Decorative Thoughts

One of the fenceposts around the herb garden has a platform feeder on it. I put a handful of scratch grains out there yesterday for the blue jay. He spent most of the day eating. (I couldn’t get a good picture because he flew up into the trees every time I came out.) I talked to him from the porch and pointed out that if he kept at it, he was going to be too fat to fly.

[That’s me, messing with the Prime Directive again.]

The husband says the clucks are probably wondering where that blue chicken came from. We’ll see if any of his friends join him today.

Work continues on the BSKD website. Yesterday was my “running errands in town” day so I was gone in the morning, but I cleaned and organized and put canning stuff away in the afternoon and added a few more patterns to the store. Website work is on the schedule for today, too, although today is supposed to be the last nice day before we get another storm system with cold and rain. I need to get the last of the beans out of the greenhouse and check on the lettuce. I’m not sure how much longer we can keep it going, even with the cover on it.

I worked on my wool penny project a bit more last night, too. At the retreat, some of us were chatting about differences in learning styles and how that impacts our stitching. Charisma showed us the double cast-on stitch, which looks like this when it’s done:

I was just messing around trying to get the hang of making it, but when it’s done intentionally, it can be used in some very cool flower designs. (Personally, it reminds me of potato bugs.) Of course, I took to this stitch like a duck to water, because it involves casting stitches onto the needle with alternating threads. My table-mate, Kathy, who doesn’t knit, had a very difficult time with it, even after watching both Charisma and me make the stitch. She finally gave up and said she wasn’t going to use that one.

Many people like to watch YouTube videos for examples of how to make different stitches. I have never been a video person. I think that part of the problem is that I have a low tolerance for sifting through all the detritus on YouTube to find good videos. And even though it’s possible to re-wind and re-watch videos, I’d much rather have a book open with clear pictures that I can follow. We all agreed, though, that we had trouble with instructions that showed multiple steps in one photo or illustration.

I’ve got a stack of embroidery books next to my chair, because I also discovered that different books give the instructions for stitches from different perspectives. One might have fly stitch worked top to bottom while another one shows it worked bottom to top. One of my books showed scroll stitch worked horizontally and one showed it worked vertically. So far, this is the book I’m turning to most often:

It has clear photos and—best of all—examples of how to use each stitch. (I see there is also a Volume 2, which I will have to hunt down.)

I’m making progress:

Thinking of this as a reference sampler and not necessarily a piece of work to be finished does take the pressure off to make it perfect, although I’ve taken a few stitches out and re-stitched them.

I said to the husband last night that I am struggling a bit with embroidery as a fiber art. Up until now, everything I’ve done has had an obviously utilitarian purpose: spinning creates yarn which can be knitted, knitting results in sweaters and other pieces of clothing, sewing can be used to make all sorts of useful items, and quilting keeps people warm. Embroidery is more decorative than utilitarian—or, as the husband described it, “frippery.” This is not to denigrate or downplay its importance; it’s simply to note that I am having to work a bit harder to justify spending time on it and finding ways to integrate it into what I do for fun.

I am going to indulge in it anyway, because it brings me joy.

I was looking for something to read before bed while I was traveling last weekend, so I opened my iPad and went to iBooks to see what recommendations it had for me. At the top of the list was this one:

I read the blurb and momentarily freaked out—”I’m at an embroidery retreat and iBooks is recommending a novel about embroidery! Big Brother!”—and then I realized that it was a new release from Tracy Chevalier, whose novel The Last Runaway was the last book I read on my iPad. (I highly recommend that one, by the way.) I’m not very far into A Single Thread, but I’m enjoying it so far. The story is about a woman, Violet Speedwell, at the end of WWI. She leaves her job as a typist and (totally by accident) becomes part of the group of women embroidering kneelers and seat cushions for Winchester Cathedral.

I’ll let you know what I think.