stitching

Sewing the chapbooks in sunlight, and this evening we’ll read from the Odyssey, that great poem about craft, textiles, cunning. And love.

                        Some god first prompted me
to set my weaving in the hall and work
a long fine cloth.

I’ve enjoyed every step of making my little books but maybe stitching them has been my favourite part. Threading the blunt needle with red silk, drawing the signature and cover together, tying them off. John is just measuring a template for the cover labels and then we’re done. Not the Odyssey—Odysseus has arrived at Ithaka and been fed by Eumaeus, Telemachus has received gifts from Menelaus and Helen and is departing for home, and all the threads will be pulled together, as in any fine needlework, to draw the tale to its conclusion.

Twenty minutes later: and now, labels…

The soundtrack? Maria Callas and Johnny Cash.