Slowing Things Down

Herringbone stitch in various guises

Recently I have found enjoyment in hand stitching. Throughout most of my adult life, handstitching has been more of a chore than a pleasure. You know the sort of thing: sewing buttons onto school shirts, sewing ladders in tights (remember doing that because tights were so expensive?!?), darning socks because it cost too much to replace them when your son wore holes in them so quickly, although I did enjoy doing cross stitch when I lived in Somerset. However, I am enjoying sewing by hand, although nowadays I am not doing repairs, I am stitching for pleasure.

Several things have nurtured the seedling that grew into my sewing pleasure, including ‘meeting’ Stephie of Dawn Chorus Studio and Larisa of Stitching Notes during Artist’s Trading Card swaps organised by Ali of Very Berry Handmade and a growing interest in Dorset buttons. More recently, I have been watching and enjoying the work of Tilly Rose.

I don’t sit and sew by hand anywhere near as much as I would like to because there are always so many other things I want to do: knit, crochet, machine stitch. However, when I do make time for it, I find it so very relaxing. I am a slow stitcher, but that doesn’t matter as there is no rush for the creations I am working on. I have several projects on the go at the moment – probably more than is wise – and generally I find that my mood dictates which project to work on. I could pick up the silk scarf that I am embroidering by picking out a few discrete parts of the design or, perhaps, the chain stitch piece that I decided to begin sewing without any real idea of what it would be but I just wanted to have a go! Then again, I might add to my entirely hand-stitched crazy patchwork, or even the 1″ hexagons that I have been adding to slowly. This week, though, has been a new project.

A day or two before Peter and I went to Yorkshire, I joined a group on Facebook: TAST – Take A Stitch Tuesday. On Tuesdays, Sharon of Pin Tangle tells which stitch we will be working with. Last week’s stitch was Herringbone. You can see my stitched sample in this photo:

My sample of Herringbone stitch, including my first attempt at variations of the stitch

I had only ever stitched the basic herringbone stitch before working up this sample. However, after seeing some of the examples stitched by other members of the group, I decided to be brave and try doing something different with the stitch. I am quite pleased with the results but also with myself for trying something different: for so long I have simply not thought of doing more with a stitch. I am quite looking forward to having a go at this week’s stitch: Chevron stitch. I have never worked it before so watch this space to see how I fare!