A Toque for Hill Primus

For kelkyag‘s Prompt.

It began when Hill Decima Insero was pregnant.

Pregnancy was neither a forbidden nor a mandatory activity (It created more workers, but took productivity from the pregnant worker), and thus the small sub-category of activities labeled “nesting” were also neither forbidden nor mandatory.

Allen Prima Super Insero had learned to knit long ago, from a grandmother who had learned even longer ago. Crafts were another neither forbidden nor mandatory activity, as long as the supplies came out of your allowance (they filled the free-time recreation slot, assisted in morale, but did not directly benefit productivity), so, on their sustenance pauses, over the course of weeks, Allen Prima took Hill Decima aside and showed her how to knit, starting with a tiny yellow beanie.

Decima took to the activity, finding it a pleasant change from planting tiny seeds, and was soon accessing the old hard-copy archives to learn more about the craft, accessing her supply allowance for yarn, and finding scraps from the planting fields to craft into needles. Hill Primus was wrapped in knitting from head to toe for the first years of his life, much intriguing the crèche workers.

When Phillips Sexta Insero Minor found she was pregnant a year later, Decima took it on herself to teach the younger woman how to knit, and passed on to her her first pair of knitting needles, which had belonged to Allen Prima’s grandmother. A year later, when Martinez Septus Insero Major learned that his partner was pregnant, they both taught him.

The fourth year, they lobbied the Bureau of Days to make Learn to Knit an official holiday for the Planting division. It was early in the season, when the time could be spared, they argued, and, despite its categorization, it taught hand-eye coordination and produced things which were one, usable, two, beautiful (That being a morale-booster), and three, could often use otherwise junked materials.

It wasn’t their well-lain-out arguments that won them their new holiday (Martinex Septimus’ partner worked in the Bureau of Food and knew how to write reports that would be read and noted), as much as it was that the accompanied the petition with four things: a new hat for Smith Prima Super Diem’s young child, a skein of the softest yarn, a pair of handmade needles, and Allen Prima, to teach them the skill.

On the first official celebration of Learn to Knit day, they had attendees from every department in the complex. To seal the deal, Allen Prima arranged their labor to make a blanket for Johnson Secondus, Super-Super, who ran the department which ran the entire arcology.

By the third year, Johnson Secondus draped in handknits, the holiday was arcology-wide. By the seventh year, it had spread to nearby arcs.

“Worldwide is only a matter of time,” Allen Prima murmured. “Seven, eight, nine… there.” She worked placidly around on her newest project, a toque for Caesar Prima Caesara.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/323024.html. You can comment here or there.

0 thoughts on “A Toque for Hill Primus

  1. <giggle> D’awwww. Taking over the culture, one stitch at a time? I think I am almost-but-not-quite getting the name-and-title scheme. “who ran department which the entire arcology” I think there is a word or three missing from that phrase?

    • *scribbles in the missing “ran”* Don’t know what you’re talking about 😉 I tried to do: Family Name – Child order – Department – title I may need to fuss with it a bit.

      • Is Insero a title or a department? I’d figured Super and Super-Super were titles, wasn’t sure about Major or Minor, and wanted to read Caesar as a title but it seemed to be in the name spot? And if there’s only a family name and no personal name, does that mean Hill Decima’s firstborn has the same name as her oldest sibling? (Assuming the same sex, since the names seem to be adjusted for that.) The similarity between “Phillips Sexta Insero Minor” and “Perez Sextus Insero Major” confused me a little. They’re unrelated, beyond being in the same department and both sixth children, and Perez Sextus’s partner is unnamed? (I dither about whether to squeak for more, or whether this feels like a good stopping point, but Moar is winning …)

        • *kicks LJ’s new comment format* Insero department, with no other rank, it’s the title, too: “Jane, of the plant department.” I did Prima Caesar’s name wrong, or she’s Caesar Prima Caesar. I can change Perez to say Martinez Septus Insero Major.

          • If no one but me was confuddled, don’t worry about the names? (So where does Allen Prima’s take over the world plot go next once she’s established a world-wide knitting day, and has the whole leadership wearing her work?)

            • Hey, maybe noone else said anything (Also already fixed). *laugh* Maybe Allen Prima just wanted more handknits in the world?

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