Stitching
I spend a lot of time stitching. This means that I also spend a lot of time deciding on designs and colours and often kinds of thread or yarn. Often I sew buttons as decoration or as a solid piece.
The designs come from whatever roll I am on. Recently I did several goddesses, inspired by a story that Facebook had not allowed photos of the Venus of Willendorf because her boobies were bare. I decided to make a stitchery of her. That got me looking for other goddesses– Medusa, a gorgon, Nike. I did a green Medusa from a photo of a Medusa in the Yerebatan Sarayi (Underground Palace, an ancient cistern). It was green from moss and slime, so it was an easy colour to pick. I read some years ago that a lot of the Greek marble statues that we think of as white had actually been painted. I decided I could ‘paint’ them any colour I wanted to. Thus another Medusa had a blue face. Usually I used a darker flesh shade for the skin, as most of these were Mediterranean and probably not as white as Europeans.
I have also worked on fantastical landscapes, lip and heart metaphors, letters, whatever inspires me. I have also used cookie cutters for a sort of tongue-in-cheek series based on cookie cutter forms, ranging from cookie cutter landscapes to plain geometric pieces.
After the design, colour is foremost. What are the right colours for the design? Do I have enough of that colour to fill in what I want? I use colours to evoke, for example, water or sky or sun, even if the piece is not representing nature per se.
I have seen several posts that laud the meditative aspects of knitting. Indeed. I find the stitching itself is a kind of mediation. It is calming. I think about where I am going with the design or the colour or even the stitching itself. Often I think of something else. Sometimes I stitch with no background sound except for the traffic and the birdsong. If I am stitching in the afternoon, I try to find something edifying on Youtube (I have no TV). In the evening, it is more entertaining fare– old movies (I do mean old) or TV series from the ’60s or 70s. I have to admit I am often shocked at how women are treated in these. Doll, Angel, Honey, Slut. I note my opinions as I stitch away.
All my life I have broken rules, so I do that with my stitching too. I used to do kits or patterns from books and made some nice and not so nice pieces. I know how to cross-stitch properly. However, 1) I can’t see to do such fine work and 2) I don’t want to. I use a variety of threads and yarns– embroidery floss, tapestry yarn, regular yarn of various thicknesses, other kinds of thread and yarn that come my way (what on earth is candlewick thread?). The stitches go different ways for a kind of textural effect, and certainly mixing the kinds of thread and yarn offers another kind of texture. I have found that the old embroidery threads are much better than the ones made in China. I save the labels from all to use in some way.
I also save the ends. I have made several pieces from these. I use up as small pieces of the aida cloth and other fabric to make pins, bracelets, small decorations, pendants and even bookmarks. The very last bits become random pieces or even pillow stuffing, or go into the green bucket.
Stitching can be a knotty problem, literally. I have various techniques for smoothing out the yarn, all involving some patience. I pull gently at the knot or stitch until it smooths. Sometimes judicious use of scissors is necessary. I see this as a metaphor for many of life’s problems, where we worry something and finally solve it or cut it altogether.
Stitching also involves a certain amount of optimism. I can’t see the back of the piece and rarely turn it over to see where I am putting the needle. That means that I aim the needle and hope that I am hitting it right. Aida cloth is woven specifically for stitching, so at least there are minute openings in the weave to help. Certainly as I sew on buttons I can ‘feel’ where the hole is with better accuracy. However, there are still mis-stitches for various reasons ranging from inattention to bad aim. Overall though, in spite of knots and other mistakes, I continue to stitch.
What I do is paint with yarn. It gives me the colours and the strokes. However, it is difficult to remedy if I have decided to change something. I rarely pick out stitches and just find a way around it. That is actually how I discovered stitching in different directions, first by accident and then on purpose. Stitching over does not work, unless that is an effect I want. Ultimately I am more concerned with the colour and design than the techniques.
My great-grandmothers, my grandmothers, my mother, aunt, and sister all did some kind of stitchery. I suspect my grands would be shocked at the directions I take stitching (along with other things in my life), but I appreciate that I have learned to do this and certainly hope it is appreciated by others.
alivingbroad 