Updated April 18, 2023,
If you surveyed 100 people at the ANG Seminar later in the summer and asked them why they stitched, you’d get lots of answers. People would tell you about how it engages their creativity, how it relaxes them, how it’s a companion, how it’s a comfort. But one word you are unlikely to hear any of them say is “work.”
Even people who make their living at needlepoint probably wouldn’t call it work, because we stitch because we love it not because we make a living at it. At those times when I’m overwhelmed with deadlines, the actual stitching isn’t work — it’s a joy. And it’s those same things you say it is.
So how come book after book has in its instructions these words “Work the stitch . . .”?
Take note, over and over again in books, magazines, and instructions you see “work.”
You don’t see “make” very often. You only see “stitch” almost as a break from the omnipresent “work.”
So why have we been stuck in a rut, for 40 years or more, that takes what’s a pleasure, a passion, and a joy, and turns it into something that isn’t often associated with those words?
No doubt it goes back to older uses of “work” which essentially meant making something and that didn’t have today’s connotations of repetition, drudgery, and duty. But while our commonplace use of the word “work” has changed, our use of it in needlepoint has not.
And it should, when we say work do we convey the joy we get from stitching. Do we turn people off because it sounds dull and lacking in creativity?
Getting rid of the word “work” in our instructions won’t change the world of needlepoint, but it will help.
About Janet M Perry
Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family
Wrought = work. It’s on our samplers. I don’t have a problem with the word, it’s just finding the time away from my paid work, housework, and yard work to work a piece.
This made me chuckle and remember back when I used to use the word “execute” in my verbal directions. My associate, Linda, had to point out to me that the connotation probably wasn’t what I had in mind on my stitch guide. I still try to use it every now and then as a knee jerk reaction, just to get a rise out of everyone!
Randi —
I love this. I’ll probably remember it at random times — it’s just too good!
Keep Stitching,
Janet