Incoherent Scribblings

Favorite Fabrics

For the last couple of weeks, fabric has been on my mind.

For example, when I was getting ready to stitch “Purr-plexed,” I saw a note that the kits were available with either Aida or Evenweave as the supplied fabric. The kit I bought contained Evenweave and when I stitched it, all of those “horizontal and vertical half stitches” made me grateful that my kit came with Evenweave.

Then, while browsing through some bulletin boards last week, someone posted the following question: “What is wrong with Aida?” I was intrigued by the question and read through the responses. The resulting consensus was there is nothing wrong with Aida. Whatever fabric you choose to stitch on is merely personal preference.

All of this fabric talk has led me to choose it for the subject of “The Stitching Blogger’s Question.” Therefore, I put forth the following question:

What is your favorite fabric to stitch on?

For a long time, 14 count off-white Aida cloth was my favorite fabric to stitch on.

Then I got new contacts, a better light in my living room, and tried Evenweave. When I first made the switch to Evenweave, my favorite all-purpose fabric to stitch on was 27 count white 100% cotton Linda Evenweave.

Recently, however, I have been stitching on different counts, using different colors, and trying out various fibers. From these trials I have learned so far that I don’t like anything smaller than 27 count (that 25 count Lugana is a real bitch!) and in fact, I really seem to like 32 count a lot. I find different colors fun, but think it is very important to do a floss toss beforehand, because sometimes colors that you think will go together, quite simply do not. Cotton fabric is nice, reasonably priced, and sturdy. I think a cotton-rayon blend gives the fabric an interesting “spring” and while linen is fragile and somewhat irregular, it really gives character to delicate pieces.

I agree that there is nothing wrong with Aida, but quite frankly my favorite cloth to stitch on is an Evenweave, though the count and color are entirely dependent upon what I want to stitch.

On Humor and Language

What signals fluency and true understanding of a language? Is it successfully mastering the four core skills of a language; reading, writing, listening, and speaking? Or is it impeccable grammar and an extensive vocabulary? In my opinion, it is none of those things. For I truly believe that unless you comprehend and appreciate its humor, you can never really master a language.

I have been learning German in one form or another for almost three years and while my reading and writing skills could use improvement, I can get by. I am able to carry on an intelligible conversation and understand the people around me, even when they speak with a thick Bavarian accent. However, when it comes to German humor with all of its wordplay and cultural references, I am still more often lost than not.

There is a very popular variety show here along the lines of Saturday Night Live. This summer, one of its skits was developed into a feature film called “Traumschiff Surprise.” A. and I watched this skit a few times and in its most basic form, it is a Star Trek parody. However, I always noticed that when we watched, there were things that obviously soared over my head: Not only would the audience be laughing, but out of the corner of my eye I would see A. smile and look at me to see whether or not I got the joke.

The same people (I think!) that did “Traumschiff Surprise” also did a movie a few years back entitled, “Der Schue des Manitus.” The first time I encountered this film I had only been learning German for a few months and at the time I didn’t sit down to watch it. However, it was on again a few nights ago and A. thought since I know more German now I should sit down and watch it with him. So I did.

“Der Schue des Manitus” is a parody of Winnetou, the most popular series of books (and films made of the books) by the 19^th century German author Karl May. Though he didn’t visit America until long after he wrote his books, May wrote adventure stories of the Old West and even today, his stories are quite popular with German boys.

Since “Der Schue des Manitus” is a parody, it had a lot of sight gags and slapstick humor which I believe translates into most any language. And truthfully, there was a lot of humor in this film that I really did understand. However, much like “Traumschiff Surprise,” there were also lots of cultural references and wordplay that, from those sideways glances A. was giving me, I obviously didn’t understand.

I doubt I will ever reach a level where I fully understand German humor, but that’s OK. One thing that I have learned while living with my multi-cultural partner is that even though he lived for so long in America there are still many things he doesn’t understand either… like when I had to explain to him what “cut the cheese” or “choke the chicken” meant.