Menopause stitching
Alyson Minckley and Judith Rodgers invited me to run a stitch workshop as part of their series, Talking taboo. They planned to run 3 sessions in 3 gendered pursuits - stitch, watercolour and ceramics - and invited participants to take part in the activity whilst talking about their experiences of menopause. They were to have been held at The Art Cohort, Bath in April, but were sadly cancelled due to the Coronavirus crisis. Alyson and Judith are now considering running them via video call.
In preparation for the session, Alyson and I both stitched samples. I made 3, each with a word or image that I associate with menopause. I haven't hand stitched for years, and I really enjoyed it. It's gestural in different ways to machine stitch; it's more considered, slower, meditative, like drawing or painting with stitch.
I was especially pleased with the lumpy, hairy, quilted one - (in)visible - but I quite like different aspects of each one.
Alyson and I also spent a couple of hours stitching side by side and talking about menopause as a practice run so that she could test the recording equipment. Sadly, we forgot to get someone to take a photo of us.
Betsan Corkhill of Stitchlinks, who has done extensive research into the therapeutic nature of knitting specifically, describes the 'side by side nature' of knitting and 'the permissible lack of eye contact' as factors which help people talk to others in difficult situations. I found that stitching alongside Alyson had a similar effect; being busy and focused on stitching enabled us to talk very freely.
I really hope we get to run the workshops although I'd much rather do them in a shared space rather than virtually.
Corkhill, B. (2014) Knit for health and wellness. Bath: Flatbear Publishing
Corkhill, B. (2005) Where are we now? Available at: http://www.stitchlinks.com/research.html (Accessed: 17 November 2019)
In preparation for the session, Alyson and I both stitched samples. I made 3, each with a word or image that I associate with menopause. I haven't hand stitched for years, and I really enjoyed it. It's gestural in different ways to machine stitch; it's more considered, slower, meditative, like drawing or painting with stitch.
I was especially pleased with the lumpy, hairy, quilted one - (in)visible - but I quite like different aspects of each one.
Alyson and I also spent a couple of hours stitching side by side and talking about menopause as a practice run so that she could test the recording equipment. Sadly, we forgot to get someone to take a photo of us.
Betsan Corkhill of Stitchlinks, who has done extensive research into the therapeutic nature of knitting specifically, describes the 'side by side nature' of knitting and 'the permissible lack of eye contact' as factors which help people talk to others in difficult situations. I found that stitching alongside Alyson had a similar effect; being busy and focused on stitching enabled us to talk very freely.
I really hope we get to run the workshops although I'd much rather do them in a shared space rather than virtually.
Corkhill, B. (2014) Knit for health and wellness. Bath: Flatbear Publishing
Corkhill, B. (2005) Where are we now? Available at: http://www.stitchlinks.com/research.html (Accessed: 17 November 2019)
