I Can’t Sleep - Embroidery | Gentle Reading for Restful Sleep

Episode Date: February 19, 2024

Unwind with this calm bedtime reading as Benjamin explores the history and art of embroidery, helping you relax and ease the weight of insomnia. You’ll discover how this delicate craft has been practiced across cultures for centuries, from intricate hand-stitching to decorative techniques still used today. With his soothing cadence, Benjamin turns fact-filled storytelling into a peaceful experience that reduces stress and quiets the mind. There’s no whispering or hypnosis here—just gentle education designed to guide you into restful sleep. Press play, settle in, and drift into slumber. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Embroidery, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia – Embroidery. Happy sleeping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch. I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause.

With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast, where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled, Embroidery. embroidery is the art of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to apply thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials, such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins.

In modern days, embroidery is usually seen on caps, hats, coats, overlays, blankets, dress shirts, denim, dresses, stockings, scarves, and golf shirts. Embroidery is available in a wide variety of thread or yarn color. It is often used to personalize gifts or clothing items. Some of the basic techniques or stitches of the earliest embroidery are chain stitch, buttonhole or blanket stitch, running stitch, satin stitch, and cross stitch. Those stitches remain the fundamental techniques of hand embroidery today. The The process used to tailor, patch, mend, and reinforce cloth fostered the development of sewing techniques, and the decorative possibilities of sewing led to the art of embroidery. Indeed, the remarkable stability of basic embroidery stitches has been noted.

It is a striking fact that in the development of embroidery, there are no changes of materials or techniques which can be felt or interpreted as advances from a primitive to a later more refined stage. On the other hand, we often find in early works a technical accomplishment and high standard of craftsmanship rarely attained in later times. The art of embroidery has been found worldwide and several early examples have been found.

Works in China have been dated to the warring states period, 5th to 3rd century BC. In a garment from migration period Sweden, roughly 300 to 700 AD, the edges of bands of trimming are reinforced with running stitch, back stitch, stem stitch, tailor's buttonhole stitch, and whip stitch. But it is uncertain whether this work simply reinforced the seams or should be interpreted as decorative embroidery. Depending on time, location, and materials available,

embroidery could be the domain of a few experts or a widespread popular technique. This flexibility led to a variety of works from the royal to the mundane. Examples of high-status items include elaborately embroidered clothing, religious objects, and household items often were seen as a mark of wealth and status. In medieval England, opus anglicanum, a technique used by professional workshops and guilds in medieval

England, was used to embellish textiles used in church rituals. In 6th century England, some books, usually Bibles or other religious texts, had embroidered bindings. The Bodleian Library in Oxford contains one presented to Queen Elizabeth I. in 1583. It also owns a copy of the epistles of St. Paul, whose cover was reputedly embroidered by the Queen. In 18th century England and its colonies, with the rise of the merchant class and the wider availability of luxury materials, rich embroideries began to appear in a secular context. These embroideries took the form of items displayed in private homes of well-to-do citizens, as opposed to a church or royal setting. Even so, the embroideries themselves may still have had religious themes.

Samplers employing fine silks were produced by the daughters of wealthy families. Embroidery was a skill marking a girl's path into womanhood, as well as conveying rank and social standards. Ending. Embroidery was an important art and signifier of social status in the medieval Islamic world as well. The 17th century Turkish traveler Evlia Silebi called it the craft of the two hands. In cities such as Damascus, Cairo and Istanbul, embroidery was visible on handkerchiefs, uniforms, flags, calligraphy, shoes, robes, tunics, horse, trappings, slippers, sheaves, pouches, covers, and even on leather belts. Craftsmen embroidered items with gold and silver thread. Embroidery cottage industries, some employing over 800 people, grew to supply these items.

In the 16th century in the reign of the Mughal Emperor Akbar, his chronicler wrote in the famous Ayn Eakbari. His Majesty Akbar pays much attention to various stuffs. Hence, Iranian, Ottoman, and Mongolian articles of wear are in much abundance, especially textiles embroidered in the patterns of Naqshi, Sadie, Chican, Ari, Sardozy, Wasli, Gota, and Korah. The imperial workshops in the towns of Lahore, Agra, Phadipur, and omnibod. Turn out many masterpieces of workmanship and fabrics in the figures and patterns, knots, and variety of fashions, which now prevail, astonish even the most experienced travelers.

Taste for the fine material has since become general, and the drapery of embroidered fabrics used at feasts surpasses every description. Conversely, embroidery is also a folk art, using materials that were accessible to non-professionals. Examples include Hardanger embroidery from Norway, Mearska from Ukraine, Mount Mellick embroidery from Ireland, Nakhganshika from Bangladesh and West Bengal, Aitchi from Peru and Brazilian embroidery. Many techniques had a practical use,

such as Sashiko from Japan, which was used as a way to reinforce clothing. While historically viewed as a pastime, activity or hobby, intended just for women, embroidery has often been used as a form of biography. Women who were unable to access a formal education or, at times, writing implements, were often taught embroidery and utilized it as a means of documenting their lives. In terms of documenting the histories of marginalized groups, especially women of color both within the United States and around the world.

Embroidery is a means of studying the everyday lives of those whose lives largely went unstudied throughout much of history. Embroidery can be classified according to what degree the design takes into account the nature of the base material and by the relationship of stitch placement to the fabric. The main categories are free or surface embroidery, counted thread embroidery, and needlepoint or canvas work. In free or surface embroidery, designs are applied without regard to the weave or the underlying fabric. Examples include cruel and traditional Chinese and Japanese embroidery. Counted thread embroidery patterns are created by making stitches over a predetermined number of thread.

in the foundation fabric. Counted thread embroidery is more easily worked on an even weave foundation fabric such as embroidery canvas, eye to cloth, or specially woven cotton and linen fabrics. Examples include cross stitch and some forms of blackwork embroidery. While similar to counted thread in regards to technique, in canvas work or needlepoint, threads are stitched through a fabric mesh to create a dense pattern that completely covers the foundation fabric. Examples of canvas work include Bargello and Berlin Wool Work.

Embroidery can also be classified by the similarity of its appearance. In drawn thread work and cut work, the foundation fabric is deformed or cut away to create holes that are then embellished with embroidery, often with thread in the same color as the foundation fabric. When created with white thread on white linen or cotton, this work is collectively referred to as white work. However, white work can either be counted or free. Hard anger embroidery is a counted embroidery, and the designs are often geometric. Conversely, styles such as Brodery-on-Glaise are similar to free embroidery, with floral or abstract designs that are not dependent on the weeds.

of the fabric. A needle is the main stitching tool and embroidery, and comes in various sizes and types. The fabrics and yarns used in traditional embroidery vary from place to place. Wool, linen, and silk have been in use for thousands of years for both fabric and yarn. Today, embroidery thread is manufactured in cotton, rayon, and novelty yarns as well as in traditional wool, linen, and silk. Ribbon embroidery uses narrow ribbon in silk or silk-organza blend ribbon, most commonly to create floral motifs. Surface embroidery techniques such as chain stitch and counting or laid work

are the most economical of expensive yarns. Couching is generally used for goldwork. Canvas work techniques in which large amounts of yarn are buried on the back of the work, use more materials but provide a sturdier and more substantial finished textile. In both canvas work and surface embroidery, an embroidery hoop or frame can be used to stretch the material and ensure even stitching tension that prevents pattern distortion. Modern canvas work tends to follow symmetrical counted stitching patterns with designs emerging from the repetition of one or just a few similar stitches in a variety of views.

In contrast, many forms of surface embroidery make use of a wide range of stitching patterns in a single piece of work. The development of machine embroidery and its mass production came about in stages during the Industrial Revolution. The first embroidery machine was the hand embroidery machine, invented in France in 1832 by Holmobile. Posse Halman. The next evolutionary step was the Schifley embroidery machine. The latter borrowed from the sewing machine and the Jakard loom to fully automate its operation. The manufacture of machine-made embroideries in St. Gallen in Eastern Switzerland

flourished in the latter half of the 19th century. Both St. Gallen, Switzerland, and Plowen, Germany were important centers for machine embroidery and embroidery machine development. Many Swiss and Germans immigrated to Hudson County, New Jersey in the early 20th century and developed a machine embroidery industry there. Schiffley machines have continued to evolve

and are still used for industrial-scale embroidery. Contemporary embroidery is stitched with a computerized embroidery machine using patterns digitized with embroidery software. In machine embroidery, different types of fills add texture and design to the finished work. Machine embroidery is used to add logos and monograms to business shirts or jackets, gifts, and team apparel, as well as to decorate household linens, draperies, and decorator fabrics that mimic the elaborate hand embroidery of the past. Machine embroidery is most typically done with rayon thread, although polyester thread can also be used.

Cotton thread, on the other hand, is prone to breaking and should be avoided if under 30 weight. There has also been a development in free hand machine embroidery. New machines have been designed that allow for the user to create free motion embroidery, which has its place in textile arts, quilting, dressmaking, homeverting, furnishings and more. Users can use the embroidery software to digitize the digital embroidery designs. These digitized designs are then transferred to the embroidery machine with the help of a flash drive, and then the embroidery machine emboiteres the selected design onto the fabric. Since the late 2010s, there has been an exponential growth in the popularity of embroidery by hand. As a result of visual

social media such as Pinterest and Instagram, artists are able to share their work more extensively, which has inspired younger generations to pick up needle and threads. Contemporary embroidery artists believe hand embroidery has grown in popularity as a result of an increasing need for relaxation and digitally disconnecting practices. Modern hand embroidery, as opposed to cross-stitching, is characterized by a more liberal approach, where, stitches are more freely combined in unconventional ways to create various textures and designs. In Greek mythology, the goddess Athena is said to have passed down the art of embroidery, along with weaving, to humans, leading to the famed competition between herself and the mortal

arachne. A needlework sampler is a piece of embroidery or cross-stitching produced as a specimen of achievement, demonstration, or a test of skill and needlework. It often includes the alphabet, figures, motifs, decorative borders, and sometimes the name of the person who embroidered it and the date. The word sampler is derived from the Latin exemplum, which means example. The earliest sampler extant is a spot sampler, i.e. one having randomly scattered motifs of the Nazca culture in Peru, formerly in the Museum of Primitive Art, New York City. It is estimated to date from circa 200 BCE to 300 BCE and has worked in cotton and wool pattern darning on a woven cotton ground. It has 74 figures of birds, plants, and mythological beings.

Coptic sampler fragments of silk on linen and double running stitch and pattern darning have been found in the Egyptian burial grounds of 400 to 500 CE These are pattern samplers having designs based on early Christian symbols Samplers were known to be used by stitchers in Europe as early as the beginning of the 16th century although none that early have been found. A collection of 50 De Chados samplers was listed in the 1509 inventory of the possessions of Queen Joanna I,

Joanna I, 1479 to 1555, of Castile Spain. They were described as stitchery and deschilado, drawn threadwork, some in silk and others in gold thread. At the time of the inventory, they were in the care of her Chamberlain, Diego de Rivera, and his son Alonzo. But they have all disappeared. Early mentions of samplers in text include Skelton and Shakespeare. The oldest surviving European samplers were made in the 16th and 17th centuries. As there were a few printed patterns available for needleworkers, a stitched model

was needed. Whenever a needleworker saw a new and interesting example of a stitching pattern, they would quickly sew a small sample of it onto a piece of cloth, their sampler. The patterns were sewn randomly onto the fabric as a reference for future use, and the needle worker would collect extra stitches and patterns throughout their lifetime. The first printed pattern book, Fulm Oder Motor Bookline, was published by Johann Schrenzberger the Younger of Augsburg in 1523, but it was not easily obtainable, and a sampler was the most common form of reference available to many women. Pattern books were widely copied and issued by other publishers.

Some are still available in reprint today. The earliest English dated surviving sites. sampler, housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, was made by Jane Bostock, who included her name and the date 1598 in the inscription. Stitched with silk and metal thread on linen, it has pictorial figures above with border and all over patterns below. The museum has two other samplers, believed to date from the 16th century, one from Germany with religious motifs, and one from Italy with floral patterns and grotesques.

Both are worked in silk and linen. A Dutch sampler dated 1585 survives in the Netherlands Open Lücht Museum in Arnhem. A sampler in the Museum of London has two cut-work bands stitched in silk, gold, and silver threads, and 13 bands of Retichella whitework in white linen thread. The fourth band from the top has the initials ER, the Royal Arms of Queen Elizabeth I, and the maker's name Susan Negabry in bold letters. It is believed to date before the queen's death in 1603.

Because very few samplers from the 16th century have been found, it is not possible to generalize about their style and appearance. By the middle of the 17th century, English, Dutch, and German samplers were being stitched on a narrow band of fabrics six to nine inches wide. And woven linen, bleached or unbleached, is the foundation material of early samplers. As fabric was very expensive,

these samplers were totally covered with neat rows of stitches. They were known as band samplers and valued highly, often being mentioned in wills and passed down through the generations. These samplers were stitched using a variety of needlework styles, threads, and ornament. Many of them were exceedingly elaborate, incorporating subtly shaded colors, silk and metallic embroidery threads, and using stitches such as Hungarian, Florentine, Tend, cross, long-armed cross, two-sided Italian cross, rice, running, Holbein, Algerian eye, and buttonhole stitches. The samplers also incorporated small designs of flowers and animals, and geometric designs stitched using as many as 20 different colors of thread. Some were stitched partially or entirely in white work.

Band samplers were more decorative than the utilitarian random motif spot samplers, and stitchers finished them by adding their names, dates of completion, and sometimes teacher or school names. As the work of sampler making moved into schools in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, design styles changed. Alphabets and verses were added along with pictorial elements, such as architectural motifs, landscapes, and large potted plants. Educational themes included maps, multiplication tables, perpetual calendars, and acrostic puzzles. By the 18th century, samplers were a complete contrast to the scattered samples sewn earlier on. They became wider and more square, eventually with borders on all four sides.

Samplers were mainly school exercises during the 18th and 19th centuries and were almost entirely worked in cross-stitch. Design styles were increasingly influenced by Berlin woolwork, which became popular worldwide due to the availability of patterns initially emanating from Berlin, Germany. This style of needlework reached its height of popularity between the 1830s and 1870s. These samplers were stitched more to demonstrate knowledge than to preserve skill. The stitching of samplers was believed to be a sign of virtue, achievement, and industry,

and girls were taught the art from a young age. Berlin-will-work designs had naturalistic shading and more depth of perspective than the flat two-dimensional objects on traditional needlework. By mid-19th century, adult needleworkers were devising long and narrow-stitched samplers, having geometric patterns done in woolwork. The art needlework movement and elimination of samplers from female education brought about the decline in traditional sampler making that continued into the 20th century. Samplers are widely stitched today, some using kits purchased from needle workshops, some from chart packs, and many from patterns available on the internet or through email from designers. Patterns range from simple, using only one stitch, to complex, using 15 to 20 and more stitches. Designs range widely in style, from accurate reproductions of historic pieces,

to much more contemporary and modern styles, including subversive stitching. Popular topics include designs commemorating births and marriages, family trees, and mottoes of all kinds. Map charts are widely available in English-speaking countries in Denmark. These are often pictorial maps of local areas, whole countries, or even the imaginary realms of Tolkien's Middle Earth. Many sampler reproductions are also available, copying colors and imperfect stitches from the originals. The word sampler is sometimes inaccurately applied to any piece of needlework meant for display. However, the genre may broadly be said to include any needlework in sampler style with or without lettering. Materials used include Ida cloth, even weave, and linen fabrics

in cotton, linen, and man-made materials combined in more and more ways. and fibers from cotton floss to silk, rayon, viscous, and metallic. Cross stitch is a form of sewing and a popular form of counted thread embroidery, in which X-shaped stitches in a tiled raster-like pattern are used to form a picture. The stitcher counts the threads on a piece of even-weave fabric, such as linen, in each direction so that the stitches are of uniform size and appearance. This form of cross stitch is also called counted cross stitch in order to distinguish it from other forms of cross stitch.

Sometimes cross stitch is done on designs printed on the fabric, stamped cross stitch. The stitcher simply stitches over the printed pattern. Cross stitch is often executed on easily countable fabric called Ida cloth, whose weaves creates a plainly visible grid of squares with holes for the needle at each corner. Fabrics used in cross-stitch include linen, Ida cloth, and mixed-content fabrics called even-weave, such as Joblin. All cross-stitch fabrics are technically even-weave, as the term refers to the fact that the fabric is woven to make sure that there are the same number of threads per inch in both the warp and the weft, i.e. vertically and horizontally.

Fabrics are categorized by threads per inch referred to as count, which can range from 11 to 40 count. Counted cross-stitch projects are worked from a gridded pattern called a chart and can be used on any count fabric. The count of the fabric and the number of threads per stitch, determine the size of the finished stitching. For example, if a given design is stitched on a 28-count cross-stitch fabric with each cross-worked over two threads, the finish stitching size is the same as it would be on a 14-count Ida-cloth fabric, with each cross worked over one square. These methods are referred to as 2 over 2, 2 embroidery threads used to stitch over two fabric threads, and 1 over 1, one embroidery thread used to stitch over one fabric thread or square, respectively.

There are different methods of stitching a pattern, including the cross-country method, where one color is stitched at a time, or the parking method where one block of fabric is stitched at a time, and the end of the thread is parked at the next point the same color occurs in the pattern. Cross stitch can be found all over the world since the Middle Ages. Many folk museums show examples of clothing decorated with cross stitch, especially from continental Europe and Asia. The cross-stitch samplers called that because it was generally stitched by a young girl to learn how to stitch and to record alphabet and other patterns to be used in her household sewing. These samples of her stitching could be referred back to over the years.

Often motifs and initials were stitched on household items to identify their owner or simply to decorate the otherwise plain cloth. The earliest known cross-stitch sampler made in the United States is currently housed at Pilgrim Hall in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The sampler was created by Laura Standish, daughter of Captain Miles Standish, and pioneer of the Leviathan Stitch, circa 1653.

Traditionally, cross-stitch was used to embellish items like household linens, tablecloths, dish claws, and doilies, only a small portion of which would actually be embroidered, such as a border. Although there are many cross-stitchers who still employ it in this fashion, it is now increasingly popular to work the pattern on pieces of fabric and hang them on the wall for decoration.

Cross-stitch is also often used to make greeting cards, pillow tops, or as inserts for box tops, coasters, and trivets. Multicolored, shaded, painting-like patterns, as we know them today, are a fairly modern development, deriving from similar shaded patterns of Berlin woolwork of the mid-19th century. Besides designs created expressly for cross-stitch, there are software programs that convert a photograph or a fine art image into a chart suitable for stitching.

One example of this is the cross-stitched reproduction of the Sistine Chapel, charted and stitched by Joanna Lopinovsky Roberts. There are many cross-stitching guilds and groups across the United States in Europe, which offer classes, collaborate on large projects, stitch for charity, and provide other ways for local cross-stitchers to get to know one another. Individually owned local needle workshops, LNS, often have stitching knights at their shop,

or host weekend stitching retreats. Today, cotton floss is the most common embroidery thread. It is a thread made of mercerized cotton, composed of six strands that are only loosely twisted together and easily separable. While there are other manufacturers, the two most commonly used in oldest brands are DMC and Anchor, both of which have been manufacturing embroidery floss since the 1800s. Other materials used are Perocodden, Danish flower thread, silk, and rayon.

Different wool threads, metallic threads, or other novelty threads are also used, sometimes for the whole work, but often for accents and embellishments. Hand-died cross-stitch floss is created just as the the name implies, it is dyed by hand. Because of this, there are variations in the amount of color throughout the thread. Some variations can be subtle, while some can be a huge contrast. Some also have more than one color per thread. Cross stitch is widely used in traditional Palestinian dressmaking. Palestinian cross stitch is called Tatreus. In 2021, TATRS was added to the UNESCO list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

The cross-stitch can be executed partially, such as in quarter, half, and three-quarter stitches. A single straight stitch done in the form of backstitching is often used as an outline to add detail or definition. There are many stitches which are related structurally to cross-stitch. The best known are Italian cross-stitch, long-armed cross-stage, and Montenegrin stitch. Italian cross-stitch and Montenegrin stitch are reversible, meaning the work looks the same on both sides. These styles have a slightly different look than ordinary cross-stitch. These more difficult stitches are rarely.

used in mainstream embroidery, but they are still used to create historical pieces of embroidery or by the creative and adventurous stitcher. The double cross-stitch, also known as a Leviathan stitch or Smyrna cross-stitch, combines a cross-stitch with an upright cross-stitch. Berlin Woolwork and similar petite point stitchery resembles the heavily shaded, opulent, style of cross-stitch, and sometimes also use charted patterns on paper. Cross-stitch is often combined with other popular forms of embroidery, such as hard-anger embroidery or black-work embroidery. Cross-stitch may also be combined with other work, such as canvas work or drawn thread work. Beed work and other embellishments such as

Poyettes, charms, small buttons, and specialty threads of various kinds may also be used. Cross stitch can often be used in Needlepoint. Cross stitch has become increasingly popular with the younger generations of Europe in recent years. Retailers such as John Lewis experienced a 17% rise in sales of haberdashery products between 2009 and 2010. Hobbycraft, a chain of stores selling craft supplies, also enjoyed an 11% increase in sales over the year to February 22, 2009. Knitting and cross-stitching have become more popular hobbies for a younger market, in contrast to its traditional reputation as a hobby for retirees.

At Clothes Show Live 2010, there was a new area called Snitch, promoting modern sewing, knitting, and embroidery. In a department from the traditional designs associated with cross-stitch, there is a current trend for more post-modern or tongue-and-cheek designs, featuring retro images or contemporary sayings. It is linked to a concept known as subversive cross-stitch, which involves more risque designs, often fusing the traditional sampler style with saying,

designed to shock or be in congress with the old-fashioned image of cross-stitch. Stitching designs on other materials can be accomplished by using waste canvas. This is a temporary gridded canvas similar to regular canvas used for embroidery that is held together by a water-soluble glue, which is removed after completion of stitch design. Other crafters have taken to cross-stitching on all manner of gridded objects as well, including old kitchen strainers or chain-link fences. While cross-stitch is traditionally a women's craft, it is growing in popularity among men.

In the 21st century, an emphasis on feminist design has emerged with cross-stitch communities. Some cross-stitchers have commented on the way that the practice of embroidery makes feel connected to the women who practiced it before them. There is a push for all embroidery, including cross-stitch, to be respected as a significant art form. The development of computer technology has also affected such a seemingly conservative craft as cross-stitch. With the help of computer visualization algorithms, it is now possible to create embroidery designs using a photograph for any other picture. Visualization using a drawing on a graphical grid representing colors and or symbols, which gives the user an indication of the possible use of colors, the position of those colors,

and the type of stitch used, such as full cross or quarter stitch. An increasingly popular activity for cross stitchers is to watch and make YouTube videos detailing their hobby. Floss tubers, as they are known, typically cover WIPs, work in progress, FOs, finished objects, and haul, new patterns, thread and fabric, as well as cross-stitching accessories, such as needle-minders. Other accessories include but are not limited to floss organizers, thread conditioner, pin cushions, IDA cloth, or plastic, canvas and embroidery needles.