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A very surprising article in the Wall Street Journal on American truckers who knit and quilt. Interesting that they are finding quilting and knitting good pastimes to while away the hours, doing something creative and productive. Something we’ve all known for a long time. I wonder if this will lead to truckin’ music which laments a dropped stitch rather than a lost lover…? When we started planning to go away for three months, a big question for me was what I was going to do with my business for that time. I couldn’t just up and leave, or temporarily shut it down, as the beginning of the year is a time when many new classes start, and often people rush to buy supplies for the new things they will learn that year. I also knew that my book would be out at around that time. I started to search for someone to run the business for me while I was away. I had a few ideas, but I soon found the PERFECT person. Belinda is one of the other mums from school, and her daughter is great friends with my daughter. She has a crafty bent (and I mean that in the nicest possible way!) so while she’s not a stitcher herself, she’s a creative person. I knew that she was very capable, and on top of all that, she’s just lovely. That was enough for me. So I asked her if she’d be interested in taking over the running of my business for me while I was away. She was. So just before we went, we had the big hand-over. I don’t think she wanted me to know, but my husband and I could tell that she was quite worried about it all. I would like to to report though, that Belinda has done a STERLING job. If you’ve contacted my business at any time in the last three months, chances are, it was Belinda who emailed you back, or spoke to you on the phone. Isn’t she lovely? Thank you, thank you, thank you, Belinda. I am so very grateful that God led me to the perfect person to run my business so admirably. You have been an absolute asset to me. I have loved working with you. Your happy, can-do nature and willingness to do all sorts of new things has been delightful. I knew that everything was in good, capable hands and I didn’t have to worry about a thing. Happily, Belinda found she enjoyed running a craft business so much that she will be launching her own soon. I’ll let you know when its up and running, as one way of me saying thanks to her. Today I have been going through the gazillion emails that my colleague received on my behalf while I was away in Ethiopia. There were only about 400 unread emails and probably three times that many that had already been read by her, but not yet by me… In the midst of that though, I found some more lovely comments about my left-handed book, The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion: a step-by-step stitch dictionary.
Thanks for the lovely comments on the book. I am thrilled and gratified to know that it is so helpful for you. If you want to know what all the fuss is about, please purchase your copy of “The Left-Handed Embroiderer’s Companion” today! 🙂 I’ve nearly finished the beading on the bodice of my dress. Just a bit more chain stitch and some sequins to add. I’m very pleased with how it is going. I am using the French embroidery beading technique as shown in Maisie Jarratt’s book “French Embroidery Beading: How To Bead”. The fabric is on a frame, so as to keep it all nice and flat, with no puckering. I traced the design onto the fabric with yellow dressmaking carbon so that it would stay put while I stitched, but be completely coverable. I have used Decora rayon thread because it was nice and shiny and I already had the right colour! The beads are mostly Maria George delica beads, and the accent blush pink ones are just something I’ve had in my beading boxes for ages, so I have no idea what they are. The beading is around the neck edge of the bodice. I’ve had a lovely time doing it, as it grows quite quickly, and looks very sparkly. Later edit: I forgot to mention that there are also Swarovski crystals in the petal-like shapes. Sorry about that! Ok, that’s not to say that life in Addis wasn’t life. But this seems so much more the daily grind! We have a family wedding to go to in a few weeks time. Both the dresses that I have that would be suitable, I can’t remember whether I wore either of them to the last family wedding, so methinks its time for a new dress! I made the girls one each before we went away, in preparation (hoping they wouldn’t grow too much in the mean time!), so I think after all that work, I deserve a new one too! I dreamed up an idea for a dress while wishing I was asleep on the plane on the way home. Somewhere over the north western edge of Australia, I guess. My idea was to have a cream yoke, with ruched band around midriff, and a black georgette floaty skirt. The plan was to embroider on the yoke. So yesterday we went shopping and of course we couldn’t find the perfect dress pattern – I seem to be adapting patterns more and more these days – but my husband found a Burda one that is adaptable to what I want, and what’s more, it was on special! We bought some lovely cream delustred satin (not the bridal satin – being silk, it was rather a lot more than I wanted to pay!), black georgette, and linings for each part. I decide to have beading on the yoke instead of embroidery – its an evening wedding – so designed that last night. I’ll be using a mix of beads, and some swarovski crystals. I want it to sparkle! So hopefully I will get the chance to start that today. My sister broke her wrist quite spectacularly last night, falling off her lounge while standing there to close the curtains. Well done. Thankfully we were home to look after her kids, while she and her husband went to the hospital. The Aviator (my nephew, mentioned in my last post) loves flags and was excited to see an Ethiopian flag sitting on our sideboard. Its actually for him, but we didn’t want to give the kids their gifts without their parents being there. So he’ll just have to wait a bit longer for that excitement. We also visited my Pa (grandfather) yesterday, as he had a stroke soon after we went away. He’s had to move into a hostel, out of independent living, so that’s been a big thing for him and my mother and aunt. It was good to see him, and find out how well he is doing. He’s having trouble finding the right words to use, which frustrates him no end. I really sympathise with this, at it was something that happened to me when I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. But it was lovely to see his new room, and the grounds that the hostel is in are lovely. Still haven’t found any 1 birr baguettes… We got home early yesterday morning. We flew from Addis to Dubai, had a layover there that included 5 hours sleep in an airport hotel – thank you Emirates Airlines! – then from Dubai to Sydney (14ish hours) on an A380-800 Airbus. My nephew (6 years) is a plane fanatic, and the A380 is his favourite. As families with children get to board first, when we got on, there was pretty much no-one else there yet. We got out the camera and took some photos for the Aviator (as he is known online). A member of the cabin crew asked us if we’d like him to take one of all of us together, so he did. We explained that we were taking photos for our nephew who is a bit of a fanatic. Just as we were nearing Sydney, the same crew member came over and said that he had asked the captain, who was happy for him to take a photo for our nephew of the cockpit. So off he went with our camera to take a photo for the Aviator. I hope he likes it! 🙂 This morning we were woken by my sister phoning to see if we are alive – yes, we are. I had woken a little earlier (then fell asleep again) and before opening my eyes thought “When are we going home?” then looked around the room and thought “Oh yes, we already are!” It is good to be home. Dad picked us up from the airport, and took us to their place for brunch with them and my mother in law. The girls were SO pleased to see them all. Last night we had chicken for dinner, prepared by my mother in law. Chicken!! This morning for breakfast if we have time, we are going to have bacon. And then at some point we’ll need to find out where we can get 1 birr baguettes locally… Hmmm… I think not! It’s good to be home! On Monday we went out to Debre Libanos Monastery. We had a tour of the monastery and as we were coming out of the building, a funeral procession was entering the grounds. There were many people gathered around the coffin as it came in through the gates. Our girls wanted to know what was happening, and we explained that it was a funeral and someone had died, and the people were all very sad. I felt very intrusive being there, and said as much to our guide. He said that it was a young man that had died. That only made me feel worse. He took us around to the back of the monastery, so that we could see the grounds. As we came around the other side of the building, the mourners were all approaching the doors, genuflecting, kissing the steps, wailing etc. The coffin was taken around the building once, while the mourners were paying their respects at the monastery doors. They then all headed away, probably to the home of the people who had lost the special young man. I think the custom is that mourning goes on for several days, with family and friends all visiting to pay their respects. Some of the mourners were professional mourners, I think. Afterwards they went back to the cemetery nearby, seemingly to wait for the next funeral. The whole process was very quick, and they were all there for only about 15 minutes. From what I could see, no one actually entered the monastery building itself at all. Perhaps they were there for the coffin/body to be blessed, and for the mourners to pay their respects to God, the family and to the man who they have lost. Traditionally, women here wear netelas (lightweight shawls/scarves) over their heads, which have a band of woven pattern on the ends. Usually, the scarf is worn with these bands at the side. The only time they are ever worn with this pretty band across the forehead is at funerals. It means that you can always tell if a woman has been to a funeral. It would have been interesting (though voyeuristic) to have had someone explain the whole process to me. I felt very uncomfortable being there, and pray that the man’s family and friends will make it through their grief ok. Yesterday we went on a trip out of town to Debre Libanos Monastery and the Portguese Bridge. These are on the road north to Bahir Dar. We had a driver and a tour guide, and the five of us piled in the back of a mini van. About half an hour out of Addis, our guide told us that we had just passed Kenenisa Bekele, the Olympian long distance runner and champion, and would we like to turn around and go back and try to meet him? There followed a short discussion about who this man was (to our shame, we’d never actually heard of him, but we established that he wasn’t the famed Haile Gebrselassie – known simply as Haile to Ethiopians) and that he was a world and Olympic champion. We decided that YES, we’d love to go back to meet him! So our driver turned around and went back. We got out and went across the road to where a house was being built – Kenenisa’s new home. He had come to inspect the building progress. There were a few young guys standing around in running gear, and our guide went over to them and explained that we would like to meet Kenenisa. One of the men was his brother and he asked us to wait while Kenenisa finished his inspection. Eventually, he came over to us. We shook his hand and congratulated him on his achievements (still not really having any idea who he was!) and had a quick couple of photos with him. I cropped out the rest of the family for privacy reasons.  Me with Ethiopian Olympic champion long distance runner Kenenisa Bekele What a surprising thing to have happen – we certainly didn’t plan on meeting an Olympian! The closest that we have come to such sporting fame before is that my elder daughter has met Liz Ellis (ex-captain of the Australian netball team), and my younger daughter has an ex-Olympic coach for gymnastics. We met an Ethiopian Olympic champion! 🙂 A friend of ours had planned to visit us, and was supposed to be arriving last Tuesday. Unfortunately because his flight from Luxor to Cairo was delayed, he missed his flight on to Addis. The people in the Ethiopian Airlines office in Cairo didn’t seem terribly interested in helping him, making promises about getting back to him, and never bothering. It was only due to his repeated pestering of them that a staff member finally got him onto a flight on Thursday, and he finally arrived on Friday morning. He spent time in Tunisia and Egypt, and found himself getting rather jaded with people who only seemed to want to rip him off. He did have one really nice taxi driver in Cairo who genuinely wanted to help him, giving him helpful information and teaching him a few useful Arabic words. It has been therefore really enjoyable for us to show him around a bit, and for him to see for himself that the people here in Addis are so friendly and aren’t all about ripping him off. Ethiopian people are lovely. He and I went for a walk this afternoon, and while we did have one fellow walk along with us and eventually ask us for money (I really and truly had none on me!) there were kids who came up to us and just said hello (wanting to practise their English) and shook our hands. As Westerners we are novelties to be enjoyed, especially by kids. We were almost back home when we found ourselves walking alongside a young Ethiopian man. He held up his phone and said something that we didn’t quite understand. It turned out that he wanted to take our photos! Our friend has strawberry blonde hair, so obviously that was something quite unusual to this fellow, and he wanted to record it for posterity. I imagine that our photos are tonight being shown off to his family and friends. A little odd to think of really! We have booked with our wonderful local travel agent Elias (of Mela Travel and Tours, here in Addis, who we HIGHLY recommend) to go to the Portuguese bridge tomorrow, and Debre Libanos Monastery. It is about a 3 hour drive north of Addis, so we will be heading out into the countryside once again. If our friend had arrived on the Tuesday as planned, he was going to go to the Simien Mountains for a few days. But disappointingly, all that had to be cancelled when he didn’t get here until Friday. There just wasn’t enough time to fit it all in. So going on our little day trip tomorrow is our chance to get him out of Addis, to see rural life. We are all really looking forward to it. It was something that I only thought of doing yesterday morning, so its a nice last-minute surprise bit of sightseeing. This morning was our last morning at church here in Addis. My husband had the chance to tell Catherine Hamlin how much we had enjoyed our tour of the Fistula Hospital. Again I shed a few tears saying goodbye to some people I will likely never see again (this side of heaven), and others who I may not see for quite some time. Goodbyes are always hard. My younger daughter was tired and emotional this evening. I asked her if she was just tired, and she said no. “What is wrong then?” “I just want to go home! [sob, sob, sob]” Poor thing. I assured her that we will be going home in only two days, and prayed with her. She calmed down, and seemed more content. Its hard for all of us, but for different reasons. We finished up at the school on Friday. I had two more author talks to do, which went well. They were for Grades 7 and 8, and in those classes there are some talented writers who were very interested. My bet is that one or two of them will become authors. My husband and I were farewelled at the staff morning tea, and though I really tried not to, I cried! We have had such a wonderful time here, and the school community were especially welcoming. To say goodbye to people we have known before, but gotten to know better, and to those who are new friends, was difficult. Most we will probably never see again (this side of heaven!) and some it may be several years before we do. The school day ended at lunchtime (unusually) as the afternoon was devoted to parent-teacher interviews. We met with each of the girls’ teachers, and found that both our girls have done exceptionally well with their schooling here. This was lovely to hear, as our aim was that they would simply be happy in Ethiopia, whether they made progress at school or not. The experience of life here was going to be just as much a learning experience as school. Our eldest found it difficult to say goodbye to friends, as she has made some strong friendships in the time we have been here. Addresses were exchanged. Our younger daughter surprised us by asking for a photo with one of her classmates in particular – it seems she finally did settle enough to make a friend! Both were given cards from their classes, with messages and drawings. Our younger daughter treasures hers so much that she wanted to hold it in bed that night, and even when we put it on the table beside her bed, a little hand kept reaching out to adjust it. She has come away with a new skill from our time here. Before she came, she could not hoola hoop. In the Kindergarten playground they always had hoola hoops and other play equipment for the kids. Our youngest learnt to hoola hoop so well that she can now do three hoops at once, while walking, stepping up onto low walls, and taking small jumps. She already does gymnastics, but we’re wondering if rhythmic gymnastics might be especially her thing! In the afternoon we went spent an hour with some of our new friends at their apartment, just relaxing a bit – we’ll really miss them. They arrived at the same time as we did, but they’ll be staying for several years. We went for coffee locally with one of the other Australian teachers. Then we waited for our taxi. It was very strange to drive out of the school grounds for the last time. I wonder if we will ever see it again? |
White Threads is the blog of Yvette Stanton, the author, designer, publisher behind Vetty Creations' quality needlework books and embroidery products.
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