One Way?

7 September 2005 27 Comments

As you may remember, during the last round of one of the round robins I am in I was surprised when I saw that the person had not consistently stitched one way or the other throughout her robin. She started stitching one way (that way being opposite of how I normally stitch), but somewhere in the middle of her stitching she changed the way that her stitching went. Therefore when I stitched my square on that robin I came to the conclusion it didn’t matter which way I stitched, so I just stitched the way that I normally do.

However, a couple of weeks ago I got a message from another person in this same robin complaining about a certain request that I made of the other stitchers concerning my robin: Namely, I requested that all of the participants stitch “my” way (/// and then \\\) on my piece. Her complaint was that it is impossible for a stitcher to change the way that she stitches. Therefore, I had no right to ask a person that naturally stitched \\\ and then /// to “go against her nature” and require them to stitch “my” way.

For now I will ignore the fact that the tone of this message was much cattier than the way that I have explained it here. (Though I will say that it did piss me off!) Personally, I didn’t think that I had made an unreasonable request. This piece will hang in my home and I didn’t think it was too much to ask that everyone stitch the same way; that way being “my” way.

It has been necessary for me to change the way that I stitch from /// then \\\ to \\\ then /// before and I was able to do it. Granted, it did feel awkward at first, but the point is that I could do it: I just had to consciously remember to do it when I picked up my needle. It was no big deal.

However, it did get me to wondering, and so I present to you this week’s Stitching Blogger’s Question! And that is:

Which way do you stitch (/// and then \\\ or \\\ and then ///)? Can you (or if you haven’t done it before, do you think you could) change the way that you stitch temporarily if it is asked of you?

Filed under: round robins, exchanges, & gifts, sbq |