Have Your Say

Revisiting Rituals

All Stitched Up! issue #329 opened with a discussion about rituals. The article talked specifically about magazine rituals – something that is unique to each of us. How we receive, savour and read our magazines when they arrive each month or quarter is as special to us as the process of making our morning coffee or our personal way of starting a new project.

Since publishing that article, we’ve since read more about the importance of ritual in everyday life, not just for productivity, but for mental and spiritual health.

In all of the messages we received, we could sense the calm and pleasure that accompanied each person’s ritual, so it seems many of you are already fully aware of the benefits.

Lyne Clavet wrote to us about her Inspirations magazine ritual. Lyne likes to start with the photographs as soon as she receives her copy. After that first, pleasurable, look through, she then goes back for another ‘tour’ of the publication to read through the articles and look at the advertisements. She also finds that each new magazine inspires her to go back through some of her old issues, seeing as she almost has the complete collection. Lyne says they never grow old.

Margo Steley has had the same ritual for her Inspirations magazine ever since she bought her very first issue, which was over 110 issues ago! She chooses a quiet moment, makes some coffee and then glances over all of the pages. She then goes back to the beginning and looks more closely at each project. Finally, she goes back again and reads all of the articles and editorials. This means that by the end, she’s read the magazine from cover to cover. Margo says she’s learned so much from the magazines over the years and is still being challenged by new projects and stitches to this day.

Peggy Miltier also likes to read her Inspirations magazine from cover to cover. When it arrives, everything else comes to a halt so she can devote several happy hours to the publication. Even after she’s read it, she leaves it on the coffee table where she picks it up later, just to make sure she didn’t miss anything the first time.

Depending on how she’s feeling, Robyn Tate sometimes rips the plastic off the magazine as she’s walking from the post box back to her house, oohing and aahing at everything inside. Other times, she succeeds in getting inside before ripping the plastic off, and still other times she manages to savour carrying it home, keeping it as a secret from herself.

Once it is open, the next step is always the same – a cuppa, then a careful look through the entire magazine.

This is followed by another return to the beginning to decide which projects she’s going to make. Usually, this amounts to all of them!

Denise Forsyth’s magazine ritual is similar, however after she’s looked through it the first time, it goes into the car. Her husband does the driving, so she can go through it carefully as she’s waiting for him or when there are appointments.

Finally, Christine Wellnitz travels a lot by train with an 8-hour round trip at least once a fortnight. She ‘reserves’ every new magazine for the next trip, only allowing herself a quick glance at it when it arrives before it is safely stored in her suitcase. When she has found her place on the train, nothing can disturb her until she’s finished reading and enjoying it!

This theme has got us thinking about rituals in all aspects of our lives. Whether it is for magazines, projects or any other parts of our needlework passion, there are pleasurable rituals that we all look forward to and love to follow.

Do you have other needlework rituals that are important to you? We’d love to hear about them because there’s no doubt that rituals are good for the soul, however large or small they may be.