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Welcome to Arachne's Silken Web -- Theresa Racht and Cynthia Aquila -- friends and avid stitchers from New York City. Stay awhile. There's lots to see and enjoy.

NEW DESIGNS!

We are happy to announce that our designs are now availabe from both Norden Crafts and Hoffman Distributing!

Inside Arachne's Web
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July 02

Remember Things Past

Cynthia and I belong to a NYC stitching group called The Metrostitchers. One of The Metrostitchers' newest traditions is 'Remember Your UFOs' day, July 4th. The idea is to exhume one of those UFOs languishing in the back of a closet or at the bottom of a drawer and spend some time on July 4th stitching on it. Who knows, you might find you finish it!

So last night I braved the back of the closet where I know many of my UFOs lurk. I found many (but not all) of them, including Forget Me KNot In Stitches 'A Secret Garden Needlebook' (the piece I will honor with a few stitches - it's nearly done) and Mirabilia's 'Winter Queen' (the first large linen piece [and only second linen piece ever] that I started). I also found Arachne's Silken Web design WIPs!

Yes, I found an almost complete freebie chart that will now be finished and released very soon. I also found a design that just needs the chart tweaked, fiber and fabric selected and a model stitched. It's very close to being ready for release. I was very excited by these finds, let me tell you!

Best of all -- both designs are especially suitable for fall release. So Arachne's Silken Web will also honor 'Remember Your UFOs' this year.

Do any of you have any of our designs as UFOs? Let us know if you do and whether you decide to join The Metrostitcher's in 'Remember Your UFOs' event.

Theresa

8:41 AM GMT | Read comments(0)

June 28

Arachne's Latest Adventure

We're really excited to announce that many of our designs are now part of Hoffman Distributing's catalogue! Numerous needlework shops worldwide primarily buy their designs from Hoffman, so it will be much easier for your LNS to carry our designs. That's a good thing!

It also was quite an adventure filling the initial purchase order! Living in a NYC apartment means we don't have a basement, garage, attic or even a spare bedroom or closet for storing chart inventory. We solved our storage dilemma by using a storage room I rent a couple of blocks from my Manhattan apartment. Our charts keep company during most of the year with my extensive collection of Christmas ornaments, other holiday ornaments, family photo albums, decorative items and framed prints that I currently don't have room to display and craft supplies. Wonder what they talk about there in the dark?

To fill Hoffman's order, we first had to retrieve the charts from storage, print and kit additional chart inventory, then package them all up for shipping. It's an amazing amount of work, and you must double and triple check the count - just like when you stitch, come to think of it. At one point I had a 34" tall stack of charts in my foyer waiting to be shipped to Hoffman! Once I boxed them up, I still had to get them to a local post office. How did I do this without a car and without getting a hernia? Using my trusty grocery cart, of course! Just picture it: wheeling a grocery cart piled with 5 large flat rate priority cartons, each weighing about 27 lbs., 5 blocks to the nearest post office, including getting it up four sets of stairs. At least it wasn't raining that day!

Take a moment to see the results of all that effort by visiting our designs at Hoffman. Don't forget to let your LNS know that they can now add our designs to their Hoffman orders.

Theresa

9:47 PM GMT | Read comments(0)

June 03

Designer Perks

One of the really nice perks we experience as designers is an opportunity to try new products. Vendors will provide us with samples of new fibers or fabrics to 'test drive' so to speak, often before they are readily available in retail shops. Obviously one of the reasons for such largesse is to entice us into using it in new designs. Naturally, shops are hesitant to stock new products if designers don't incorporate them into new designs right away. On the other hand, there's a bit of a catch-22 here as well: designers don't want to use something in a new design that isn't readily available in the shops. One solution to that conundrum of course is to provide for a substitute in the design instructions. But it's still hard for something or someone new to get picked-up by designers. We're a little bit conservative and set in our ways, I guess you could say. That doesn't mean we don't try the new product out!

At the moment, I'm experimenting with a Rainbow Gallery product called Mandarin Floss. For all you stitchers interested in alternative 'green' fibers, this is made from 100% bamboo and is hand washable. It is sold in 6-ply strandable 20 yard (18.3 meter) skeins. Stitching with it is a real joy. I'm achieving great coverage (2 strands on 28 Ct. linen) and finding that there is minimal twisting and knotting compared to either silk or cotton floss. It's incredibly soft to the touch and lays smoothly and easily. In fact, railroading stitches has never been so easy as with this fiber. When making satin stitches, I usually have to use a laying tool and very taut fabric in Q-snaps to get proper coverage, but I've been able to create wonderful satin stitches in hand simply by railroading.

My experiments are strictly doodling, although they might turn into a freebie chart. Will I actually use Mandarin Floss in one of our new designs? Well, you'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, why don't you buy a couple of skeins in your favorite color and try it out on one of our freebie charts? You might be pleasantly surprised!

Theresa

10:50 PM GMT | Read comments(2)

May 27

The Charleston Sampler Guild
Ann Hart of the Charleston Sampler Guild in Charleston, South Carolina, contacted us recently with a request to share our free chart from the Spring Online Needlework Show with her fellow stitchers. We were happy to giver her permission and asked her to tell us more about the guild. Here's what she said:

The Charleston Sampler Guild, small though we are, was born out of a sampler symposium that was held here in early 2002. Charleston is a tremendously historic city and has among its treasures the oldest continuous museum in the country. Although there are not a great many southern/Charleston samplers being displayed out in the world in general, the museum has a nice collection, which was the seed for this symposium. It became evident that there are a number of women in the area who are extremely interested in samplers and Charleston samplers in particular. That interest became the Charleston Sampler Guild.

The guild meets and stitches at It's a Stitch, an LNS owned by one of the guild's founding members, Margot Anderson, and some friends. The shop specializes in knitting yarns and needlepoint canvases, but Margo "is willing to order anything a needlewoman could want or need," Ann notes.

Do you belong to a local guild or stitching group? We’d love to hear more about it.

8:32 AM GMT | Read comments(0)

May 19

Five Audiobooks to Listen to While You Stitch
I usually stitch with the TV on. Unless I'm interested in the show, it just serves as background noise. I'm not really following what's going on since the story is told through the action and the actors' expressions, not just dialogue. So occasionally, I like to listen to audiobooks while I stitch. My favorite genre is detective story/thriller/espionage for a book I haven't read. While there may be a lot going on, I can usually follow the plot well enough. (Although I do rewind when my mind starts to drift.) I also like to listen to some books I've read. But for any audiobook, the narrator is crucial. When his or her voice doesn't appeal to me, it's a deal breaker, even for an audiobook I'm interested in. I'd love to listen to some of Neil Gaiman's books that I've read. But he narrates them and I don't like the sound of his voice!

Here, then, are my suggestions for audiobooks to listen to while stitching (or any other activity like walking, driving, exercising, cooking):

Christine Falls by Benjamin Black. A thriller about a pathologist who uncovers "a web of corruption in 1950s Dublin " The story is somewhat plodding, but the narration by actor Timoty Dalton made it a good listen. He really captures the world-weary, disillusionment of the pathologist. With that Irish brogue, I could listen to him read the phone book.
The Assassins Gallery by David L. Robbins. Also a thriller. This one is about an assassination attempt on FDR in 1945.
Middle of Nowhere by Ridley Pearson. A Seattle detective investigates the brutal attack on a female cop while a contentious unofficial strike hits the department. A good thriller well-narrated by the author.
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron. This is one of my absolute favorite books. I highly recommend that you read it first to really savor this marvelous story -- historical mystery and romance set in Barcelona that is "a moving homage to the mystical power of books."
The Golden Compass, the first in Phillip Pullmans' His Dark Materials trilogy. Although this is my favorite of the three books, I particularly enjoyed the audiobook because the dialogue is dramatized by a full cast of actors. Really kept my interest.

I just started a new onek, Restless by William Boyd. It's another historical mystery/thriller and seems promising. I'll let you know if I think you should add it to your list.

Cynthia

So, do you listen to audiobooks? Tell us about your favorites.

9:52 AM GMT | Read comments(3)

Arachne's Silken Web

461 Central Park West #3D

New York, NY 10025

Phone: (212) 316-1514

Email: designs@arachnessilkenweb.com