White Threads

European holiday

Ok, I’ll spill the beans on where I’ve been. You’ve been left wondering long enough!

The Gymnast and I waited until the end of the school year before jetting off to Zurich. The Reader and The Husband left a little earlier and flew to Amsterdam for a few days. We did some sightseeing around Zurich, and then The Reader and The Husband joined us.

One of The Gymnast’s requests for the holiday was to touch a glacier. Um, right. During our pre-trip planning, we managed to find a well-located one in the Swiss Alps, that involved a trip up Jungfrau to Jungfraujoch, and to see the Aletsch Glacier. It was a beautiful day with brilliant blue sunny skies. The sights were amazing, and we were so thankful that we were able to see it on such a day, when we could have just as easily had a blizzard!

The Swiss Alps, from Jungfraujoch.

We then caught a train to Basel and had a few hours exploring that gorgeous city and its Christmas markets before being picked up by my brother-in-law and taken to their place in Southern Germany. We had a few days there with all my family, including celebrating Christmas. This was actually the reason for the European holiday – Christmas with far-flung relatives!

Because they live not only close to Basel, but also to France, we took a little drive across the border into France with my sister to visit Mulhouse, from where a part of my family came, most notably Jean Gaspard Weiss, a flute virtuoso, teacher and composer. For embroiderers, Mulhouse is famous as the birthplace of DMC (as in DMC threads). DMC stands for “Dollfus, Mieg et Cie”, and my family tree includes both Dollfuses and Miegs. We didn’t get to visit the DMC museum as it is only open to professionals. Yes, I am a needlework professional, but we didn’t organise our visit beforehand, and I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t take unannounced visitors two days before Christmas.

The day after Christmas Day, we caught a train to Copenhagen. This was a long day, and we were looking out for snow all the way, but none was to be had. Towards the end of the day, we had a most unusual experience: the train went onto the boat which goes across from Germany to Denmark. We all alighted, went upstairs and enjoyed the journey on the boat, then shortly before arriving went back down to the train. The train travelled off the boat, and continued on its journey. Apparently it is one of the few places in the world where this happens!

We had a few days in Copenhagen. It was getting colder. We enjoyed a day at Copenhagen Zoo ostensibly to see the polar bear. (Another of The Gymnast’s requests was to see a polar bear, and Svalbard – her preferred location – was out of the question at this time of year!) We were greatly saddened to see that the bear seemed very bored. He kept swimming around his pool in exactly the same manner and path, over and over again.

The Gymnast meeting a polar bear at Copenhagen Zoo.

While in Copenhagen I couldn’t miss the opportunity to visit Greve Museum, home to one of the best collections of hedebo embroidery in the world! I had a wonderful few hours there, learning about the style. There didn’t appear to be anyone else there apart from staff, but it was a bitterly cold day with a biting wind, and probably everyone else was sensible enough to stay at home!

Greve Museum

We then caught yet another train to Stockholm, and it was on this journey that we finally saw our first snow for the holiday. Living in Sydney, Australia, we don’t get much experience of snow, so it is a real novelty to us. We arrived in Stockholm on New Years Eve, so were greeted by their welcoming in of the new year, with official fireworks, unofficial fireworks, church bells, and cruise ship horns.

During our few day stay in Stockholm, I announced one morning, “It’s snowing!” to great excitement from the girls. “Can we go outside?!” “Not yet, we need to finish getting ready!” When we did get out a while later, it wasn’t snowing very much anymore, and I hoped that I had not been a terribly mean mum and made them miss all the “snowing”. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case, and we enjoyed ice skating in a public park (both girls had requested this), during which the snow came down quite heavily. It snowed most of that day. Quite a magical experience! The temperature was getting lower and lower, the further we went north.

Iceskating in Stockholm

Making a snowman with very little snow. It had snowed the night before – probably the first of the season.

From Stockholm, we caught an overnight ferry to Helsinki. Our main reason for visiting Helsinki was to take a trip into the countryside to visit a friend of The Reader’s. (This was The Reader’s main request for the holiday, and for every holiday since we went to Ethiopia. Obviously this was the first time it actually happened!) They had become friends at school during our time in Ethiopia about 6 years ago, and had stayed in touch. While they knew each other well, we didn’t really know the rest of the family at all, and nor did they know us. However, we made new friends and enjoyed a day of warm and generous Finnish hospitality with them, certainly making up for the fact that it was -28°C (-18.4°F)! We spent a few days exploring Helsinki, learning that -16°C feels not nearly so cold as -28°C!

A promenade in Helsinki. It’s about midday in this photo. We were a long way north, in the middle of winter!

The photo in my previous post of the frosty trees was at Suomenlinna, an island in the middle of the harbour of Helsinki.

We also took a day trip across the water to Tallinn, in Estonia. What a beautiful city that is! It snowed for much of the day here too, which certainly gave it that special something!

Across the rooftops of the beautiful old town of Tallinn.

From Helsinki, we flew home to Australia, having enjoyed a wonderful holiday filled with many new experiences; some that we had expected and planned, and some that we had stumbled serendipitously across!

Along the way, I saw quite a bit of embroidery in Zurich, Mulhouse, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Tallinn, and Helsinki, and took as many photos as I could! This included whitework, my main love, but also other forms of embroidery as I appreciate most kinds!

Embroidered wrist muffs, from the collection of Nordiska Museet, Stockholm.

To those who guessed correctly, at least one or some of the places I had been, well done! You can feel all warm and fuzzy for the day. 🙂

Back in the office

Well, I’m back. Actually, I was yesterday too, but it was filled with lots of running around doing work stuff and family stuff.

I had a great break over Christmas. We did lots of family things together, and had many new experiences. I saw some embroidery, visited some new places, experienced different temperatures, and learned new things.

Actually, we went overseas. 🙂 I had my first European Christmas, and no, it was not a white Christmas. I’ll share some photos with you as time goes along.

Does anyone want to guess where we went? And no, I wasn’t researching a book. This time, it was just a family holiday (with incidental embroidery in museums crammed in, as much as possible!)

So, where do you think I went?

Advance notice: Christmas office closure

I’ve had a long, hard year and I need a break. Over Christmas, I will be taking time off with my family to celebrate the birth of my saviour, and to relax with my family.

Thank you for all your interest in Vetty Creations this year, and for supporting my very small business. I received a lovely Christmas greeting the other day that went like this: “Merry Christmas to You & Your family and all at Vetty Creations.” It made me smile, partly because it was a lovely message, but partly because Vetty Creations is really just me and my family. That’s it. Just me, and them. 🙂

Next year I’m looking forward to finally releasing “Early-Style Hardanger”. While you can’t pre-order it yet, I’ll let you know very loudly here, on Facebook and on the Vetty Creations website when it is available for pre-order and then when it is actually released.

I also have some other exciting things planned for next year.

Best wishes to you and your family for a very happy Christmas. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, I wish you good health and happiness.

Thank you again!

missing in action

I’ve really been missing in action! Sorry! I have been working hard on the book, and then we had a trip to Geelong to watch The Gymnast compete in her first national gymnastics competition. (She did brilliantly well!)

On the day we arrived in Geelong, Mum (my parents came too) said to me, “The National War Museum is here in Geelong.” I wasn’t really sure why she told me this. I can’t say that fact really excited me! However, some days later I realised that she’d said The National WOOL Museum! I had actually known the wool museum was there, and was looking forward to going there.

We both enjoyed our visit. There were two temporary exhibitions of art quilts. I knew that a friend of mine had a quilt in one, but also found there were two other exhibitors who I knew as well. I really loved some of the quilts. Some didn’t enthuse me that much. I particularly enjoyed the ones that used hand embroidery, and there were quite a few of those.

Within the museum itself, we saw samples of different merino wool grades. Being the mother of a child who learns by touch, I was pleased to see that there were samples for people to touch (though not take!). It also meant that you could smell the wool too, with its very strong lanolin smell.

We saw a display of brushed wool fabric, including the little spiky seed pods, called teazles, that they used to use to brush the surface. Again, they were able to be touched, but not taken.

Elsewhere in the museum we saw Axminster carpet being made on a machine. It was quite fascinating. Like the velvet weaving looms I saw in Venice at Bevilacqua, the pattern for the carpet was fed into the machine with punch cards. I suppose the whole process was a *little* like the velvet weaving, though on a larger and coarser scale. And the carpet weaving was mechanised, whereas the velvet weaving was not.

We also got to make some sock length using a sock knitting machine, which was rather like a huge mechanised knitting Nancy. (Is that just an Australian term? If it’s not familiar to you, Google it. That should work!) We weren’t sure how they got the heels into the socks. I suspect they didn’t, rather like the socks they used to give out on airlines.

The museum had a great mix of displays to look at, things to touch, and things to do. If you’re ever in Geelong, and are interested in the process of wool, from the sheep’s back to yarn and fabric, I highly recommend visiting The National Wool Museum.

lampshade and all the other sewing complete

Well, after a long process that proceeded quite well but slowly, I completed the Hardanger lampshade for the book. I photographed it in my daughter’s room after she helpfully cleaned off her desk for me. (Thank you The Reader!)

And with the completion of the lampshade, that brings to an end the sewing and embroidery for “Early-Style Hardanger”, apart from a few more small samples. I actually feel quite lost. I have nothing to sew. I’d like to get started on the embroidery for the next book (Yes Paula! The NEXT book!) but I will not allow myself to start anything new until this one is done.

Embroidery is what I do in my down time. I feel lost without something to do with my hands. This afternoon I’ve been reading a wonderful book called “The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow” by A J Mackinnon. It is a most enjoyable read! I learned of the book after hearing a rollicking interview with its author, Sandy Mackinnon, who is surely one of the best storytellers I’ve ever heard. And the book is just as entertaining.

However, it isn’t embroidery. 🙁

So now I just need to finally get this book finished so that I can start something new! There are many things on my list, and the next book is just one of them. I wasn’t actually planning to write another book for a while as there are a few other things I want to do instead for a bit. But then an idea planted itself in my head, almost fully formed, and I had to agree (with myself, of course!) that it was a very good idea.

But that’s getting ahead of myself. First things first, and in this case, that means finishing off “Early-Style Hardanger”…

A tale of plans gone awry

While this is not the lampshade embroidery, it’s another one I damp stretched yesterday.

I’ve realised over the past few weeks that I am absolutely terrible at estimating how much time something is going to take me to do. Otherwise I would have finished my book months and months ago, and you’d already have it in your hands. Oh well, it’s good to have moments of self-realisation. 🙂

Today my plans went awry, but not because I underestimated the amount of time it was going to take me. They just… went… awry.

This morning as I lay awake in bed before getting up, I planned how I was going to construct my Hardanger lampshade. I’ve been putting it off for months, because I hadn’t been able to figure out how I was going to do it. However, in bed this morning, I came to a good plan, which made sense and I thought should work fine. I was excited to finally have figured it out, and in a way that would be easy to do and explain how to do.

Yesterday afternoon I damp stretched the embroidery for the lampshade, and it dried overnight. This morning I unpinned it and thought I’d give it a quick iron, just to flatten out any fluffiness of the linen surface.

And the iron blurted on it. Small brownish blurts of liquid. The only way they were going to go was to wash the whole thing out and damp stretch it again.

Being a day with lovely warm weather, I figured that as I was washing it at about 8am, it should be dry by about 10:30. So I washed it, spun it, lightly ironed it to get major creases out (leaving it still damp though), damp stretched it, and put it out in the sun to dry.

By about 10:30 it was dry again, so I unpinned it again, and did not iron it this time!

I laid it out on the table, then laid the lampshade frame on it, and rolled it along to see how much extra embroidery there would be to go into my hem. Ah… none… The embroidery was too short. Obviously I decided at some point (probably earlier in the year when I was weaning myself off sugar, and was plunged into brain fog for some weeks) that it was long enough, but did not properly check it.

Idiot.

So I spent the next few hours adding more of the Hardanger pattern to extend the embroidery. Fortunately there was ample material at the ends to do this. When I thought I’d done enough, I rolled the lampshade frame across it to check the length again. Finally, enough!

I washed it, spun it, lightly ironed it to get major creases out (leaving it still damp though), damp stretched it, and left it to dry. It’s now drying. Again.

I haven’t yet gotten to putting it onto the lampshade. Another day. 🙂

Knitting, crochet and coding

From https://www.flickr.com/photos/katemonkey/5665916936. Used under Creative Commons 2.0 licence.

My husband went to a library conference this week, and as part of that, he visited The Edge (part of the State Library of Queensland). He and fellow conference participants had a tour of the facility, which he found really inspiring.

He’s just told me about the guy who was leading their tour saying something about teaching people crochet as a way into learning computer programming. This fellow said that there are similarities between crochet patterns and computer code.

So off I went to look into this, being a maths/science-y sort of brain, myself, and as I am currently knitting a pair of socks! (The Gymnast has also been exploring computer coding this year in her spare time.)

I found articles and blog posts relating to both knitting and crochet, and computer coding.

http://www.generativeart.com/on/cic/papersGA2008/4.pdf
https://www.codecademy.com/blog/70-how-knitters-are-human-computers
http://www.mcdaniel.edu/information/headlines/news-at-mcdaniel/archive/math-professors-express-complex-concepts-through-crochet
http://geekfeminism.org/2012/03/21/are-all-female-programmers-also-knitters/

Of particular interest to me was one of the comments on the “Geekfeminism” blog, from someone called “Slashy”:

I am a knitter, crochet-er, gardener, home brewer of alcoholic beverages and a web programmer. It is very evident to me that what gets me excited in my professional and hobby life is a specific flavour of making things that involves patience, repetition, iterative improvement and many small losses and victories on the path to a final product. I am not one for building big things- I’ve tried bike repair, furniture construction and so forth and just can’t get into larger pieces/bigger risks/bigger pay-offs style. Even when I succeed I find the pay-off unsatisfying. I’m into the process.

I LOVE lace knitting & crochet for their beautiful maths, and for the way that I-the-knitter build a relationship through my project with this algorithm presented to me by the pattern-writer, and this relationship is built on trust, suspense and revelation. I literally gasp out loud with delight and excitement as each successive row reveals to me what the trickery on the previous row was for. I find it SO EXCITING that I try to rave about it to my friends in bars (spoiler: nobody else thinks this is exciting).

Obviously I need to find more knitter-programmer friends to hang out with.

I thought that sounded just like me when I get excited about an embroidery stitch… 🙂

Is this something you can relate to? I think a lot of people who like Hardanger are mathematics type people. There’s counting, order, precision and pattern involved. Are you someone who has/has had a career in maths/science fields who loves creating? Does your creativity reflect your love of maths/science, particularly in the creative process itself, rather than the imagery of your creativity?

If you’re a school teacher, have you heard of this idea of using crochet and knitting as a way into computer coding? I’m wondering if I need to teach The Gymnast to crochet. She already loves loom bands, which use a hook, so I think she could take to it quite well. And you don’t get dropped stitches with crochet in the same way that you can in knitting! We have a whole long weekend ahead of us, before the new school term resumes…

Exploring the needlework internet this week

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written one of these posts, mostly because I haven’t had enough time to be exploring the needlework internet! I still don’t have time, but a few notable things have crossed my path, so I wanted to share them with you.

Firstly, one of my most popular posts on Facebook of recent time has been a link to an upcoming exhibition of costumes. If you’re anywhere near the University of Washington (I won’t be! 🙁 ) from 11th-15th November, make sure you get along to see Art of the Costume: The Susan Pasco Collection. The exhibition will feature the work of Susan Pasco, a Seattle-based artist, and there will be forty historically accurate garments on display. That’s quite a dress, isn’t it?

Continuing on with my theme of embroidery on clothing, I saw a beautiful photo of Romanian children in embroidered shirts and skirts. The photo is from 1934, and was posted on Facebook by The Romanian Blouse Collection.

Now this, I still can’t believe: one of the panels of the Great Tapestry of Scotland has been stolen from Kirkcaldy Galleries in Scotland. Appeals are being made for its return. Any information of its whereabouts should be reported to Police Scotland.

For those who have *hours* to spend, there’s a treasure trove known as the Antique Pattern Library. That’ll keep you off the streets for a few hours! Because the works are all very old, they are out of copyright and therefore can be distributed without penalty.

And finally, a video of a precious old tapestry being washed at Hampton Court, in England. Quite a fascinating process. If you receive this as an email, you can see the video here on YouTube.

Patterns on Pinterest

I haunt Pinterest a bit. I see a lot on Pinterest that interests me and inspires me. Unfortunately I also see a lot that I don’t like.

You see, I keep seeing embroidery patterns and charts on Pinterest.

I think it goes a lot like this:

You’re browsing Pinterest and you see that someone has posted a Hardanger chart (or any other sort of embroidery pattern) that you like. So you save it to one of your boards. “I might make that one day.” And then someone sees it on your board, and they save it to their board. “I might make that one day.” And someone else sees it, and they save it to their board, because they might make it one day.

If you are the designer of the pattern, then you have every right to do with it as you wish. You can post it to Pinterest, stick in on the front wall of your house and light it with flashing LED strips, mail it to all your nearest and dearest 1000 friends, or shove it in your drawer. You can do with it exactly what you want.

If you are not the designer of the pattern, you do not have the right to do exactly what you want with it. If you have legally obtained the pattern, you have the right to stitch it, or not stitch it. That’s about it. You do not have the right to share it with your friends. You do not have the right to photocopy it and give a copy to all your mates. You do not have the right to post it on Pinterest. To do so breaches copyright and breaks the law.

If you see a chart or pattern on Pinterest, chances are it was NOT posted by the designer. Chances are, it was posted by someone breaching the designer’s copyright and breaking the law.

By pinning the illegal copy of the chart to your Pinterest board, you are also breaching copyright and breaking the law. Designers can and do search out copies of their charts and patterns and request them to be taken down. This wastes valuable time where they could be designing more charts and patterns.

Don't pin charts to your Pinterest boards

The International Needlework Designers Association has come up with this great visual way of explaining it. (And yes, I have permission to use the image.)

I heard an interesting statement yesterday. “Lots of people have pinned it on Pinterest.” Umm, that doesn’t make it right. Just because someone has broken the law before you doesn’t mean it’s ok for you to break the law too.

Please, if you have charts and patterns pinned on Pinterest (or any other form of social media) remove them. Delete them. If you are not the copyright holder (that is, the designer or publisher) you do not have the right to publish them/pin them/copy them.

The only legal way to obtain a chart is to purchase a legal copy. (Or, if it is a freebie pattern, to obtain it from the official point of giveaway, which may be a shop’s website or a designer’s website.)

If you haven’t purchased it, it’s almost 100% likely that you’re breaking the law by having a copy. Stay legal, and if you’re not legal at the moment, delete/destroy all illegal copies and get legal. Thanks.

Disclaimer: This is not legal advice and you should make your own enquiries. Should you need legal advice regarding copyright laws, please seek a law professional.

Ukrainian shirts in Kiev

Yesterday Facebook told me that I hadn’t posted anything to my Vetty Creations Facebook page in a whole FIVE DAYS. Quelle horreur! So I remedied that by posting the following gorgeous photo.

Image by Riwnodennyk [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

This is an embroidered shirt in the collection of the Ivan Honchar Museum in Kiev, Ukraine. The museum is dedicated to preserving and showcasing Ukrainian folk art. The shirt is from the Poltava region, which is the same region as the merezhka that I wrote about in “Ukrainian Drawn Thread Embroidery: Merezhka Poltavska”. This shirt does not feature any merezhka poltavska, but other but embroidery.

I then received a comment on the Facebook post from one of the page’s fans, Tetyana. She posted a link to an album of photos of a display of Ukrainian shirts in Kiev. What a treasure trove! There are many, many beautiful photos in the album. Thanks so much for posting the link, Tetyana, and sharing these amazing shirts with us!

There seems to be a growing movement to wear traditional shirts again in Ukraine. I went to a fashion parade of Ukrainian clothing here in Sydney last year, and the lady whose collection it was said that when she first started going back to Ukraine many years ago, she would wear her shirts, but that no-one else did. It seems that this is changing and that now, more people are proudly wearing their cultural embroidery. This is something I wholeheartedly support! 🙂