most of y’all know that one of my sisters is a knitter…(thanks for all the knitterly love, by the way. v. sweet!)
and that my other sister sews things. and paints. and crochets. AND raises a child. if you think this is easy, take another think. we took on little nephew e for 12 hours yesterday and then had to sleep for nearly the same amount of hours afterwards to recover.
but i turned 21 with no sign of picking up any crafty hobbies. my sisters began to worry. it really became a problem when i started bringing my beloved to family events. he and mr. rae and mr. elli would go off to play videogames. whereas i used to sometimes join them, now i was expected to stay with the womenfolk and do things with my hands. be useful. produce things.
so, for my 22nd birthday i was given an embroidery starter kit, 6 embroidery hoops, a stitch dictionary, and a whole mess of thread. happy birthday, krick!
this is the first thing i made. it is a tote bag given me by public library #1. i adapted a design i found in a book of indian embroidery at the library.
i also used it on a tea towel for my then future mummy-in-law, because it was so fun to work with all the colors. forgot to take a picture of that one, though. my darling grad school friend anne had always admired my tote, so when she moved to paris over the holidays, i whipped a similar one up to keep her company:
tah-dah. if i had known i would be starting a blog, i would have taken better photos, like anne stylishly hoisting hers over her shoulder as she runs to catch her flight, or my tote straining to hold all of my library books. maybe next time.
6 responses so far ↓
Thunk // February 18, 2008 at 11:43 am
Yay!
Once our camera is all better, we’ll have to send you a v. stylish pic of me in my v. stylish shirt that you v. stylishly embroidered.
Meg // February 18, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Oh, I just love those! Where ever did you find those designs?
Rae // February 18, 2008 at 9:21 pm
I like that my husbeast is mr. rae.
you are really funny…and good at embroidery (phew! almost had to kick ya out…
and I’m glad that you had a chance to spend a whole day with the little beasty. i found the bowtie by the way.
nova // February 19, 2008 at 11:32 am
Embroidery is one particular handcraft I have not yet tried. Your very stylish embroidered library tote makes me feel that I need to acquire some embroidery tools (and perhaps some embroidery skill, that would probably be very useful as well) poste haste.
Sarah // February 19, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I think if you ever get tired of teen fiction, you could totally hack it as an embroidery wunderkind.
xoxx.
ALSO, even though NY doesn’t involve as many chocolate croissants as Paris (and is therefore just a weensy bit less awesome) I still would still make a bag like this feel at home. Promise.
Deb // February 21, 2008 at 10:10 am
Hi. Your embroidery is wonderful, and I love your choice of the Indian-style work.
You sisters are ALL extremely hand-y! And now you can have your sisterly sewing/knitting/embroidery circle without feeling uncrafty. (I’m a friend of Elli.)
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