White Threads

Mountmellick: knitting with four strands

This is a technique that was discovered by one of my students up at Maitland recently.

For the traditional Mountmellick embroidery knitted fringe, we generally use four balls of knitting cotton together to provide a very full fringe. Rather than dividing a single ball into four, the student wondered if she could use two balls, and take the ends from the outside as well as the inside of the ball, thereby knitting with four strands.

So she got herself two balls, and went home that night to try it out. By squashing the balls and folding up the cardboard tube inside the balls, she was able to make it small enough to pull the tube out from the centre of the ball.

She was then able to successfully knit with the outside ends and the inside ends of the two balls, thereby easily using four strands. An ingenious method!

We have knitting cotton that is perfect for Mountmellick work, available from Vetty Creations’ online shop. It is completely matt, is not fluffy, and has a good twist. By purchasing two balls, you can try out this fabulous technique!

Each ball comes with two patterns for making the Mountmellick knitted fringe. Our book Mountmellick Embroidery: Inspired by Nature by Yvette Stanton and Prue Scott, also features a third method which is the most traditional method of producing the fringe (NB: only the edition with the cover shown has this third method – the first edition does not). It has step-by-step instructions, with words and diagrams for each step.

Thanks to Judy for working out this great technique!

busy busy

Way too much to do today, sorry! Getting orders ready, getting ready for the show. Having fun!

I hope you are able to enjoy some embroidery today. I don’t think I’ll get the chance until late tonight. But I do hope to do at least a little bit. 🙂

designing covers

I am going to be an *awful* tease today. On Friday afternoon I designed a highly possible cover for my new Portuguese whitework book. I need the cover for publicity purposes for the Sydney Craft and Quilt Show in a few weeks time. But its too early to show you here, as I don’t even have a release date for the book yet. (Unfortunately, there’s still a heap of work to do…)

So if you come along to see me at the craft fair, (Stand K39) you should get to see it. And you can sign up to be notified when the book is available for purchase.

I’m sorry but I’m not going to show the cover to you yet. 😉

One week to go!

Embroidery by patients at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. All their care is provided free of charge. The patients sell their embroidery, basketwork and other crafts as a way of earning pocket money for items like soap.

There is only one week to go until the Walk For Women, raising money for the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia. Its a 50km walk from Coogee to Turramurra, in Sydney, on 11th June. Given my health issues over recent years, I’ll be doing just over 20km of the walk from North Sydney to Turramurra. It will probably take me about 4 hours.

I visited the hospital with my husband when we were living in Addis, and it is the most amazing place. Without completely going into the gory details, a fistula is a devastating childbirth injury that usually results in a stillborn child, and the mother being incontinent of liquid and/or solid waste. In a country with practically no medical intervention available during labour, these injuries are all too common. Due to the detestable nature of the injury, it most often leaves the woman outcast from the society she lives in, and sometimes even from her family.

The only treatment for a fistula is surgery. The Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, which is funded solely by donations, treats thousands of these women each year, giving them a second chance at life. Many go on to live normal, happy lives and have further (live) children. The hospital was started by Australian doctors Reg and Catherine Hamlin in 1974 to treat these women. Reg died some years ago, but Catherine, now in her eighties still powers on. We met her on several occasions in Addis and she is an amazingly gracious woman.

Many of the women walk for days to get to the hospital for treatment. Sometimes it takes years of begging to gather the bus fare in order to get there. I’ll only be walking 4 hours in the walkathon, and I won’t be doing it with a fistula. It puts into some perspective what these women have to deal with.

I’d like to ask you to consider sponsoring me in the walk, to support the hospital. I understand that in this day and age, many of us already give to worthy causes, so if your dollars won’t stretch any further, I completely understand. But if you’d like to donate, its a great and worthy cause, really changing the lives of women in east Africa (not just Ethiopian women, as some come from further afield).

You can learn more about the hospital at http://www.hamlinfistula.org.au. You can donate at http://www.hamlinfistula.org.au/donate.html. Please enter “Walk for Women YStanton” in the Event field, and if you’re not in Australia, please put 0000 for the postcode. If you see me in person, I also have a donation book where you can give me real money or a cheque, or fill out your credit card details if you prefer. For Australian taxpayers, all donations of $2 and over are tax deductible. ALL donations, whether small or large, make a difference!

I don’t get notified of the donations that are made through the website, so if you choose to give in that way, I’d really love it if you let me know, so that I can add your kind donation to my personal tally, and be encouraged by your support.

Thank you for your generosity!

mad rush is on

The countdown to the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair is on. Its not long to go now (22nd-26th June), and I have a lot to do to get ready for it!

My most favourite task of all – and one that I need no encouragement to do – is to get more stitching done on my Portuguese whitework tablecloth. I need to put together a book cover for the book for promotional purposes at the show, and I’m hoping to feature the tablecloth on it. So I have to stitch it! And then I have to design it – another joyful task!

I worked out how the stand would be set up months ago, and now its just a matter of making sure I have all the products I need to fill it. This involves checking of stock, making up of extra kits, deciding on quantities etc.

Anyway, I have stitching and organising to do. Please excuse me. 🙂

arthritis and embroidery hoops

Yesterday I had an enquiry about the wonderful embroidery hoops with stands that I sell:

I wanted to ask whether the 8 inch is the one you find best to use. I looked up White threads again, and saw that you said you can order in other sizes. I have inflammatory arthritis in a number of my finger joints (and problems with other vertebrae) and presently use a 4 inch hoop (no stand). I must say I like the idea of the wider hoop, I thought you said once you also have back problems, so hopefully the hoop makes life easier. Have you used the hoop plus stand successfully when sitting on a low lounge chair as well as on a firm upright chair? I know you said the height was adjustable, so hopefully this allows both. Are these made in Australia?

My answer:
I use hoops that are either 7inch or 8inch (I have both). I have an 11inch (I think!) that I use occasionally. I too prefer smaller rather than larger hoops. Having a stand will mean you don’t have to reach around the side of your hoop to hold it (as you are probably currently doing with your 4 inch hoop). This will probably help your arthritis immensely – having the stand to hold your hoop instead of your hands. Even without arthritis, I find that holding a hoop really stiffens up my hand and makes it sore.

With both hands free, you can keep them both moving more, and also access the entire hoop much more easily. So it doesn’t need to be quite so small as you’re obviously used to.

Yes, I use the stand successfully on our lounge, my office chair, dining room chairs, train seats, swimming pool spectator benches… you name it! It works on them all, and yes, as you say you can move the height up and down.

They are not made in Australia. I think they are German. They are lovely smooth wood – very good quality.

I hope that might answer some of *your* questions too, about these lovely embroidery hoops with stands. I use mine as often as I can, as it is such a pleasure to use. I will have these hoops and stands with me at the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair at Darling Harbour from June 22-26, so you can see them for yourself, and even see me using one. If I happen to run out of stock because they’re so popular, I’ll happily take an order for you and post it to you after the show.

If you ever have any questions about the products we sell here at Vetty Creations, please contact me with your questions. I’ll be only too happy to answer!

thread sample

Recently I was contacted by a thread company whose threads I had heard of but never seen, but had been wanting to try. They told me a bit about their threads, invited me to join their designers program (no thanks – I am not in the business of promoting specific brands of threads on the front cover of my books…!), and said they would send me a sample.

I replied to them, thanking them and saying that I was looking forward to receiving the sample.

It arrived the other day. Hmm…

If you were trying to promote your threads to someone who had never seen them before, don’t you think you’d put your best foot forward? Don’t you think it would make sense to send them something that would knock their socks off with its amazing beauty, and make them drop everything because they just HAD to try it out?

Or, would you send them a revolting coloured waste-product brown colour? Something that immediately makes the recipient wonder why the thread company even bothered? Something they would not be able to find a use for in any but the most obscure circumstances.

You know, if they’d sent me something gorgeous, I would have stitched something up with it to show you all. I would have told you all the things I loved about it. You might then have also become enthused about the thread and rushed out to try it for yourself. But unfortunately for them, that’s just not going to happen.

Sometimes people make me very confused.

Prices changing very soon

Today is your last day of the current prices for Vetty Creations products (unless I get too bogged down and I don’t get all the changes up in time for 1st June – Sydney, Australia time!). Most products themselves will not change in price, it will just be the postage component that increases most of the time. However, as we list our product prices with postage included – to make it easier for you to know exactly what you’re going to be paying – it won’t be obvious to you what part is actually increasing.

If you want to take advantage of the current prices, you’ll just need to get your order in before I put the new prices up on the Vetty Creations website on Wednesday (Sydney time).

I did warn you a couple of weeks or so ago about this price rise, so hopefully you’ve had the time to think through what you would like to order, and can now place the order.

As I said before, I really don’t like having to increase prices, but as I’ve been absorbing postage increases now for some time, its gotten to the point where I can unfortunately no longer do that. 🙁

So get your order in today! Don’t delay!

weekend whitework

I had the most marvellous weekend. On Saturday we had good friends from Ethiopia (though they are Australian actually) over for lunch and served them a yummy Vietnamese dish, which we figured they’d appreciate because Asian style food can be hard to concoct in Ethiopia. I don’t know that fish sauce makes it to Addis – I certainly never saw any! We had a great time and I was pleased to find that gluten free self saucing puddings do work, even when you also take the egg out!

Yesterday I did heaps of stitching on my Portuguese whitework, getting quite a number of squares and rectangles done. It was while embroidering on the weekend that I realised how VERY much I am enjoying this form of embroidery. It is just so satisfying. I love the elegant drawn thread work. I love the pretty bullion motifs. I love the white. I love stitching it. I think it is absolutely gorgeous, and I enjoy every minute of it.

I suddenly realised that I am getting a lot more enjoyment out of this embroidery than I have in a long time. That’s not to say that I haven’t enjoyed the embroidery I have done over the last while – I definitely have. But I am just enjoying this SO much more. Its like the enjoyment levels have just gone up a notch from high, to even higher!

I came to see that I have a new favourite form of embroidery: Portuguese whitework. How happy am I! What a joy to have a job I adore so much!

no turmeric dyeing

You’ll be pleased to know that I didn’t get any turmeric or berbere (bright red spice mix with paprika and chilli type colouring) on my tablecloth yesterday. In fact I didn’t get any embroidery on it either!

I did some planning for the surface embroidery – worked out the beginnings of a chart for it to go in the book, and ummed and aahed about which motifs to use where. I think I’ve come up with a combination I like, but I might just need to “let it sit” a little longer.

The Ethiopian food I cooked for our friends’ Ethiopian night turned out fantastically (if I do say so myself…!), and people really enjoyed trying it. Our friends who are back from Ethiopia at the moment put on a really good night all about their time in Ethiopia. In terms of textiles, they had a beautiful embroidered tablecloth (which I don’t think we added any “special” extra bits to with our food!), and my friend was wearing an amazing contemporary version of some traditional Ethiopian clothes. It was quite beautiful. I might see if I can get a photo of her in it to share with you all.

Hopefully I’ll managed to “get” some embroidery onto my tablecloth today. Stay tuned…