Around the Interwebs

* Alice Munro—a fabulous short story writer from Canada—won the Nobel Prize a few weeks  ago. Someone stitched her face, of course!

* Women’s voting in the last election represented in feminine craft at Jezebel, so it must be feminist:

* More awkward reporting about cross-stitch, “In counted cross-stitch, the artist copies a pattern freehand, creating a design with X-shaped stitches on clean, unmarked fabric,” and awe that a man did it. 

* Meant to give you a head’s up on summer reading: 

* And Christmas crafting…

* Embroidery Traditions are Thriving in Central China

Fortunately, young Chinese girls don’t need to have embroidery skills to find a husband any more. But the backward folk in Central China still do it:

Hunan Provence
Ethnic peoples, such as the Tujia, the Miao, the Dong and the Yao, have dwelled in the west and south of Hunan for many generations. They have created several renowned textile crafts that are regarded as treasures of traditional Chinese culture.
 For instance, there is a branch of the Yao ethnic group called Huayao - or "Flowery Yao" -because they are known for their special and colorful clothes as well as outstanding cross-stitch embroidery.
 The women always carry their needles and embroidery work with them so that they can make cross-stitch whenever they have time.

And even in China, you can’t escape the “country” patterns:

“Images of flowers, Mandarin ducks, golden sunsets, and rainbows transform plain cloth into something extraordinary.” (That joke would work better if it were Mandarin geese.)

Unsurprisingly the article laments the kids today who won’t learn embroidery and begs people to take it up.