Ironing with Daphne

A vignette of a quiet and cosy winter's night working through the ironing by the fire

She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.
She sees that her trading is profitable,

and her lamp does not go out at night.

Proverbs 31:17-18

The warm fabric sprawled over the burgundy ironing board as Daphne pressed another handkerchief flat. They were her favourite so she tried to leave them until last but this evening she couldn’t wait. The lamp cast a glowing light over the cosy room as evening settled in. Rosie the cat curled up in an armchair by the small fireplace. Bookshelves, comfortable chairs, and a dressing table covered with crocheted blankets filled the small room. A sturdy ironing board and small wooden desk bearing a cordless iron and basket of starch, pins and pegs stood by the window. Daphne was a touch shorter than her sister Dolly, and her pale green linen dress gathered on her slippers as she stood at her ironing board lovingly folding the crisp white hanky with a little pink flower embroidered on the corner. These hankies belonged to her cousin Grace and the other little girls in the infants room at her small, country school. She and her friends watched the little ones carefully and clumsily stitch a daisy in their favourite colour into each handkerchief so they could tell them apart. Daphne, who adored laundry and ironing, took them home each week to be washed and pressed then returned to each child’s desk on Monday. Soon enough, Daphne was lost in the careful motions of her work. The warm hiss of the steam met the crackle of the fire. The scent of lavender linen spray and wood smoke filled the air. The soft folds of a cotton dress gently relaxed and gave up their creases as the hot iron glided across the fabric. Her father’s shirts, which came off the line crinkled and stiff, became neat and comfortable once again. To enter Daphne’s ironing room was like slipping into a warm bath. She began to feel drowsy but as the pile in the basket shrank and the stack of beautifully pressed and folded clothes grew, so did her happiness. She was sixteen now and had been running her ironing service for a fair charge for several months. Family friends and neighbourhood women were always appreciative of her work and they had encouraged her to make her ironing a small business. She lifted the sleek cordless iron from its base and smiled as the steam gushed out when she pressed the button. It had been her first proper purchase with her earnings and my, what a difference it had made. Stubborn linens now took half the time and the weight on her wrist was much more balanced. It was a worthy investment. Daphne packed each pile of washing into a wide flat canvas tote that had Please return to Daphne’s Ironing & Laundry Service stamped on the hem. She folded her own family’s laundry in a large brown wicker basket lined with cloth, then stacked the little pile of handkerchiefs ready for school on Monday. She would continue washing and ironing those hankies long after she and her friends left Lothlorien School that coming summer. Daphne stretched out on the small lounge and picked up a book with a satisfied sigh. Night had fallen properly now, the stars were just starting to appear through the gap in the lace curtains. ‘He counts the stars and calls them all by name’ she thought as she curled up with a colourful granny square blanket. The scent of clean laundry, a crackling fire and the sounds of a snoring cat wrapped themselves around Daphne. She had barely read a few pages when she drifted off to sleep.

- Written July 2024. Daphne was the first of my Lavender Girls Knitting Circle characters to be dreamed up. Each of the six girls represented something I desperately wanted to read when I was 16 but did not really exist in the 2000s school library. Daphne represents 'joy is doing small things for others'.