Reflections

My order came in a few days ago, and the Lugana evenweave in the Reflections line is just beautiful! It looks even better than the image on the website, and that is saying quite a bit. Now the problem is that I want to stop work on everythng else and just work on THIS 🙂

Now that I have seen the actual material, it is just to beautiful to completly cover in stitches. Instead I have decided to alter the design that I was planning to use it for so that one will enhance the other. I better not give THIS one away, for it is probably going to be for my OTHER sister. Probably. If I can bear to give it away 🙂 I have already given away what I am making for one sister, and since I didn’t think and gave both of them the address to this blog, well, I don’t want to give them both away 🙂

Repaired link, Silkweavers and Great Lent

I heard from Silkweavers today, my order is ready and will be shipped tomorrow! They wait to hand-dye their fabrices until they have an order – which makes very good sense for a small company that doesn’t want to be left holding stock that isn’t selling. It’s kind of neat to think that when I am stitching on the Lugana fabric that I have ordered from them, that it was cut and dyed just for me.

The link to the English Cottage Sampler that I am stitching for my sister in the previous post has been fixed. I always enjoy all that goes into starting a new project.

This year Great Lent starts on March 14. For several reasons the West calculates the dates for Lent and Easter differently from us, thankfully I am not the one who has to determine when Lent starts each year.

Prior to the start of Great Lent we observe a period of three weeks called the Triodion, this is a time to start preparing for the journney of Great Lent. This has always been a special time for me, and I look forward to it each year. Lent is a time of increased prayer, fasting, almsgiving and repentance as we prepare for and look forward to the great and joyful news of the Resurrection of Christ – and though it is still some time before Pascha when we will hear, and sing, many times, the joyful Tropar of the Resurrection, part of me already thrills in anticipation.

New Project and Reflections

I just found out, or realized, that my sister is going to be getting her Habitat for Humanity house at the end of this year! This is great news, as she has been through two abusive marriages and lost her home both times. She has two teenagers and this will be a definate blessing, and indeed this week she finshes her pre-payment for the appliances. Some seem to think that Habitat houses are free, they are not, but they do make things possible that might not otherwise be. They also provide classes to teach people good money management skills and how to handle credit properly – I wish that I could go to those classes with her!

Anyway, as I haven’t been around my family for something like 32 years for lots of reasons that I won’t mention here, I want to do something for her as a house warming gift – for more than one reason. I have chosen to stitch Teresa Wentzler’s English Cottage Sampler as my housewarming gift. We have both seen a lot of things over the years since we were little girls in that house in Knoxville, and it seems a good way to perhaps bridge that gap a little. TW designs are very complex and beautiful, and it will be a challenge to get this huge design done by Christmas 2005… but I will see what I can do about it.

Reflections on a lot of things… but the specific Reflections referred to in the title is actually the brand name of a line of hand dyed linen, Lugana and Aida cloth for needlework made by Silkweavers.com in Mississippi. These are beautiful hand dyed fabrics for needlwork AND are Opalescent! I couldn’t resist and had to take out my credit card to call them and place an order. I am really looking forward to seeing what it will be like. Opalescent material is pretty easy to find these days, but not in this large range of colors, and the fact they are also hand-dyed makes them pretty unique to the best of my knowledge.

The Male Invasion

This seemed an appropriate title 🙂

I remember when I was growing up and learning to stich that first little X, and to crochet that first little row of single crochet (which has pretty much been left behind for needlework), absorbing the idea that such things were for girls/women only – that this wasn’t a masculine activity. I remember wondering about this, but at that age you don’t question such things very much.

I have known for some years now that there are men who do enjoy all of the fiber arts, and indeed have learned that in some cultures weaving and embroidery were once seen as strictly masculine activities and women weren’t allowed to even touch their working materials.

I am not sure why this was considered newsworthy, but on the local news this morning there was a report that men are apparently taking up knitting – and that in several stores they polled, men make up 1/5 of the customers and they even spoke of a website for men who knit.

I am not a knitter myself, but I do know there are men who are on all of my embroidery and needlepoint mailing lists – and they do beautiful work. It is good to see our brothers stepping up to the fiber bar, so to speak 🙂