White Threads

a left-handed a-ha! moment

I think I had an “a-ha!” moment yesterday. I was reading on the Anything Left Handed website, that many left handers think that they have adapted to the right handed world, but when they try truly left handed products, life is so much easier for them. Conversely, when right handed people use left handed products they find out how difficult it is for left handed people to use right handed products.

There was some info about left handed scissors, and how when using right handed scissors, left handed people don’t have the same control or dexterity as right handed people. I was thinking about how when cutting anything paper or cardboard, I automatically want to use my craft knife rather than scissors. I find that I have infinitely more control of a knife than scissors. (At uni I studied Graphic Design. One of my lecturers was so impressed with my cutting skills in my model-making subject that she nicknamed me “tricky fingers”.)

It made me wonder whether if I used left handed scissors, maybe I would find cutting MUCH easier? Is that why I have always preferred using a knife rather than scissors, wherever possible?

exploring left handedness and embroidery

I have been thinking a lot about left handedness and its effect on learning embroidery, since my Left Handed Day post. I decided to explore it a little bit more in a larger forum. As a member of the Country Bumpkin Forums, I posted there asking about the left-handedness or otherwise of members there. I have a poll to try to find out how many people are left handed, right handed or ambidextrous. As of this morning, I’m still the only leftie there.

One of the forum members suggested I take a look at the site for
Anything Left Handed. I had heard of it but hadn’t yet visited. Having had a quick look, it looks like something I will have to explore further later in the day. It would be interesting to see if they have some good left-handed embroidery and dressmaking scissors.

I remember that I had some left handed scissors when I was younger, but somewhere along the way they have disappeared. I particularly hate doing lots of dressmaking cutting out, because my hand gets so sore from holding my right-handed dressmaking scissors. The finger holes go the wrong way, so they cut into my hand, and are very uncomfortable.

I knew that left handed scissors have the finger holes going the left handed way, but what I didn’t realise until recently, was that they also have the blades flipped, so that the top blade comes down on the other side! I guess that this is supposed to make it easier to see what you are cutting. It would be interesting to try to see if its much better.

Something I’ll probably have to try!

embroidery in surprising places

Since I found such a lot of amazing embroidery in Portugal, and not having known that I would, I have been wondering if there are other places in the world where there is a surprising amount of traditional embroidery.

I guess if you went to Hardanger in Norway, you’d expect to find some Hardanger embroidery if you were looking for it. If I went to Scotland, I’d search out Ayrshire embroidery.

But are there other places that you have been where you have been surprised to find lots of traditional regional embroidery?

more thoughts on teaching left handed embroidery

When right handed teachers teach left handed people embroidery, it is common that they get the lefties to sit in front of them so that they can see it in “mirror” to what the right handed people do. Many lefties say that works ok for them. I’ve really only ever learnt from books and by figuring out things, so I can’t comment on how it works personally.

As a left hander myself, I prefer to teach left handers while being next to them, so that they can see exactly how to do it, without having to mirror it. And I have certainly found that left handers respond with relief and joy when they find out that their teacher is left handed too.

Just stirring the possum here….

I have a question for right handed embroiderers: If your teacher was left handed, would it be ok with you if you sat in front and mirrored it yourself from what they were showing you?

I can imagine that for some, it would be fine. Many could cope with that ok. But others would find it difficult. And sometimes classes are hard enough, having to be on a steep learning curve to figure out something new, without the added challenge of having to do it “the other way round”.

So why is it ok to expect left handers to have to do that?

As I said, just stirring the possum… 🙂

Tips for left handed embroiderers

Today is International Left Handed Day, which caught me completely by surprise. I didn’t know that we got a special day to celebrate our left-handedness! I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do today to celebrate…

I am a left handed stitcher. I am also a left handed embroidery teacher, which is reasonably unusual, I think. Whenever I begin an embroidery class, one of the first questions I ask for the day is “Are there any left handed people here?” There are usually one or two, and they are always so pleased to have a like-handed teacher! I encourage the left handers to sit together so that I can teach them both as left handers rather than them having to learn right handed and then flip it.

When I teach to a general class or in my books, I teach right handed. In a class, that means that I have to visualise doing the stitch the left handed way, and then mentally flip it so that I can teach it the right handed way. I work my way around the room, demonstrating each stitch to groups of two or three people. This means that everyone can see close up what is happening, and that everyone gets nearly one-on-one attention. It also means that I can teach the left handed people specifically with left handed instructions. Its wonderful, because I can just show them the same way that I would normally stitch!

I have wondered whether there is a market for left handed embroidery lessons – lessons for left handed people only. Perhaps there’s not a large enough market? Leftie embroiderers, what do you think?

Six top tips for left handed stitchers
1. Left handed stitchers can stitch as beautifully as right handed stitchers, and sometimes we can do even better!
2. Learn to be adaptable. You probably already are, because left-handed people just have to be!
3. You don’t always have to flip right handed instructions. Sometimes, turning the work 90 degrees is enough. For example, if the right handed stitchers work from right to left, left handers can turn it 90 degrees so that they are instead stitching from bottom to top, or vice versa.
4. If you prefer to flip, and you need a book’s diagrams flipped so that you can follow them, photocopy the diagrams onto photocopy acetate and turn them over to the back. That way, the diagrams will be flipped so that you can use them. Use them in conjunction with the original written instructions, substituting right for left and vice versa.
5. When working with a light, have the light shining over your right shoulder, or from the front at the right. This way, your left hand won’t get in the way of the light as you stitch.
6. If you have to do a lot of cutting with dressmaking scissors, its probably worth investing in some left-handed dressmaking scissors. The finger/thumb holes in regular dressmaking scissors are angled for right handers, and can cause left handers pain if they use them for too long. Fortunately, embroidery scissors are usually designed so that their holes can be used by left or right handed people.

If you have other tips for left handers, please share them!

let the games begin!

We don’t have a TV. We haven’t had one in the 12 years (on Sunday!) that we have been married. We haven’t wanted one, and have turned down the donation of one many a time.

I don’t miss having a TV at all. No, that’s not quite true: the only times I miss one are when I am too sick to read or sew, or when the Olympics are on.

With the games starting tonight, I suggested that we might like to invite ourselves over to my mother-in-law’s to watch the opening ceremony. So we had to hunt down a TV guide and find out what time it was on. We eventually found the TV page buried in the local newspaper, and it turns out that the coverage of the opening ceremony doesn’t even start until about 10pm. That’s way too late for me!

So we won’t be watching it.

I said to my younger daughter tonight (who is 4, so has no real concept of what the Olympic Games are) that we should go around to Nanny’s to watch some of the games. She said, “Out the back of her place?” Daddy said, “Yes, out in her back room.” She looked confused. I said, “Not in Nanny’s backyard. We would go over to her place to watch it on the television. The Olympics are in China.” She laughed and slapped her head and replied, “I thought you meant that the Olympics were in Nanny’s backyard!”

Ah, no.

We will have to see if we can borrow some lounge in front of someone’s telly while they are on though. It would be good for Miss 4 to see some of the gymnastics as she absolutely loves her gymnastics classes. And Miss 7 does remember seeing a little of the Athens games (on Nanny or Grandma and Grandpa’s TVs), so it would be good for her to see some more too.

Not being a very sporty family, a bit of watching of a wide range of sports certainly won’t hurt.

a stitcher complying with cabin luggage regulations

On our recent trip overseas, one of the things that was a constant source of pleasure to us was that we were travelling with cabin luggage only. No big, heavy check in bags. It meant that we took less, had to carry/lug less, and had less stuff to keep track of. It was very liberating to travel light.

We took booster seats for the kids with us, and these also fitted into our luggage. We’re relishing the thought that next time we travel overseas (and it won’t be for quite some time) we won’t have the car seats, so our luggage can be even more compact.

We had to carefully think things through and plan, so as to comply with all the cabin luggage regulations, but it worked very well. The hardest thing for me was figuring out what to do about embroidery needles and a cutting implement.

I ended up taking a nail clipper for babies which was very tiny. It had no nail file (which airlines do not like!) and was only about 4cm long so didn’t really look like anything special. I taped two tapestry needles to it, so they’d all go through the xray together. I figured that if it was confiscated, I was ok with that, and would just purchase needles etc at my destination if I needed them. It was never ever questioned, though I went through airport Xrays at least 5 times.

In the end though, we were so busy sightseeing, and then at the end of the day, writing in our diaries, that I never even ended up stitching anything. Oh, apart from a few clothes alterations for my children’s clothing when they informed me that the waistbands were too big… Why didn’t they tell me *before* we left?

where I have been

I have been AWOL for some weeks, but I have a good excuse! We went on a family holiday to Paris, Portugal, Spain and Hong Kong Disneyland.

We started with three days in Paris – which is not nearly enough, but we did pack a lot in. We stayed in the Latin Quarter, which is a lovely part of Paris. It was wonderful to be able to enjoy summer fruit such as peaches, plums and nectarines. We also enjoyed croissants for breakfast and baguettes for lunch. Yum! Among many other things, we saw a fabulous exhibition of Valentino clothing at the decorative arts museum. What that man can do with fabric is just incredible!

We then flew to Lisbon and spent a few days there. I particularly loved Monasteiro dos Jeronimos, a monastery spectacular Manueline architecture. We hired a car and drove up into the north of Portugal. We stopped off at towns along the way, having a night here and a night there. Then we came back down through the middle of Portugal, with our final night in Evora.

While in Portugal I did some research for a future book on embroidery. There is so much lovely embroidery in Portugal. We had a great time in Portugal, and found the people there to be wonderful, generous people.

We then drove across to Andalusia in the south of Spain. We were based in Seville, and from there explored Cordoba and Granada. It was HOT HOT HOT! The Moorish architecture was fabulous and we took hundreds and hundreds of photos. In some of these palaces etc, you just didn’t know where to look. You’d think “this is amazing” and then the next room would be even better.

From there we drove back to Lisbon and flew via London, to Hong Kong. We stayed at Disneyland and our kids loved it. It was perfect for their ages, and was nice and small, so easy to get around. Our kids were treated as minor celebrities, due to their complexions. They were stared at, photographed, picked up, kissed, passed around, pointed at, whispered about etc all day. It was funny at the beginning of the day, but by the end it was wearing a bit thin. We could sort of understand why celebrities punch photographers. It was unrelenting…

We had a great time, and are finding the return to the cold Sydney winter a bit of a shock!

Embroidery in Portugal

In case you didn’t know, there is a profusion of embroidery in Portugal. An amazing range of stuff, and all exceptionally beautiful.

Will post more soon, but just wanted to make sure that you didn’t think I’d fallen off the face of the earth. No, just around the side of it…

Beating around the bush

I have now finished my projects for “Beating Around the Bush”. I still have to write all the blurbs to go with them, but at least the projects are done. I’m not sure that I’m allowed to show them to you yet.

About 5 years ago, I used to teach an embroidery class at my local community college. The ladies in my class discussed going to the next “Beating Around the Bush” as a group. I seem to remember that I made some comment about wanting to teach at it one day. And then it didn’t run again!

Well, a new one is finally being planned for October next year, and I have been asked to teach Mountmellick, Hardanger and Merezhka at it! Its great when you work hard to reach your goals!