White Threads

Set up day

Today is setup day for the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair. Our lounge room looked like it was moving day, last night and this morning! Boxes everywhere!

Once I’ve set up, I’ll have to do some food shopping and make some meals for easy reheating during the remainder of the week. Honestly, how do working mothers do this? I have the most inordinate amount of respect for how organised you must have to be!

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have some pictures for you, so you can see how the stand looks. And then I’ll be embarking on another completely and utterly tiring week, at the end of which I will feel like I’ve got jet lag! I’m hoping all the training I did for the Walk For Women will have helped me with long-distance stamina! Please don’t expect any long and exciting blog posts this week – I’ll be lucky if they even make sense.

Please come and visit me during the week – give me someone to talk to so that I don’t fall asleep on my feet! Seriously, I’d love to meet as many of my readers as possible. It really is fun meeting you, as I find out that I’m not just writing to cyberspace, and no-one’s reading it. (Sometimes I wonder…) And needlework type people are always so lovely, anyway.

So don’t be shy, come and say hello!

And for all those southern hemisphere people – happy Winter Solstice! The days start getting longer again now. 🙂 And we’re on the upswing to Christmas. How did that happen already?

Colourfastness

Last week I sent an email off to Pam at Cottage Garden Threads to ask if she would be at the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair this week. Her reply came back to say that no, she wouldn’t be there, but that Catharina’s Country Crafts would have her stranded threads (not the perles) there for people to see and buy. This is great news, because I’ll be able to explore their colour range in real life, and get some to try out.

Later on, Pam emailed again to say that she had been reading my blog, and included the following response (which she has given me permission to share with you) about the colourfastness of their thread:

I can tell you that my threads have been industry tested to say that they are colourfast. In saying that, you can do bad things to make a thread bleed. Katie, my daughter has just designed and stitched a piece that has used the Waratah, and Cloudy Day.
I washed the finished piece in warm soapy water, rinsed clear and rolled in a dry towel. Hung out to dry. Steam ironed when dry and no colour shadow. Very pleased. Brenda Ryan, from Brenda Ryan Embroidery Designs has been using a large range of my threads, both stranded and perle 12, all have been washed and all terrific. I have several different processes that I put the thread through to ensure good colour quality and fastness.

That sounds very thorough! I’m really looking forward to trying some of these threads out – not just to see about their colourfastness, but also just to try them to explore the quality, the colours, and the variegations.

Cottage Garden Threads

Yesterday’s post about red thread brought an amazingly long and detailed reply from Suzy. If you haven’t read it, go and check it out! Suzy knows a lot about red thread!

She talked a lot about Cottage Garden Threads, probably because I mentioned the other day that I think I need to know more about them. So I had a little look on the web, and came up with the Cottage Garden Threads blog and website. They had a wonderful post with really nicely photographed skeins of their threads, which helped me to see the colours Suzy had talked about.

And so I was thinking, “I wonder where I can get my hands on some of these threads?” and then it occurred to me that next week (yes, that’s right, *next week*) I’ll be at the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair, and maybe, just maybe, I might find them there! What an opportunity! I hope I find some. 🙂

red thread

Following on from yesterday’s discussion of my favourite threads, I’d like to have a bit of a whinge. For me, the holy grail of thread is a good red. Whenever I see a new (new to me) range of threads, I look to see their reds. Quite often, they are very lacking.

While the range of pinks, blues and greens is often excellent, very often the reds leave a lot to be desired. When I found Cosmo Seasons threads earlier this year, I was not surprised to find that their selection of reds is rather lacking. Their greens, blues, pinks and even browns are great, but red… where is it?

Now, I understand why this probably is: red is hard to make colourfast.

But I want good reds! Red is probably my favourite colour, and I like to use it in my stitching (except in whitework – obviously!). I’m not a fan of fire-engine or orangey reds. I’m more your blood red, a bit dark, a bit brownish red type girl. Reds that are heading towards maroon, or cherry reds, with a bit of pink in them.

(Mind you, I hate pink – partly legacy of wearing a pink school uniform, but then I never liked pink before that either!)

In the DMC range, my favourite red is probably found in the 814, 815, 816 area. Yum! Years ago I designed some little ornaments which used DMC 75, which was a really nice red/maroon variegated thread. But almost as soon as I had liked this thread, they discontinued it! And so instead I had to swap to DMC 115, which isn’t *quite* as nice!

Are you stuck on red like me? What is your favourite red thread? (And is it colourfast?!)

your favourite thread

I was thinking this morning about what my favourite thread is. Much of the time I think this depends a lot on the purpose for which you want it. Different types of threads are suitable for different projects.

For me, perle thread is probably my all time favourite thread. That’s because it has a nice shine, is a non-divisible thread, and is available in a range of weights and colours. Of course I like using it for Hardanger, but also Portuguese whitework, and freestyle embroidery. If you give me a choice between perle thread and stranded floss in the same colour scheme, I’ll choose the perle version over the stranded floss version any day.

Gorgeous Stitches and Spice silk wound onto cardboard tubes

Another favourite of mine would have to be Stitches and Spice’s single ply silk. I just love its shine and the appearance of reeled silk. Naomi, who dyes this thread, has a lovely range of colours, and I love the fact that they have slight variation of tone (and sometimes colour) along the thread. It makes a lovely effect when stitching. When stitching with this thread, you can twist it for a different effect than you get if you make sure it lays completely flat (and not twisted). It means that you can get a range of effects.

I also do like DMC’s Color Variations threads. They have a great range of colours. And Cosmo Seasons have lovely colours, at a great price.

I recently received a set of Dinky Dyes silks. They are gorgeous, but I have yet to explore them properly. I just haven’t had time (what a surprise!) but I am looking forward to doing this in the future.

They’re some of the threads I like to use. What threads do you love, and why?

Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair

A reminder that in just over a week’s time, I’ll be exhibiting at the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair at Darling Harbour. It runs from 9-5 each day from 22nd-26th June.

I’ll be at Stand K39, so please come and visit me! I will be running a Craft Circle each day from 1:30-2:30, “Basic Embroidery for Left-Handers”. The class is free, but requires prebooking at my stand, and payment of $5 for the supplies.

Throughout each day, my colleagues and I will be doing demonstrations on our stand. So you’ll be able to catch me at various times demonstrating various forms of embroidery. I’m thinking I’ll demonstrate my Portuguese Whitework embroidery, but is there anything in particular that you’d like to see me demonstrate? Perhaps the Mountmellick knitted fringe?

Please come and say hello, as I’d love to meet you!

I Walked for Women

Well, I did it! On Saturday I completed 20km of the Walk for Women to support the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital.

I awoke early in the morning to the sound of rain. Oh no, not a rainy day! However, the skies cleared, and while there were some showers in the early section of the walk, it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting (a rainy day had been forecast).

My teammates set off from Coogee at 6:30am, when it was still dark. Two of them got cracking and set off at an amazing pace. The other two, who are not originally from Australia, decided that they were going on a Saturday stroll, sightseeing, taking lots of photos and generally having a fun time! They mosied on along – its a very scenic route – eventually making it to their finish point at North Sydney long after I had joined up with the other two there for my section of the walk. They had great fun, and completed their 30km, so that was all that mattered!

Ready to start the Hamlin Fistula Walk for Women

Belinda, me and Jenny at the North Sydney checkpoint. They've already walked 30km, and I'm just ready to start!

Belinda, Jenny and I left North Sydney at about 12:20pm, continuing with their very fast pace. At this point, we were the third team (no, it wasn’t a race!) to have already left North Sydney. We walked along the highway and then backstreets to our checkpoint in Chatswood. Here I met James Grainger, who is the head of the Australian Fund supporting the work of the hospital. He was manning the checkpoint, and it was great to meet him.

I did want to stop next door for a quick visit to Tessuti Fabrics, but there just wasn’t time! We were wanting to finish as quickly as possible to beat the likely showers. The less time we were walking, the less time we were likely to be rained on!

Jenny and Belinda not showing how much they were probably hurting!

From Chatswood we made our way through back streets to St Ives. Partway through this leg, my family turned up alongside the road, with posters that Rainbow Girl and The Bookworm had painted saying “Go Mum!” They were a lovely encouragement, and we didn’t know where they were going to pop up next!

Us and my cheer squad!

This section of the walk was VERY hilly, and so while I was still feeling very fresh, Belinda and Jenny were really feeling the effects of the first 30km that they had done before I joined them. So I scooted off ahead, with map in hand. In the back of Gordon, my daughters joined me walking, while my husband went off to get petrol (gas) for the car. It was lovely having them walk with me.

After about 2km, my husband came back and The Bookworm decided to join him again in the car. Rainbow Girl wanted to keep walking. We reached the next checkpoint and were greeted by quite a team of cheerer-on-ers! The Bookworm and Belinda’s kids were holding the painted posters, and we all received quite a cheer as we arrived.

Rainbow Girl and I arriving at the St Ives checkpoint

Signed in, toilet stop, and a drink, signed out and off again. Rainbow Girl had decided she wanted to keep going – to the end! It was another 5.5km, and she was adamant that she was going to do it! (She’d already done 2 hours of gymnastics training in the morning!) We really did not slow our pace for her, and she kept up just fine, at some points running ahead and *dancing* up the hills!

After the St Ives checkpoint, we started getting misty rain, but it was really just nuisance rain. If I hadn’t been wearing my Walk for Women hat, I might have noticed it, but because it kept it off my glasses, it made no difference to us. For the last 20 minutes of the walk though, it really did rain. But we had so little left to go that we didn’t let it bother us – and it wasn’t long enough to seep into our shoes, which is what we had all been dreading!

We arrived at the finish at Turramurra Anglican Church at 4:20pm, exactly 4 hours since I had joined my team at North Sydney. Rainbow Girl had walked 8.5km with us, and The Bookworm had done nearly 2. I was so proud of them!

Arriving at the finish, looking a little bit wet!

Me and my girls at the finish of the walk: The Bookworm, our main cheerer on the left, and slightly tired looking Rainbow Girl on the right!

We were the third group to finish, and eventually Jenny worked out that she and Belinda had done the whole 50km in about 8 hours, 20 minutes, excluding breaks and stops – Wow! That meant they broke the 6km per hour rate (and I and Rainbow Girl did too, for our parts).

The day was finished off with a BBQ dinner for families (who had provided us all with so much support – thanks!) and the walkers. Over the afternoon and evening, walkers kept coming in, finishing their walks to rousing cheers and clapping. It was a fabulous atmosphere.

Jenny and Belinda were quite shattered, but then they’d just walked 50km! I was feeling quite fine, actually, so I was pleased that I had set myself a reasonable distance that I managed well. The next morning, all of us reported that we had recovered well, and felt great! I’m still amazed that I felt completely normal, with no muscle strains or aches at all!

Thank you to all who sent messages of encouragement, and those who were able to generously donate to support the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. I was thrilled to receive some more donations on the day, and though I still don’t know what the total I have raised will be (I may never know seeing some donated through the website and did not tell me their $ amount), I think that I might get to $2500! Wow, everyone! Thanks for your AMAZING generosity!

It is not too late to donate, so if you would like to, please go to http://www.hamlinfistula.org.au/donate. Fill out the form, and put “Walk for Women YStanton” in the Event Field. If you are not in Australia, put 0000 in the Postcode field. If you are in Australia, donations of $2 and over are tax deductible. If you can then let me know of your donation, I can add it to my personal tally. This will mean that next year if they run it again (and Rainbow Girl wants them to, because she wants to be an official participant and walk 10-11km!) I will have a donation tally to try to exceed!

It was a wonderful, wonderful day, and I am so pleased to have been able to take part in supporting and raising money for the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. I would LOVE to take part again next year, and we are all trying to encourage Bec and Kym Abbott, who organised it all that we all want to do it again. They did an AMAZING job of organising the walk, and it was incredible to think it was the first time the walk had ever been run, because it all worked so seamlessly! Thanks to Bec and Kym for their personal sacrifices in organising it – it must have been so much work and effort.

I spoke with James (the fund head) at the BBQ and asked if they know what the online donation tally was up to. He didn’t give me a $ amount, but said that it will have been a fabulous fundraiser for the fund. They’re only a small team of about 3 or 4 people, in the Australian fund office, so its grass-roots fundraising efforts like this that make all the difference to them.

Thank you again to all who encouraged me and supported the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital on my behalf!

New hope

In thinking about today’s Walk for Women, fundraising for the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, I wanted to explore, through writing, what it might be like to be a woman whose life seems to end when a fistula arrives. I hope it might also help you to understand why I am walking today.

New Hope
I am a 15 year old Ethiopian girl. I am married to a nice man from my village. He is kind to me. I am due to have a baby very soon. My husband is very pleased.

I spend my days looking after my sister’s children. She is not well, so I look after them for her. I love them, and they help me with the work around the house and in the yard. I have never been to the large town over the hill. Time and cost doesn’t allow it. And if I went, I don’t know anyone there, so why go?
—
My baby is starting to come. My mother says that the pains that I am feeling are because the baby is going to be born soon. I am excited, but a little afraid of the pain. The baby seems excited too, with lots of kicks.
—
I did not give birth yesterday. I am still having pains. I wish they would stop. I cannot sleep, and if I try to eat, I can’t. I just want my baby to be born.
—
I have been having pains for 4 days now. I cannot feel the baby moving anymore. I am so tired, I just want this to end. I want to see my baby. My husband comforts me, but he cannot make the pain go away.
—
Today my baby was born. He is a beautiful boy. He looks just like his father. But I am so sad, as my baby was no longer living. I feel the deepest grief. My husband hugs me and comforts me, but I feel broken. He is very sad too, and I try to comfort him.

I am worried because my body is leaking. I cannot stop the urine from coming. Maybe this is normal for a few days after a baby is born. My mother just shakes her head and looks worried.
—
Today we buried our son. My husband and I are so very sad. My family and his family do not know what to say. Neither do we. My body is still leaking. I hope it stops soon.
—
It is now a week since my beautiful son was born. I mourn him. I am worried because I am still leaking. Maybe if I stay still, it will stop. I do not go out anymore, as I am embarrassed by the smell. My nieces and nephews ask me to go away when I come to them. My husband is worried.
—
My husband has not been home for some days. I do not understand where he has gone. He has never done this before.

My house smells. My clothes smell. It is embarrassing and I feel ashamed. I go out at night to the well to get water to clean my clothes, but they still seem to smell. Going out at night is frightening when I hear the hyenas.

My family do not visit anymore. I long to see my nieces and nephews. I am running out of grain.

I hope my husband comes home soon. I hope he is ok.
—
My mother visited me today. I do not see anyone anymore, except when my mother comes to visit. She is kind to me, but she does not like my smell. I can see that she is repulsed by me.

I spend all day lying on my side. It seems to stop the leaking, until I move. I find it hard to move my legs. They do not seem to work properly anymore.

I am so lonely. I want my body to stop leaking. It makes me so sad. I have lost everything: my husband, my baby, my nieces and nephews, my friends, my life. It is hopeless.
—
My mother has heard of a lady like me in the next village who leaked. She went away to Addis Ababa, and was fixed. She came back so happy. I want to find out how that happened to her. I told my mother to send my oldest nephew to the next village to find out. She said he can’t be spared – he is working on the harvest.
—
The harvest is done. My mother has said that my nephew is going to the next village tomorrow. He is going to find out about the lady who is now so happy. It will probably take him a few days to get there and back. It is a very dangerous walk, along a mountainous route. I will pray for him.
—
My nephew came back today. He brought amazing news. There is a place a long way away where they fix ladies who leak. I am so excited. The wet season starts soon, so my oldest nephew is going to take me before the roads become impassable. It will be a long walk. I am not sure that I can make it, seeing my legs don’t work properly anymore. Walking with my stick is very slow. My mother has arranged to borrow a donkey for me to go on. I am so happy I have cried all day.
—
My nephew is very kind. He walks slowly beside me, and talks with me. I cook our food. The days are long, and the nights are even longer. Hopefully we will be there soon.
—
We are still going. I am so tired. But we must get there soon. I must not lose hope. My nephew is anxious to return home before the rain.
—
Tomorrow we will be in Addis. I can hardly believe it. We are not sure where to go when we get there, but God will show us the way.
—
There are so many people here. I am embarrassed by my dirty clothes. I am embarrassed by my smell. Because people shun me, my nephew left me by the roadside and managed to find out where the hospital is, even though these people speak a different language to us. He thinks it is further up the road. I cannot get over how many people are here. The cars! The donkeys! The big houses! I have never seen anything like it.

But I am not here to see, I am here to be fixed. I hope they have room for me at the hospital. I hope our few coins are enough to pay for it. We do not have much left.
—
My nephew has gone home. I have been welcomed with open arms. I cannot understand the language they speak, but they found a girl who knows my language. She tells me what they are saying. A nice man explained why I leak, and what they are going to do to fix me. He was so kind. He asked me many questions and looked at me without my clothes on. He poked and prodded. It was embarrassing. I was glad the other girl was with me – she told me that they have to do this to figure out how to fix me. The man apologised and smiled at me kindly. He did not seem to mind my smell. He also does not want my money. I can’t believe they do not want me to pay for this.

My new friend is kind. She says that she used to leak like me, but they fixed her too. She will be going home very soon.
—
Before they fix my leaking, the doctors and nurses want to get my legs working again. This frustrates me, because I just want to stop the leaking, but I do understand. They have me doing exercises each day. It hurts a lot, but I can feel that my legs are moving better. Soon I will be able to walk without a stick.
—
Tomorrow they are going to fix me. I am afraid, as I do not know what they will do to me. I am also excited, because they say I will not leak anymore.
—
Praise God, I do not leak anymore! The nurses and doctors who care for me are so kind. I am so happy. I see the girls who come here leaking, and they look so sad when they arrive. I want them to know that soon they will be happy like me.
—
I am going home today. I have been dry for a week. The lady doctor, Dr Hamlin, has said that I will come back one day to have a new baby. She fills me with hope. I will tell everyone about this wonderful place. I am so happy! There is life ahead of me!

Thank you!
—

© Yvette Stanton 2011
This is a fictional account of what I imagine it could be like to find oneself with an obstetric fistula. I have never had one, nor even spoken with someone who has one, though I have visited the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. But I wanted to try to imagine what it could be like – the hope, turning to hopelessness, and then new hope. I apologise if through my ignorance I have demeaned or belittled the experience of women with fistulae. That is certainly not my intention.

If you would like to learn more about obstetric fistula, and the work of Dr Catherine Hamlin and the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, please visit http://www.hamlinfistula.org.au.

Treatment is provided free of charge to patients and is funded by donations. To donate, please visit http://www.hamlinfistula.org.au/donate.html, fill out the form, and as I am today taking part in the Walk for Women to fundraise for the hospital, please put “Walk For Women YStanton” in the Event field. Please give as generously as you can.

New book reviews

Time for a round up of new reviews of my books today. From Amazon US, we have…
Review by Claire Nardone on The Right-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion:

I’ve been doing needlework of all types for more than 40 years and this is the best all around handbook I’ve ever seen. Details are wonderful and it even has a diagram for a lefty.

Review by M. LeMay, on The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion:

Great book to have in a how to library–I’ve had to adapt right handed embroidery instructions over the years to left handed, or embroider right handed–finally a book that shows me. awesome!

From Amazon UK…
Review by Dekka, on The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion:

A gift for my left-handed wife – a 60ish grandmother. She loves it – has been taught (sometimes unsuccessfully) by right-handed people to embroider and knit…..strongly recommended for all ages.

Extract from a review by Brigitte Picart, on Ukrainian Drawn Thread Embroidery:

I was fascinated by drawn thread embroidery and the geometry in Ukrainian style. This book provides a step by step tutorial with both a clear drawing AND a clear photo of every step in the process so you can’t fail.

From Nordic Needle…
Extract from a review by Joy Lodge on Elegant Hardanger Embroidery:

An excellent book for everyone wanting to learn Hardanger. Also has tips to help the more expert …the projects are lovely, filling half of the 62 page book. I’m preparing to start two of them which is an indication of value of owning the book. There are some helpful sections when you have made mistakes with cutting and information about caring for your finished work, often not included with the instructions for the stitching.

Couldn’t find any new reviews of Mountmellick Embroidery: Inspired by Nature, so if you want to write one somewhere public, I’ll be happy to feature it here! In fact I’d be happy to feature reviews of any of my books here! Why not tell us why you love them?

mixed fibres: linen and wool

Ok, this is going to seem like a really weird post to some (maybe all!) but just indulge me, please.

There is one question I have for God, when I get to heaven: How is it that light can move as both particles and waves?

Until last night, I thought there was another one, but now I’m not sure that I’m going to need to ask him: Why does the bible say that we should not wear clothing of mixed fibres?

This comes from Leviticus 19:19 “Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material” and the more prescriptive Deuteronomy 22:11 “Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.”

Now, many laws that God sets out for his people in the Old Testament of the bible are for good reasons: community good, cleanliness and to stop illness spreading, and other things that on closer inspection seem to make some reasonable sense.

But I have long pondered why we are told not to wear mixed fibres. To me, it doesn’t make any sense. I have pondered the different properties of different fibres. Some are stronger when they are dry, some are stronger when they are wet. Some take dye well, some do not. Some absorb water and still feel (relatively) dry, and others feel wet very quickly.

Why would these properties mean that it is bad to mix fibres?

I was discussing this with my husband last night, and he couldn’t come up with any answers either. So we looked it up on the internet. There were all sorts of strange and funny suggestions as to why it might be, and then we happened upon this link, which quoted from what seems to be a scholarly journal (using the internet with a healthy deal of scepticism here – I am the wife of a librarian, after all, and I have it drummed into me that not all sources are good sources, not all are reliable…)

Ok, so having a look at that link, (and ignoring the advertising disclaimer at the top, because the mind boggles at the thought that some people can’t handle advertising that is not Christian…) it talks about the fact that it is wool and linen fibres. I’d never noticed this before, probably because the Leviticus reference only says mixed fibres, not specifically linen and wool.

According to the person posting on the forum (Bob10),

The combination of wool and linen (sha’atnez) is forbidden to the lay Israelite because it is a holy mixture and reserved exclusively for the sanctuary (e.g., Exodus 26:1) and the priest.

Now, if I look up Exodus 26:1, which talks about the preparations for the Tabernacle, it does mention linen, but not wool (or not in so many words). It refers to “finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn”. So how do we know this “yarn” is wool?

According to the article that Bob10 quotes, someone called Milgrom says the following:

We may assume that the thread of blue was made of wool. The ancients had great difficulty in dyeing linen because the colors would run, so all dyed garments are assumed to be wool.

And thinking back to my original ponderings and to discussions with my friend Zan who is a dyer, protein based fibres from animals e.g. wool and silk, are much easier to dye successfully than cellulose based fibres from plants e.g. cotton and linen. Therefore it makes sense that the linen was not dyed and the yarn that was coloured would have been wool.

And so it seems that God asked that the combination of wool and linen be used for the Tabernacle and the priesthood (see Exodus 26:1, 28:6, 39:29). Its not that its bad for us, or that the two different fibres are going to react with one another and perhaps cause the fabric to break down, its simply because it is something that God set apart for his priests. Wow – that’s fascinating – there really is a legitimate reason why we should not wear linen and wool mixed together.

As it happens though, as a Christian, I believe that the New Testament gives us two new and all encompassing laws: to love God and to love others (Matthew 22:37-39). I guess whether you think you should still follow the mixed fibre law depends on whether you feel that by wearing a combination of wool and linen would stop you from fully loving God and loving others. Personally, I think not, but it is an interesting law to ponder!

So now I feel that I have only one burning question for God. Maybe the problem of light acting as both particles and waves will be answered by science before I get to heaven, and maybe not.