Month: January 2025

January 2025

January can be a long month for many, particularly if you don’t like winter, but for me it flew by as quickly as any other.

January daily stitching

As always, it was a case of threading a needle and beginning, with no preconception of how it might turn out. There are some blocks I like less than others, but that’s to be expected with this make-it-up-as-you-go approach. It doesn’t matter whether I like it or not. It’s there as a witness to the impermanence of human time.

January daily stitching, detail

As always, I’ve used a variety of silk and cotton threads in different weights, from chunky boucle yarns to very fine silk. Life’s rich tapestry, and all that.

January, detail

The earliest days of January feel quite far away now, but they’re not so distant in the great scheme of things. We’re now as far from early January as we are from the end of February, which is probably a sobering thought. By that time, one-sixth of the year will be behind us.

early January

Time is always running faster than I am. It’s not so much a question of trying to catch up, it’s more an acceptance of the fact that there probably isn’t enough time to do everything I want to do. Tasks take longer as you get older, I find.

Today’s block is a spiral, couched in cotton perle 8 thread.

31st January

I always think of time as a spiral, with us travelling from the outer circles towards the centre throughout our lives. I think that’s why time seems interminable when you’re a child, and why it seems to speed up as you get older. It doesn’t, it’s just that the circular paths are a little shorter every year.

As far as the daily stitching is concerned, time is a long strip of linen. February, and the rest of the year, are ahead.

February and the rest

For anyone who has been disappointed by the news that my Facebook group (Stitching Life Community) will be closing shortly, there has been a surprise reprieve. Shannon has developed a new group for hand stitchers (daily stitching and more): Our Daily Thread. What a perfectly brilliant name for a hand stitching group (I wish I’d thought of it!) It’s a fabulous way to keep our lovely community together so you can continue to connect and share your wonderful work.

And a postscript for any new subscribers – three blog posts in one week is not my usual standard. Normal services (once a week, if that) will now be resumed.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend.

Under the Ancient Yew (UTAY)

I’m completely delighted to be included in this brand new publication by Brodie Marshall at UTAY

Feature in Volume 1 of UTAY (Under the Ancient Yew)
UTAY Vol. 1
UTAY Vol. 1

It’s one of the most beautiful magazines I’ve ever seen. It’s more like a book, really, and I will treasure my copy. The text and images create a meandering path through ancient wisdom: finding connections to our buried past, learning from the folklore and stories of places and times, and considering how we might live creatively in the modern world while remaining aware of and rooted in our natural environment and origins. The production and design are stunning, and it holds a wealth of talent in its pages – artists specialising in drawing, photography, poetry, printing, textiles, illustration, and more.

front cover, Volume 1

I understand this volume is sold out (and I’m not surprised, given how beautiful it is) but you can contact Brodie to find out how to pre-order forthcoming issues.

You can find the list of contributors to this issue here:

list of contributors for Vol. 1

Here are some of my favourite pages:

I love these words of introduction by Kerri ní Dochartaigh
Artwork by Tjitske Kamphuis
artwork by Man in the Woods

Online homes (or, here and there)

Apologies for a housekeeping post today that is big on words and small on pictures.

I’m decreasing my online presence, mainly to reduce and streamline the number of places I need to manage.

I am keeping my accounts on Teachable (for online teaching), Big Cartel (for threads, fabrics and PDFs), and the website/blog (here) for general progress reports and updates.

homes

I’m currently in the process of moving away from Meta. I’ll be deleting my Facebook page shortly, along with Threads (on Instagram). I’ve issued an invitation to members of my Facebook group (Stitching Life Community) to see if anyone would like to take on the admin role so that the group can stay open. I’m not particularly optimistic that anyone will want to take it on, so I’m prepared for the possibility that the group will close as well. Other slow stitch/hand embroidery/textiles groups are available, of course. At some point I will also move away from Instagram.

I’ve set up a new account on Blue Sky for quick posts and pictures of daily stitching etc, so if you’re already there do come and say hello.

I did say a few weeks ago that 2025 would be the year of less. I hadn’t entirely foreseen this, but I do feel a little more comfortable about being in fewer places at once.

Zero waste collage

Rounding up all the scraps of painted paper in a quest to Do Something Useful with them. I’ve been cutting and pasting into an 11″ square sketchbook, and very therapeutic it is too.

From this…

random scraps

to this…

sorted scraps

to this…

mini paintings cut from painted collage papers, approximately 2″ square
mini paintings cut from collage papers, approximately 2″ square
mini paintings from painted collage papers, approximately 2.5″ square
approximately 2″ x 4″
same as above

Quietly having a good time. Comments are off for now, to preserve the quiet.

Blue Monday

The third Monday in January (2025) is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year. It’s nonsense, of course (though I guess some of you in the US may not be in agreement right now…) The concept apparently was invented by a travel company in 2005, to sell more holidays, and only applies to the northern hemisphere because of the cold weather and the short daylight hours here. As you know, I love the winter and the chilly, grey, short days. I also like January, blue, and Mondays, so I’m just here today to disprove the theory. I hope you haven’t fallen for the marketing/sales hype that’s trying to persuade you to feel miserable today. You might want to look away at this point if you don’t like blue, though.

Today’s daily stitching had to be blue, if only to justify the title of this post.

20th January daily stitching

And a closer look:

lifetime (cross stitches) piling up – 🎶 earworm by Talking Heads, ‘Lifetime Piling Up’

Recently I’ve been gathering together some little zero waste samples that I put together last year. These are just tiny scraps of fabric laid on a foundation, covered in a sheer fabric, and randomly (or purposefully) stitched. I thought it might be nice to compile them into a mixed media sketchbook. More on this later.

zero waste sketchbook page

I’m doing zero waste with collage papers too, using all the tiny scraps and strips of painted papers, letting the stitched samples and collage elements begin a little conversation.

stitch on the left, painting and collage on the right

It’s all very intuitive and kinaesthetic. The hands start doing something with fabric or thread or paper, and the brain eventually gets interested enough to join in. You have to start doing the work in order to do the work.

There are a few more basted samples that need stitching.

zero waste samples using selvedges and hand-dyed scraps
about 8″ square, layered scraps and sheer fabrics, ready for stitching

And a box of glorious blue threads vying for attention.

🎶 blue, blue, electric blue 🎶 earworm by David Bowie, ‘Sound and Vision’

So when I say ‘wishing you a Blue Monday’, I mean it in the happiest way possible.

On tension

Not the everyday stress kind, but the tension in stitching. I’ve had a few messages recently from stitchers asking what kind of hoop or embroidery frame I use. If you’ve been here a while, you’ll know that I hardly ever use one at all.

I have a variety of frames, from the tubular/modular plastic kind to the traditional round wooden hoops, and I don’t get on with any of them well enough to use them regularly. I also don’t do ‘proper’ formal embroidery very often, the kind that needs stretching and framing. If I did, then I’d have to learn to stitch in a hoop more consistently.

If I do have to use a hoop, I prefer square/rectangular frames like these by Nurge (no affiliation, I just like them):

rectangular embroidery frames

I prefer these because I never understand why most embroidery hoops are circular when the grain of fabric is square. With a round hoop, there’s always a danger of overstretching the bias into the frame and distorting the fabric.

Here are some of the reasons I don’t like using a hoop, and these of course are my personal preferences, not in any way an instruction not to use a hoop. Most stitchers seem to like them.

  1. I don’t like the way you can only see a little section of the work when using a hoop. I like to see the bigger picture throughout. I find it hard to stay connected to the whole cloth when I can only see and handle a bit of it at a time
  2. I don’t like the way the fabric is stretched taut (and I know you don’t have to have it drum tight). I prefer to feel the weight of the cloth in my hands as I stitch
  3. I don’t like the way the edge of the frame crushes previous stitches when you move on to another area. If you’re working on something very textural or layered, it’s sometimes too bulky to fit in the hoop comfortably
  4. Unless you have a hands-free frame on a stand (and they come with their own separate issues, in my experience), you have to reserve one hand for holding the frame and it becomes cumbersome
  5. You can’t easily see what’s happening on the back of the work without turning the whole thing upside down

For informal embroidery, or general hand stitching like the daily stitch journal, I find it’s very easy to manage the tension without a hoop. Half the battle is having the right fabric: if your fabric is too lightweight or slippery, then (probably) hello Mr and Mrs Pucker. But then sometimes you might enjoy that effect, where the stitches pull slightly too tight and cause undulating ripples across the surface. If you’re working on medium weight cotton or linen, then it’s fairly easy to maintain an even tension.

stitching circles

Circles are probably the trickiest thing to stitch without a hoop, because it’s very easy to pull the thread fractionally too tight, and that will cause puckering. General good practice is to support the work on a table (sit upright, it’s good for your posture) so that you can hold the bit you’re working on as if your hands were the hoop. The rest of the cloth just relaxes on the table.

circles in progress

If you work slowly, you can check as you go that the fabric isn’t pulling under the stitches. You can use a thumb to press each stitch into the cloth, which also helps to check the tension. I sometimes get irate messages on Instagram saying ‘get your thumb out of the way, I can’t see the stitch’. The thumb is an essential piece of equipment if you don’t use a hoop. With practice, you can feel when the tension is right.

14th January daily stitching

There’s a section on managing the tension in my Intuitive Daily Stitching course, which might be helpful to beginners.

So there we are. How many of you prefer to use a hoop?

Back to work

Seven days into a new year, and already I’ve broken my No Working after 7pm and No Working at Weekends rules. Must try harder!

I rearranged the practical corner of my workroom with a wire rack thing that has lots of hooks and clips. I’m looking forward to filling it as the year goes by.

An organised corner

The shop is now open again for threads and fabrics. Threads are disappearing quite quickly (thank you for the recent orders) but I hope to dye some more in the spring.

I am currently unable to post anything to Northern Ireland or Europe. I am truly sorry about this but it’s a consequence of the recent update to GPSR regulations, and as a one-woman cottage industry I just haven’t the means to comply with all the rules.

In happier news, there is a new stitch journal in progress.

January 2025

It’s the same vintage French cotton/linen sheet I’ve been using for the last three years, but this is the last of it so next year I will have to think again. I had meant to tea-dye the fabric before starting but I never got round to it, so white it is.

Although winter is probably a good time for quilting, I like to knit at this time of year. I’m no expert knitter, but I do enjoy it. I find it’s a very relaxing evening activity.

I recently discovered the brilliant Åsa Tricosa and her ziggurat knits. I was lucky enough to find a reasonably-priced secondhand copy of her book, which I think might be out of print.

Åsa Tricosa, jumper in progress

Her patterns are for top-down seamless knits with integrated fitted sleeves. Most top-down seamless knits have raglan sleeves or circular yokes, which I find aren’t as flattering and don’t fit as well. Having converted to circular knitting some time ago I no longer knit flat pieces that need sewing up. I love the way a garment comes off circular needles practically ready to wear.

The instructions are very clear but the process is quite complex until you figure out where you’re going: there are lots of short rows and picking up stitches to begin with, but the way it all works out is pure genius. You can also find Åsa’s patterns on Ravelry.

I guess knitting is a kind of stitching too, isn’t it?