An: Crochet was apparently very popular in the Victorian era. A short chapter and not very good due to tiredness.
Jenny sat by the bed, already dressed, sipping her tea and waiting for Vastra to wake up for hers. After wrapping herself up in the covers, Vastra took the proffered cup. Jenny stared at her silently, waiting for the Silurian to wake up enough that she would be open to her suggestion.
"What is it ape?" Vastra asked eventually, unnerved by the silent gaze.
"I know you got me a lot of stuff already an' I know we don' 'ave much money but…"
"You want something?"
"S'just s'a bit…bare this room an' I was thinkin' I learnt 'ow to crochet in the reformatory an' I was thinkin' if you got me the 'ooks an' the wool I c'd make some stuff. Might cheer it up a bit."
"Crochet."
"Yeah s'like knitting but not really."
"Knitting."
"S'a way of makin' things. You loops wool or thread together an' it…" The look on Vastra's face told Jenny that she did not understand in the slightest. "You know 'ow clothes are made? S'a bit like that on'y you make rugs an' stuff. Doilies."
"Dollies?"
"Doilies. S'what they're called. Fer…fer puttin' on stuff."
"And you require hooks?"
"A special kind of hook. An' wool."
There was a long pause as Vastra finished her tea and Jenny fidgeted.
"Very well. Where would we acquire such hooks?"
"I dunno really. A shop. We c'd arsk Missus Blackett, bet she'd know."
After gaining directions from Missus Blackett as to the location of a haberdashery shop nearby, Jenny and Vastra set out together.
A little bell tinkled as they entered the shop and from the back, a woman appeared. She started to greet them but Vastra cut her off.
"My maid wishes to acquire a…" Vastra paused and looked at Jenny. "A crochet."
"'ook!" Jenny whispered.
"A crochet hook."
The shop assistant looked at them oddly. "Well, we have a standard set here." She brought them out and set them on the counter. "Would you be looking to buy wool as well?"
"Yes. A selection of wool as well."
"And which colours would madam like?"
Jenny shrugged when Vastra looked at her. "Purple. And green. And black too I think." Vastra answered.
It gained them another odd look, with a dash of suspicion but the assistant brought out a few bundles.
"Yes. That one." Vastra pointed. "And that one. That one." She went through picking out half a dozen colours, all shades of purple or green.
After a pile had appeared on the counter, the haggling began over the price for all of it. Jenny had seen and indeed done a bit of haggling in her time but Vastra didn't appear to grasp the concept very well, insisting constantly on a much lower figure.
Even with Vastra's terrible haggling skills, it became apparent that it would cost a little more than they could really afford. The shop assistant threatened to throw them out and went out the back to retrieve the manager. Jenny glanced at Vastra and then quietly picked up the hooks and several balls of wool, left the money Vastra had offered on the counter and nodded towards the door. Vastra caught on and they fled in silence.
"I'm not sure that was entirely legal." Vastra commented after they got home.
"Story of me life." Jenny shrugged, piling the wool on the floor and sitting down to the tricky business of remembering precisely how to crochet. It involved a great deal of cussing and Vastra, unable to concentrate on her book, gave up and squatted next to Jenny on the floor, watching intently.
By the end of the day, with a break for lunch and dinner, Jenny had a sizeable amount that was very badly done.
"You expect me to drape this about the place?" Vastra picked at one end of an uncertain shape, looking very unimpressed.
"Do what yer like." Jenny snapped, throwing down her crochet hook in frustration that her idea had not been that successful. She stomped over to the bed and curled up under the covers.
The next day, Vastra disappeared out after a cup of tea and didn't return all morning, leaving Jenny to try again in peace.
She came back at lunch time with a pie and a book on clothes and cotton.
"This is about weavin' you stupid lizard! Not crochet." Jenny sighed in exasperation as she glanced at the cover.
"I was only trying to help." Vastra sniffed, affronted and curled up on the bed with the book.
Jenny guiltily ate some of the pie and then returned to work with renewed vigour, determined to make something by the end of the day.
Halfway through the afternoon, Vastra snorted with laughter.
"Wot?" Jenny looked up, thinking she was laughing at her.
"There was once such a thing, used to spin thread, called a Spinning Jenny." Vastra grinned and brought the book over to Jenny to prove it. Jenny grinned, put down her work and Vastra watched in mild amazement as Jenny proceeded to spin around the apartment, her long skirts and loose hair flying. The spinning made Jenny dizzy and she staggered into Vastra and then collapsed in a heap laughing. She looked up from the floor to catch Vastra watching her with a small smile which swiftly disappeared as Vastra caught her gaze.
It was late into the evening when Jenny triumphantly tied off her work.
"There!" She was about to tug it onto Vastra's head and then remembered Vastra's warning about touching her and merely held it out.
"What is it?" Vastra examined.
"S'a night cap. To keep yer head warm at night."
Vastra gingerly put it on. It was large and floppy enough that it fitted over them and fell in front of her eyes slightly.
"D'yer like it?" Jenny stood, twisting her hands into her dress nervously.
Vastra grinned in reply and wore it to bed every night after.
An: Fic Title Drop! The Spinning Jenny is acutally a thing used in teh industry back in the 1700s.
Fic Title Explanation: I liked the idea of spinning a person, as in bringing together strands of their life to make a coherent thread and with the random knowledge of Spinning Jennies, it was too good not to use. And of course I had to bring it into the story.
