Pfaffenwinkel" or Priests' Corner. I was hesitant to use the name since the word "Pfaffen" was a slightly or not so slightly derogatory word for "priests," depending on the region you lived in, and I definitely lived in an area where few people were catholic. While most Catholic children went to a Catholic school, there were a few that attended the local village grade school. We certainly had our "priests' corner" on the school yard and more than one fight broke out on the line of separation. Of course, when I was a child, girls didn't fight. Once I started 5th grade, I went to a secondary school for bratty and precocious girls. I have no idea what today's school system in Germany looks like, but in my time those kids who were smart went to a different school starting with 5th or 6th grade. There seemed to be none of the sectarian separation I experienced in grade school.

But back to "Priests' Corner." I did what most of us do when we want to find out something: I googled. And here is what I found and it's in English. I also found out the name was given to this part of Bavaria in the 18th century due to the large number of abbeys and pilgrim churches. It's only taken 73 years to learn that this area of Bavaria had a nickname. While it is a beautiful area, in my opinion the Black Forest and the rest of Swabia are even more beautiful. Old regional rivalries are hard to bury. For those in Michigan think of football: UofM vs. Ohio State.