I have splurged and bought myself a new embroidery workstand – it’s a Lowery in stainless steel. I had considered them in the past, but thought they were too expensive and I made do with different table stands (but none of those were ideal). This is great. It’s so sturdy, my clip on magnifier doesn’t make it sag and I can sit on the couch and watch TV while stitching.
I am very happy with my purchase (which I got from JK’s cross stitching supplies – brilliant service). Now I am considering the table clamp for my friday morning stitching class.
I haven’t been able to work on my quilt because Miss P is using the sewing machine to make a ball dress (purple satin!). So it’s back to the cross stitch.
I have almost finished another side, just the back stitching left, and then it’s onto the two roof pieces.
I am determined to get this quilt finished. So determined, I am not working on anything else. I started in 2013 and now I just want it finished. I have joined all of the blocks, and now I am covering the joins with bias binding. At first I planned to make the strips, but in the end I bought it (50m of the stuff), but I think it saved me a bit of time.
I have had this book (on my Kindle) since 2020, but I had a sample of it for much longer. I finally decided to read it.
Here’s the blurb …
“Fascinating . . . What is remarkable about this book is that a history of knitting can function so well as a survey of the changes in women’s roles over time.”–The New York Times Book Review
An historian and lifelong knitter, Anne Macdonald expertly guides readers on a revealing tour of the history of knitting in America. In No Idle Hands, Macdonald considers how the necessity–and the pleasure–of knitting has shaped women’s lives.
Here is the Colonial woman for whom idleness was a sin, and her Victorian counterpart, who enjoyed the pleasure of knitting while visiting with friends; the war wife eager to provide her man with warmth and comfort, and the modern woman busy creating fashionable handknits for herself and her family. Macdonald examines each phase of American history and gives us a clear and compelling look at life, then and now. And through it all, we see how knitting has played an important part in the way society has viewed women–and how women have viewed themselves.
Assembled from articles in magazines, knitting brochures, newspaper clippings and other primary sources, and featuring reproductions of advertisements, illustrations, and photographs from each period, No Idle Hands capture the texture of women’s domestic lives throughout history with great wit and insight.
This was great, if you are at all interested in knitting and history, then this is the book for you. This was published in 1988, and therefore doesn’t cover the last thirty years, but, despite that, it is very interesting. Who knew that knitting was big in the 1930s (and not during war time)? What it also highlights is how women’s roles have changed over time, and how knitting has changed from a necessity to a relaxing hobby that’s good for mental health.
After having been lost in the system for a while, my embroidery kit from the Royal School of Needlework arrived. It’s beautifully packaged – I have already started work on the pomegranate.
I started these socks back in April 2022 (I got waylaid by Miss P’s blanket), had a false start and then tried again and now I have finally finished them.
Here’s my original post, I stuck with the pattern and used the Yarn Harlot’s toe pattern (the 4-3-2-1 pattern).
While waiting for more yarn to arrive for P’s blanket I have switched back to my Covid project, I am on to the dress now.
My box from Rebecca Devaney of Textile Tours of Paris has arrived – it came very quickly. Unlike my kit from the Royal School of Needlework, which still hasn’t arrived.
I also have the online course, A Brief Dictionary of Stitches,
Items in the box and my progress
This is a beautiful kit, with silk threads, linen, hoop, scissors and needles all from European manufacturers.
Rebecca’s teaching style is fabulous. I thought I knew how to hoop my fabric, but no and now (as you can see in the above image), I can get my hoop drum tight.
