Steady progress on the latest strip:

Now that life is beginning to get back to normal (or what passes for normal in this house) I can also report progress on the book front(s).

First, on the PDF collection of blackwork filling patterns, to be named Ensamplio Atlantaea, I apologize for the delay. This one will include all of the filling patterns published here over this winter past. And as an extra bonus for everyone’s patience, I will toss in several more pages of additional patterns, not seen here before. It will be free, and will be available for download here at this site. Right now I have 27 pages of patterns (the original 150, plus a dozen more), and hope to make it an even 30. Plus cover and some sort of intro essay. It will NOT include free drawn outline patterns for use with these fillings, nor will it include detailed working methods, although I may abstract some of the double running stitch guidance previously posted here. I hope to have this one up and ready sometime in the coming month.

On the big book – my sequel, to be named A Second Carolingian Modelbook: More Counted Patterns from Historical Sources, I’ve got about 45 pages of patterns drafted out in whole or in part. Each pattern has annotation, noting its origin artifact or source, or if it’s one of the few originals, that attribution. That’s about 100 individual patterns, some of which are main strip plus accompanying border. I also have all over patterns suitable for cushions and body linen, narrow strips for cuffs and collars or seam decoration, and wide pieces that would make nifty tablecloth, sheet or towel borders. Right now about 2/3 of the patterns are for double running stitch, although there are some that are good for Italian two-sided cross stitch, long armed cross stitch, lacis, or other square-unit styles. There are also quite a few that were worked voided, some with straight or double running stitch defining the foreground from the background, and some not. Working methods/colors of the originals are also described, and full sources are provided for all graphs, so stitchers can look them up. I do not anticipate finishing this one any time soon. Feedback is that readers want essays on techniques, materials, and methods of employ. All that will take time. As will figuring out how to do the actual publication. (Right now an on demand service like Lulu or one of its competitors looks most likely). This book will not be free, but I am hoping to keep it affordable.

And in other news, it’s the beginning of Birthday Season here at String. A much recuperated Smaller Daughter celebrated her 13th last Saturday, mostly by laughing with evil intent at the thought that others had decided that her becoming a teen was the cause of the end-of-the-world predictions for that date. Larger Daughter is now back from college for the summer, and celebrates mid-week. I note the passing of yet another anniversary of my 21st birthday at the end of this month. Today’s home-cooked lobster feast was in recognition of all three fetes. The Resident Male, the odd man out in so many respects, does not have to share his natal day with adjoining festivities. We will recognize that occasion later in the summer.

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“Don’t burst your appendix if you can avoid it.”

Younger Daughter is back home, after 19 days at Children’s Hospital in Boston. She’s still got a way to go before she’s school-ready, but she’s happy to be home with quiet, limited interruptions, and familiar food. Thanks to everyone who sent get well wishes!

I’d like to especially thank the staff at Children’s, not all of whose names I caught. They’re a very caring bunch, and did all they could to make the kid better and more comfortable. Here’s her much cherished souvenir – a little squeezy ball they gave to Morgan to exercise her fingers.

We asked the nursing staff we were assigned to, to autograph our “game ball.” We managed to get most but not all of them. Special thanks to Chris Mac, Sharon, Michelle, Josh, Maria, The Original Chris, Meredith, Rachelle, Caitlin, Paola, Cleanne, Cara, Audrey, Dr. Arnold, Dr. Hamilton, all of the residents on 10NW, and all of the other folk whose names slipped me by when I was in a sleep-deprived fog. The kids still has to go back to have the tatters of her appendix excised, but that’s a one day bit, not another extended stay.

As you can see, while we were there I had lots of time to stitch. I finished out the oak leaves and acorns at the right, and started another band at the left. That one is very dense, in long armed cross stitch, so it’s not exactly zipping along. Also stitching when sleepy led to tons of mistakes and ripping back, so what’s here is probably only about half of what I actually stitched.

Even with all of the rework, stitching was a much needed self-administered sedative while I was being a bedside mom.

The plan is to make this strip the same length as the oak leaves. Eventually I’ll either find or noodle out an even denser band for the narrow area immediately to the right of the oak leaves, and a less dense but similarly black band to put between the current strip and the established horizontal bands. I might take a break from dense work for a while though, and opt to work something in double running elsewhere on the piece before attempting those two strips. There’s tons more room both north and south of these.

One thing to note. So far, all of the finished strips are bi-directional. At this point there is no up or down on my sampler. Either end could be at the top. I could even opt to finish this out in landscape rather than portrait orientation. Jury is still out on what I will do, but I do have a couple of strips I’d like to include that are figural, with clearly defined ups and downs. Stay tuned to see how I work them in.

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Some progress and some answers. First, the progress:

As usual, not as rapid as I’d like, but work limits the amount of time I have to stitch. Now on to the answers to questions in my inbox:

What stitch are you using for the dark areas in the current band?

I settled on Italian double sided stitch (aka Arrowhead stitch), as shown on page 32 of The Proper Stitch by Darlene O’Steen . (I found my copy years ago when it first came out, at the now long gone Yarn Shop in College Park, Maryland.) However, I’m finding that over 2×2 threads I can’t pull it tightly enough to emphasize the holes and make the appearance as mesh-like as I want. There’s just not enough room to compact the weave of my ground cloth sufficiently. If I do another piece using this technique, I’ll work over 3×3, or find a more loosely woven ground.

This is a squirrelly looking band. Is it original?

It’s a redaction of a 16th century artifact in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession Number 79.1.59 . It’s one of the many patterns that will be in The Second Carolingian Modelbook.

Which end is up?

I haven’t decided yet.

Why is the current band so big?

No particular reason. I saw it, charted it out and decided to play test it. Yes, it’s at a larger scale than the patterns I’ve worked so far, but it won’t be the largest pattern on the piece, nor will it be the least dense. When it’s done this strip will span the entire width of my stitching area. I’ll run some other patterns perpendicular to the established direction, framing the part I’ve already worked. On the other side of this current band will be several more wide bands of various types. They may also be worked horizon to horizon. I’m improvising as I go along.

Have you done any planning at all?

Yes, in a way, but not by orchestrating the entire piece beforehand. Instead I set ground rules. I established stitching bounds and guidelines. I marked the outline and centers of the total stitching area, and added some additional guidelines at 1/4 width and length intervals. I am leaving four threads bare between all stitched units. I’m trying to balance density as I go. I’m working with only one color (good old DMC 310 black), using either one or two strands, depending on the effect I want to achieve. Eventually there will be spots in the ground for which I cannot find or adapt strips or spot motifs of suitable width or height. For those places I intend to use additional fillings from the Blackwork Fillings Collection. And I’m trying to use all-new patterns – stuff I haven’t stitched before, with the goal of experimenting with as many of my new book’s patterns as possible. So you can think of this as a preview of things to come.

Why aren’t you jumbling these up instead of making reproductions? There are tons of beautiful repro samplers out there you can stitch. Why go to all this trouble?

Because stitching someone else’s repro isn’t something I’m interested in doing. I do admire those pattern drafters and stitchers who chose to do those things, but I find the concept has no appeal for me personally.

I’ve written about this before. (It’s the base stance that makes me a “rogue Laurel” in the SCA.) Exact replication is an extremely high form of craftsmanship to be sure, but it doesn’t manifest the highest level of understanding. Just as in a martial art, being able to reproduce the kata – the formal training exercises – shows extreme skill, but it’s something else entirely to be able to take the kata’s movement vocabulary, and improvise if attacked. Not everyone who can demonstrate kata in the dojo can turn that knowledge into effective fighting. Being able to go beyond kata skills is what differentiates the master from the adept. It’s the same for needlework. Reproductions are kata. Making an entirely new piece from the same vocabulary, such that were the new item to be transported back in time it would fit right in – that’s mastering true understanding. Now my current piece is NOT something that could be transported back in time that seamlessly. I do not make that claim. It’s only a training and teaching exercise. But it is one that’s stretching me in new ways – directions I could never achieve by working a stitch for stitch artifact reproduction, or from someone else’s chart or kit.

I intend to keep learning, and I invite you to learn with me. Needlework is a very safe subset of life in general. But make it exiting. Face uncertainty and possible failure. Think about taking inspiration from whatever you find, wherever you find it. Go for broke, combine old forms in new ways (or new forms in old ways). Start with a blank cloth and bungee jump with me. The ride can be scary at times, but it’s tons of fun.

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Toodling along on my current sampler…

…working on another pattern shared in my blackwork fillings collection, just stitching along. Once the base repeat is established, I find I can copy off my own work, rather than referring to the printed pattern. Sure, this one is on the complex side, but it’s a regular repeat and not what I’d consider particularly difficut; and without having to refer to a printed sheet, the project is totally portable. So I brought it with me to my kid’s school chorus concert. There’s always a long wait between the participants’ early drop-off time and the public concert’s start. Lots of parents stay rather than going home and returning later. I was not alone.

I’m used to knitting and stitching in public. I’ve gotten all sorts of comments over the years, ranging from real interest to veiled hostility. The overwhelming majority of people are interesting to talk to, and my project is always a convenient conversational icebreaker.

There are the folks who ask after the item being worked, or volunteer stories of their own about knitting or stitching. They’re usually pleasant and I enjoy talking to them. There are invariably people who say things like “Oooh. I could NEVER do that.” (What runs through my head is the reply, “With that attitude, I bet you’re right” but I rarely voice it.) Depending on how dismissive they are I either smile sweetly and don’t reply out loud, or try to explain that it’s not anywhere near as difficult as it looks.

There are kids who are fascinated by what I’m doing. Knitting socks especially seems to boggle them. I have fun with them, explaining he project and chatting about the craft in general.

Unfortunately, not everyone is pleasant. Some people say that they hate wasting time. I usually point out that at this very moment (mid commute, in the doctor’s office – whatever) I appear to be far more productive than they are. A couple of decades ago there were more derisive and ideological comments. Mostly from women, who were eager to point out that domestic tasks like knitting and stitching were ineherently demeaning, and should be shunned, especially in public. I would usually engage with them, responding that “freedom from” also means “freedom to,” that I had a highly technical career thank you, and that I found relaxation in traditional crafts. We usually parted on less divisive philosophical grounds.

But this week, just sitting there stitching, I found a whole new public comment beast. The ones who decide that anyone doing something alien to the commenter is clearly nuts, deranged, crazy, a lunatic, or otherwise mentally abberant; and should be pointed out to everyone else. It also seems that these folk (aside from their insenstivity towards the differently abled) delight in being loud and obnoxious. Maybe it was the ambience of the high school in which the performance was taking place, but I felt like I’d fallen back among locker room bullies again.

What did I do? First of all, I didn’t move my seat. I’d come early and sat underneath one of the few lights bright enough for stitching. When it became clear that glaring and not responding wasn’t working, I asked the commenters to kindly be quiet, that they were disrupting the people around us – in my best Miss Manners icy-haute tone. “Bitchy, too” was the reply, and they went away. Like vultures everywhere they probably flew off to circle over someone else’s carcass.

I won’t stop stitching and knitting in public. Idiots are everywhere, and I refuse to let them win.

Have your own stitching/knitting in public story? Positive or negative, feel free to share.

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