Obviously He's Never Met Anyone Like Her

And now for something completely different--the Yarn Harlot goes to Texas. 
http://www.yarnharlot.ca/2015/03/insane-in-texas/

Sadly, I can see my credit card companies being as uncomprehending over a trip to Houston, say, where there are multiple needlepoint shops. If that happens to me, I'll quote the Yarn Harlot--

"I'm not crazy.  I'm just very efficient."

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright March 25, 2015 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

A Reposting of Inexplicable Behavior

I rarely repost articles I've written for Blog but lately I've been rummaging around old articles, looking for particularly helpful ones to put in the Tutorials and Tips section.  When I came across this one, it seemed a good time to reference it again.  After all, summer's upon us, which means we can sit outside in public and stitch where the whole world can see us.  Want to sit outside and stop traffic with me?
http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2008/03/inexplicable-behavior-np-edition.html

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
@ Copyright 2013 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Just Wait Til The Needlepoint Shops Arrive at the Airport

Stephanie writes knitting books, runs knitting workshops and seminars, and travels a lot in the process. Here's today's travel thrill.
http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2013/04/26/maybe_you_dont_want_this_flight.html

Can't wait until the shops start heading to the needlepoint trade show in Dallas tomorrow!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
@ Copyright 2013 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.

Twister, Wild Hearts, and A Knitter Runs Amuck

Something must be in the air because I found two different versions of Twister on the World Wide Web today.  Here is the red and gray one, still underway...
http://lizartblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/twister-progress-4.html

...and here is the finished pink and ecru one.  Love it!
http://sukylady.blogspot.com/2011/01/continued.html

Twister is a charted design from the late Patricia Spencer.  If you are interested in seeing other charted pieces, you should look at what Scarlet Thread just added to their online shop.
http://stitchything.blogspot.com/2011/01/check-out-new-items-just-added-today.html

If you are a painted canvas fiend, you'll enjoy Squiggee's Wild Hearts.  They come in zebra, cheetah, and more.
http://squiggeedesigns.blogspot.com/2011/01/wild-hearts.html

Nimble Needle is showing off the new Birds of a Feather canvases they have in stock.  There's going to be a trunk show from the same designer there soon, too.  If you are sick of the gray winter outside, this is a good antidote.
http://thenimbleneedle.blogspot.com/2011/01/craving-for-color.html

Since we are visiting Nimble Needle, romantics will want to check out the two colorways of the new William and Kate royal marriage canvas from Designers Forum.  Their wedding is the end of April, which seems very close these days.
http://thenimbleneedle.blogspot.com/2011/01/royal-wedding-sampler.html

The final link is for those who need a laugh.  Knitters apparently suffer from the same problem needlepointers do when it comes to starting new things instead of finishing old ones.
http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2011/01/10/news_item.html

Maybe I shouldn't call myself the Master Enabler.  Maybe I am a virus in disguise, spreading needlepoint far and wide?

Jane, off to think it over here in Chilly Hollow

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Once Again, the Yarn Harlot Speaks Truth

The Yarn Harlot often says exactly what I'm feeling. Since she's a knitter, I occasionally find this odd. I don't knit, you know. I know how, but I don't much enjoy it. However, when you think about it, needlepoint and knitting are needlework, and we practitioners of these things have a lot in common, even if I can't wear my needlepoint on my feet--unless I do needlepoint slippers which I have decided I will avoid since I'd be too frightened to actually *wear* the things.

Come to think about it, how on earth do knitters talk themselves into wearing works of art like these?
http://mimoknits.typepad.com/knitting/2006/09/sock_season_soo.html

Back to what the Yarn Harlot was saying. Go read her blog and then come back. I'll wait. I need to do some more tent stitches on Holi's background anyway....
http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2009/04/04/the_opposite_of_alert.html

Back already? Gosh, I thought I'd get more done. You were fast! (Or I am a slow stitcher. LOL)

The Yarn Harlot describes our situation as needlepointers pretty well, doesn't she? We live in a place and time that doesn't value hand work. The only place we can go to find someone who really understands us is gatherings of other needlepointers, folks who know us, admire our work, understand the problems we've overcome and applaud us for it. But the yearly ANG Seminar isn't always close by, guild meetings are often at bad times for us, and even getting to a good shop isn't always easy. Thank God for the Internet.

If you belong to the ANG email list, if you have a favorite online shop that helps you out whenever you call or email, if you've taken a cyberclass or used the free charts and stitches available at various sites, well, you know the power of the Internet to fuel our creativity and our needlepoint. It's how we overcome the distance and loneliness and find folks like us.

It's how we all ended up here.

So the next time you visit your favorite blogs to enjoy the stitching of friends you have never met and maybe never will, the next time you place an email order for that canvas you have lusted for that is on sale at a shop a thousand miles from you, the next time a friend in another country sends you some local threads and you reciprocate, the next time you learn about new threads or designers or shops, think of how much the Internet has enriched your stitching life.

I'm grateful. I just hope that somewhere someone is capturing all this web NP for posterity. Or in 200 years folks will be piecing together the story of needlepoint in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries and they won't know who we were.

But our needlepoint will speak for us. So do the best you can. It's history you are stitching. Our history.

Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Inexplicable Behavior, NP Edition

I read the Yarn Harlot’s blog quite often. She’s very funny--for a knitter--and I find a lot of the things she runs into (a stash that grows by leaps and bounds and yet never has what you need when you need it, for example) in her knitting life resonate in my needlepoint life. So I enjoy reading what she blogs. Just today I read something there that got me thinking. The Harlot is finishing a new book on knitting just now and is in the final edit stage. Pretty soon the book will be ready and she’ll go on tour to promote it.

She’s going to set up the book signings a bit differently and explains why this way:

“It is my experience, that people don't have a clue about knitters. They think that everything we do is pretty nutty. If you don't believe me, rent a mini-van and drive to another country for a sheep and wool festival with four knitting friends. Hell, just say you have "knitting friends" and watch ordinary people glaze over. I used to think that it was a problem of stereotypes (which I still do) but now I've gained another layer of understanding. I think that knitters upset people because we lack a demographic, and because you don't understand knitting until you do it.

"Think about it. Imagine trying to finish the sentence "Knitters are...." and see what kind of trouble you can get yourself into. Can't say old, can't say young, can't say women. Can't say we all like wool, can't say we all knit acrylic. Can't say we all enjoy knitting socks, can't say that all of us see the pleasure in an afghan. We don't all knit for charity, we don't all have cats. We didn't all vote for the NDP, we don't all go to church. We don't all have grandchildren, we don't all go to Knit Night, we aren't all hip - or not hip. We don't even all stash yarn or knit in public. We are almost impossible to describe, and the things we have in common aren't really visible. Now try "Knitting is...." and you'll have the same trouble. What are you going to say? Fun? Easy? Hard? Challenging? Meditative? Cheap? Expensive? No matter what you try to say, a thousand exceptions are going to crop up and ruin your point. The truth of all of it is (I think) that the answers are so complicated because they have to do with what we've learned about knitting and how the practice of it has influenced our thinking and behaviour."

Sound familiar? Look at your NP friends and what you all like to stitch and try to sum them and it up and you’ll have the same trouble. The Harlot has an advance copy of her new book at her house (it’s called “Things I Learned From Knitting….Whether I Wanted To or Not” by Stephanie McPhee and I think I’m going to buy this one) and she goes on to explain:

“While I was carrying it around this weekend (Yeah. I know, but it's sort of a big deal to me) I was talking to someone who clearly wanted to be kind to the little author with her silly book, but totally could not get what it was about. Once we had established that there were no patterns and no instructions for knitting, he was clearly at an impasse about what the hell could be in it? "Humour and Philosophy about knitting" I said, and he looked at me exactly like I had said it was full of "the crushed and dried entrails of a wildebeest with my personal diary written in blood". It was, I realized, inexplicable to him. Just like a bunch of knitters partying in a yarn shop, or travelling to a knitting event, taking over a coffee shop or filling a bookstore, it was inexplicable knitter behaviour. Next to the stereotypes, it's probably the biggest thing that knitters face. They can't define us, so they can't understand us, so they ignore us, or stare. Now, this is not a call to arms (or needles). We are never going to get them to understand us. Instead, I have realized that the way that non-knitters find us inexplicable is an invitation. I can't be the only one who, upon realizing that they don't get us and don't care that they don't get us (in fact, they don't think about us at all) suddenly develops an urge to be as absolutely inexplicable as possible. “

If you want to read what the Yarn Harlot said in full, go to the link below and scroll down until you find her 3/24/08 entry.

http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/

Now back to the inexplicable behavior part. The Yarn Harlot finds all this an invitation to have knitters be themselves in as many ways as possible in public. I think when it comes to needlepointers, we are going to use the invitation to reach out, to ask folks if they’d like to try it, if they’d like something stitched just for them, if they just want to sit and watch a bit and talk about making something with your hands.

Try it. You might find issuing invitations to the NP party fun.