White Threads

Happy Norwegian Constitution Day!

No, I’m not Norwegian, but I’d be very happy if there was some Norse in my heritage. Despite my lack of Norwegianness, but because I love their embroidery and am so grateful for what Norwegians have contributed to the world of embroidery, I do celebrate Norwegian Constitution Day, which is Norway’s national day. And it is today – 17th May!

Norwegian Constitution Day in Sydney
Last year I went to the Sydney Norwegian community’s gathering in a park in central Sydney and loved seeing all the beautiful clothes with so much embroidery on them. The Hardanger bunad is the most well known of all the Norwegian costumes, but it is not the only one. There are so many different styles from regions and towns across the country.

Parading in Bergen

In 2014, I was in Bergen, Norway, and enjoyed watching the parade through the town, where so many people had come out in their beautiful folk costumes. A once in a lifetime experience!

This year, I’ll celebrate by wearing my Hardanger shirt. I love wearing it. It feels so special.

Happy Syttende Mai to all Norwegians! Enjoy wearing your bunader og folkedrakt and spending time celebrating with friends and family!

New shipment – Dovo Hardanger scissors

Yesterday I received a new shipment of Dovo Hardanger scissors. They are such lovely scissors.

Susan requested to see the points of the scissors, and I thought you might like to see them too.

The points are very sharp and pointy (not rounded or squared off on the ends), and go between the threads of fabric smoothly and easily.

If you have any questions about these scissors, or any of the other products we sell, please don’t hesitate to ask.

You can purchase these scissors from Vetty Creations.

Yvette Stanton on FiberTalk Podcast

FiberTalk Podcast

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of having a Skype conversation with Gary and Christine from the FiberTalk podcast. It was such an enjoyable way to spend some time – talking about needlework, culture and the way those two things are related, about my stitching history and about my books.

You can find the podcast at FiberTalk. If you enjoy this conversation, why not sign up for the podcast? The series of podcasts is relatively new, which is why you may not have heard about it before. However, the guests they’ve already had have been so interesting, and across a wide range of fibre topics.

Thanks to Gary and Christine for a fascinating conversation. It was a real treat for me to be involved.

I hope you enjoy the podcast. If you have any questions or comments about what we talked about, I’d be very happy to hear them.

office reorganisation

Over the past few years I have been very bad at keeping my office in order. It became a storage space for books and other stock, but also a dumping ground… 🙁 I hadn’t really been able to work in the space for quite some time. There just wasn’t room for me!

It was totally out of control. I knew that I needed to do something about it, but when things are that bad, where do you start?

So I started with the desk top. I figured that if I cleaned some of it up, and threw some things away, it was begun.

And so I did. I made a start.

I worked out all the things I really needed to store. Books for selling. Other products for selling such as thread, fabric, needles, scissors. All my personal embroidery threads. My fabrics for finishing. My needles, my scissors. My reference library. My notes on projects. My pattern drafting patterns and notes.

Then I planned where all that stuff could go. I love doing this sort of thing. It’s just another design problem to be solved. Figuring out the best use of space, using innovative methods of storage, using every nook and cranny, and planning in excess space to be filled over time with books I don’t yet own, fabric I don’t yet own and thread I don’t yet own. I needed to make sure there was room to grow into it.

Part of my problem before was that most stuff didn’t have a home. If it has a home, then it’s easy to put it back there. If it doesn’t have a home, then piles of stuff build up. Well, that’s the theory, anyway.

I’m part the way through the process of reorganising the office. Some of the new furniture (wardrobes with lots and lots of shelves and drawers, and bookcases) is in, but some is still to go in. I’m finding places for things to live.

I still have some more chucking out of stuff to do, but already, the space is a delight to be in. The other day I was taking some photos of projects I have recently completed, and The Reader came into be with me, simply because the space is becoming such a nice space. I’m going to enjoy working it in, especially when it is finished.

I wish very much that I had taken a before photo, but I didn’t think to! Imagine the worst mess you can possibly imagine, and it’s probably pretty close. (How embarrassing!)

I’ll be cruising again next year

Explorer of the Seas In April/May next year I’ll be tutoring on the Craft Creations Cruise, from Sydney via the South Pacific and Hawaii, to Seattle. I’ve done a couple of cruises with Needlework Tours and Cruises before, as a tutor, and they are always most enjoyable.

Early-style Hardanger biscornu

Mountmellick biscornu featuring pomegranates

I’ll be teaching three projects: Early Style Hardanger Biscornu, Mountmellick Biscornu and Mountmellick Daisy and Forget-me-not Cushion. The teaching is done on sea days, so that when you’re in port, you get to do all the port activities you could possibly want to do. Embroidering at sea passes the time in a most enjoyable way.

People often ask me if the cruise company runs the needlework event. No, it’s run just like a conference or convention on a cruise (rather than at a conventional conference centre), this one just happens to be a needlework one. On my first cruise there was also a genealogy conference on the same cruise.

But it’s not just me who will be tutoring. There are 24 tutors teaching various textile crafts including embroidery, patchwork, quilting, felting and beading. You can see who is teaching and the lovely projects they’re teaching on the Needlework Tours and Cruises website.

Because the cruise goes from Sydney to Seattle, it would make an excellent holiday for Australians and New Zealanders with their starting point in Sydney, flying home at the end from the US. For Americans, they could fly to Australia first, then cruise their way home to the US. And people from other countries are of course welcome to join us!

If you’d like more information on my classes, I will be putting details up here on the blog in coming days, or you can just ask me. If you’d like more information on the cruise itself, please check out the cruise website. I’d love it if you’d join me!

Sardinian knotted embroidery from NZ

You may remember that in January this year I spent two and a bit weeks in New Zealand, teaching punt’e nù, or Sardinian Knotted Embroidery. Each of the six classes did the Petite Doily from my book Sardinian Knotted Embroidery. The students made great progress, but I always tell my students that I love seeing finished works. Hint, hint!

Recently I received a lovely email from Aylene. She has given me permission to share the photo of her finished doily. It looks so lovely. Well done Aylene!

petite doily sardinian knotted embroidery

Working on a book project with my hoop and stand

Two weekends ago I began work on one of the larger projects for the book. It’s a sampler and features bands of the embroidery, from different locations and in different styles. It’s great fun to stitch, as the patterns change regularly and if you discover there’s one you don’t particularly like stitching, pretty soon you’ll be done with that band and can move onto another one. (I like variety!)

I’ve been working with my embroidery in my embroidery hoop and stand again. I don’t do Hardanger in a hoop, but in hand, so I didn’t use my hoop and stand at all for my previous book, Early-Style Hardanger. For this book it’s lovely to have the hoop out again as it is so pleasurable to use.

It brings the work up closer to my eyes, without me having to hold it. I’ve been experimenting with a bit of two-handed embroidery, with one hand on top and one hand below. As I’m left-handed, I have the left hand on top, and the right hand below. I’m not sure that it makes it quicker, but it is training my right hand to be more dextrous. And anything like that has to be good for the brain, I reckon!

Sometimes I need to hold my pattern close by, so then I can hold it with one hand, and stitch with the other. That’s part of the beauty of having a hoop and stand which holds the embroidery for you!

I like to have my embroidery drum-tight in the hoop, as then I know that things are not going to get skew-iff. Because the hoop has a screw driver slot in the head of the screw, it means that I can get it really tight. I make my fabric nice and straight, then tighten the screw, stretch the fabric a bit more, tighten again, and stretch and straighten, until it is all just so. The hoops are deep, with gives good stability, even when your fabric is stretched tight. Because the hoop flips up, I can easily access the back to finish off threads.

I’ve been sitting on the lounge to do this stitching (then I can remain part of the family rather than squirrelled away in another room), and the stand works well on the lounge. I do use it on dining room chairs too, and it works well on all of them. The stand goes between my legs, and my legs on it stabilise the whole system. I do know that some people prefer to insert it under their legs from the side. Whatever works for you!

There are 22 different bands on the sampler, so I figure that if I can get one done every few days (and some are even quicker) that in time I will have it done. I have five bands complete so far, and another two underway. It’s great seeing it grow.

If you’re interested in the hoop and stand that I am using, I have the full range of sizes available for sale on my website. The hoop sizes are 6 inch (15cm), 7 inch (17.5cm, which is what I am using), 8 inch (20cm), 10 inch (25cm), 11 inch (27.5cm), and 12 inch (30cm). The hoops are interchangeable in the one stand, so you can have a range of hoop sizes that all work with the one stand. The hoops and stands can be purchased separately so that you can choose exactly the bits you need.

Do you use a hoop and stand? If you do, do you stitch with your dominant hand only, or do you use your other hand as well? Do you have dominant hand on top or below? Do you have questions about working with a hoop and stand? Ask away!

Wool allergies and embroidery

I was thinking about a new (to me) thought the other day. How does a wool allergy affect people who enjoy embroidery? Some embroidery styles, such as crewel embroidery, are done almost exclusively in wool thread. What does this mean for people with wool allergies? Or even just people who have sensitive skin and can’t stand the prickliness of some wool?

Do you have a wool allergy? How does that affect your embroidery? Does it mean that if you see a style of embroidery that uses wool, that you immediately think “well, that’s not for me!”, or do you think “I wonder how I can adapt that to make it work for me?”

Have you substituted cotton threads for the wool ones that are supposed to be used? Has that formed a satisfactory solution for you? What other ways have you found around the problem?

I suppose with books like Hazel Blomkamp’s “Crewel Twists” that people with wool allergies can find a way into crewel embroidery, using yarns that are not wool. That’s possibly been really helpful.

Wool embroidery thread For people where it is not an allergy, but just a skin sensitivity issue, I wonder if using soft wools such as Bella Lusso or Renaissance yarns, rather than the slightly more prickly ones such as Appletons or to a lesser extent, Fine D’aubusson, would help?

Anyway, it was just a new thought for me, and one that I explored a bit in my mind, so I thought I’d ask people for whom it may be an issue. What are your thoughts? Is this an issue for you? How do you deal with it?

Dovo Hardanger Scissors now available

Dovo Hardanger Scissors

Dovo Hardanger Scissors are now available from Vetty Creations!

I have had Dovo Hardanger scissors recommended to me over the years again and again. So I decided to see what the fuss was all about.

Ooh yes, they are *lovely*.

Detail of Dovo Hardanger scissors blades

They are fine, fine, fine. The points are so pointy. The blades are so sharp. They feel lovely in my hands and they cut so beautifully.

When working with Hardanger, particularly on high counts of fabric, you need fine, narrow blades to get into between the fabric threads. The Dovo Hardanger scissors are perfect for this. And so they should be, because they were designed specifically with Hardanger in mind.

However, they are suitable to use for any sort of cutwork embroidery and even lace making. They will work a treat for your Portuguese Whitework, your reticella, your drawn thread work, your Richelieu, your Schwalm, your merezhka, or any other sort of cutwork embroidery.

They are made from hot-forged stainless steel, by Dovo, in Solingen, Germany, which was founded in 1906. They’ve been making good scissors for a very long time.

You can now purchase Dovo Hardanger Scissors from Vetty Creations. You may remember that about 4 years ago I wrote a blog post on what I look for in a pair of embroidery scissors. I have now updated that post to include these scissors, which have become my top recommendation.

Product details
Dovo Solingen 3.5 inch / 9cm Hardanger embroidery scissors.
Steel grey coloured, with a brushed finish. Black leather sheath included.

Successful teaching tour of New Zealand

I’m back from a great trip around New Zealand. I’m also exhausted! I littered a trail of exhausted embroiderers across the country, I think!

Off to New Zealand!

On 3rd January I left Australia, having had hot weather of mid 30s (Celcius), arriving into Dunedin with temps of less than 10 degrees, with rain, wind and hail. Mmm, thanks for the warm welcome, New Zealand! Thankfully, the people themselves were very welcoming. On 4th and 5th January, I had a great time with the ladies of Dunedin and further afield, teaching them Sardinian Knotted Embroidery, Petite Doily project. They delighted in the goodies I had stuffed my bag with (linen fabric, linen thread, patterns, pendant kits, linen banding), enjoying their purchases greatly.

Jane, my host took me on a little tour of Dunedin, showing me the sights such as the steepest street in the world (Baldwin Street), the amazing railway station with its spectacular architecture, and the Mitre 10 MEGA. (Ok, the Mitre 10 hardware store wasn’t actually deemed a sight to see, but we did go there!)

The steepest street in the world, though it’s quite hard to capture that steepness in a photo

Dunedin railway station

Everyone loves a hardware store… right?

The next day was a travel day from Dunedin to Nelson, via Christchurch. I arrived into Nelson with warmer weather, and lovely sunny skies. Paula, my host, took me on a tour of sunny Nelson which seems to perpetually have a holiday feel. Some of the highlights were the World of Wearable Art museum and Cruella’s wool shop.

World of Wearable Art, an amazing display of some fantastic creations.

On 7th and 8th, I joined with ladies from Nelson, Christchurch and elsewhere for a class in Sardinian Knotted Embroidery, making the Petite Doily project. I remembered to take photos in Nelson, which is surprising as usually I only remember to take photo well after a class is finished.

Nelson class

From Nelson I hopped across the Cook Strait to Wellington, where Tricia picked me up and took me up to the Kapiti Coast. The rain came back that afternoon and stayed with us.

On 10th and 11th of January, I taught ladies from Wellington region Sardinian Knotted Embroidery, Petite Doily project. Again.

Petite Doily from “Sardinian Knotted Embroidery” by Yvette Stanton

On one of the afternoons, the building we were in squeaked a bit. Someone said “maybe we’re having an earthquake.” Later it was shown that that had indeed been an earthquake of about 5.3. I’ve now lived through my first earthquake. While it wasn’t particularly exciting – no rocking, rolling or shaking was evident – at least it wasn’t too exciting or damaging. They’ve had enough of that sort of thing lately.

The next day was a travel day, which started with a little visit to Tricia’s local shopping village, where we enjoyed a visit to a local needlework shop. Then on to Palmerston North, through wind and rain. (New Zealand really turned on the weather for me!)

Palmerston North class

In Palmerston North, on 13th and 14th January, I taught women from Palmerston North, Whanganui and even as far north as Rotorua. We did Sardinian Knotted Embroidery, Petite Doily project. Again. My host, Margaret, treated all of us to a lovely dinner at her house on the first night. Such a lovely treat!

From Palmerston North, Margaret drove me up over the range with the wind farm, where we got up close and personal with one of the turbines in the driving wind and rain, to Dannevirke on the other side. Here I met Bridget, my host in the Hawkes Bay region. Bridget drove me to her place, a lovely farm in rolling hills.

HUUUGE wind turbine

That’s a blade lying on the ground half in that shed. It gives you an idea of the scale of these things.

Red at night, shepherd’s delight sunset

in the Land of the Long White Cloud, I didn’t see many white clouds at all. I saw many many grey ones though!

On 16th and 17th January, I taught – wait for it – Sardinian Knotted Embroidery, Petite Doily project to ladies from the Hawkes Bay region. We had a great time together, and New Zealand finally found the thermostat and turned the temperature up to the high 20 degrees range, with sun. My little taste of New Zealand summer!

Napier class

Bridget helped me with my quest to find some possum merino wool to bring home with me. When I was a teenager, we had a family holiday in New Zealand. It was my first overseas trip. Mum allowed me and my twin sister, Prue, to purchase some NZ wool to bring home, for Grandma to knit us each a jumper (sweater). These were our souvenirs. I decided it would be nice to continue the tradition of bringing home wool for a NZ souvenir jumper. I’ll be knitting it this time, as at 99 years old, Grandma doesn’t knit anymore.

my possum wool

On my final morning in the Hawkes Bay region, Bridget took me to a lovely wool shop in Hastings where I was able to purchase some lovely red 4 ply Amuri wool, which is 75% merino and 25% possum. It’s impossibly light, soft and warm, though I haven’t tested the warmth yet! Bridget also took me on a driving tour around Napier, to see the beautiful art deco architecture.

On to Auckland, where Trish picked me up from the airport. We had a very quiet afternoon, which was lovely. On 19th and 20th, I taught ladies from Auckland and further afield Sardinian Knotted Embroidery, Petite Doily project. Yes, that’s right EVERY SINGLE ONE of the groups had chosen the exact same project from all the projects I had offered. It made for a rather repetitive two weeks!

Auckland class

The class in Auckland was at New Zealand’s premier needlework shop, Ribbon Rose. I have supplied my Mountmellick embroidery supplies to Ribbon Rose for many years. It was great to finally visit the shop, and see the treasure trove of goodies. What a treat! I bought products I hadn’t seen before which will be useful in creating the projects in my next book. Thanks to Stephen for hosting us.

Ribbon Rose knitting section

Ribbon Rose – just a small part of the embroidery products area

Ribbon Rose’s display at the front door, celebrating my books and love of whitework.

If you’re in Auckland as a resident or a visitor, I highly recommend a visit to the shop. All throughout NZ, my class participants kept telling me how they would order things from Stephen, and it would be on their doorstep the next morning. It is a much loved shop!

And finally, my teaching tour of New Zealand was at an end. Home to the family!

Thanks to all who played a part in making my tour so wonderful – most hosts, the regional representatives, the class participants… Thank you to ANZEG (the Association of New Zealand Embroiderers’ Guilds) for hosting my trip and for all the organisation that went into it. I had a truly marvellous time, and will look forward to visiting New Zealand and its highly proficient and talented embroiderers again!