Passionate About – Stitching
All stitched up
Time consuming and stimulating to the grey matter, cross stitch is an age old hobby that is gaining popularity, and not only among women
Meeting Moya King is a bit like meeting a younger Miss Marple, but her passion lies not in amateur sleuthing, rather in the somewhat surreal challenge of cross stitching. This ancient craft was known in the Middle Ages as Opus Pulvinarium, or cushion work, and involves working patterns and designs from crosses.
“It’s better than sex,” Moya boldly claims after eulogising about this somewhat solo, sedentary and very safe activity. “I know it sounds strange, but place me in front of a range of coloured skeins (threads) and I literally tremble with physical excitement.
This is a hobby with so many different factors: there’s the heightened anticipation of starting, the continuous joy of working with beautiful textures and colours and, in the end, there’s the pure and always exhilarating satisfaction of making something that will hopefully last longer than a lifetime”.
I was eager to be indoctrinated into this land of ‘home crafting’, something Moya has now taken to extremes by turning her hobby into a business. “When I first moved here I found it very difficult to find all the threads and things I needed to keep my hobby going, neither could I buy proper fitting clothes so I had to make all my own dresses and jackets. I then had a huge amount of materials and sewing kits etc which took up an enormous amount of space in my home so I had to open a shop or move to a bigger house. It’s now a joy to come into work every day and work with all these lovely materials.”
As she starts to eulogise further on the wonders of working with metallic threads, I spot a stunning display of her meticulously crafted framed samplers. These examples of a once lost ‘ladies art’ will no doubt be Moya’s ‘stitching’ legacy for the next generation. She also hosts a keenly attended weekly ‘Stitch and Bitch’ session in her shop, it’s a morning when locals bring along their sewing and knitting for the exchange of ideas and gossip.
Is it, I ask, the sole domain of dear old ladies cross stitching panels of posies? “Absolutely not,” responds Moya, puckering up a bit at my stereotyping. “There is a huge cross section of cross stitchers out there, from young girls to teenagers, 30 somethings to 50plus, and it’s not just women, we do also have men who have discovered the calming yet challenging effect of sewing and making things. We also carry magazines devoted to the hobby, which proves a problem for me – when someone comes in and buys a copy I know holds a lovely pattern between its pages, I get a bit upset as I won’t be able to do it myself, so you see I do have a serious cross stitching obsession. It’s compulsive”.
So it’s a bit like a complicated jigsaw then? “Yes but more concentration is needed with cross stitching as there’s a lot of counting involved, and you have to get that correct in order to make the pattern work, I’d say cross stitching has the same boost to the brain as doing Sudoko, so it’s perfect for those who wish to keep the old grey matter in tip top condition”.
Does she ever get ‘cross’ with her stitching? “Oh yes, even after all these years, I still sometimes lose count of my stitches and have to start again but that’s only because my concentration lapsed for a few minutes, that’s when I get really cross with myself”.
Stitchcraft
Shop 2, St Georges Shopping Mall, Chlorakas, Paphos. Tel: 96 586403, email [email protected]
