New Spooky Spindle cross stitch

I once read an old Irish poem, A spinning Song, by John Francis O’Donnell. He was an Irish poet and journalist in the 1800’s and you can read more about him here on this blog about Limerick Life. The line “Twinkle twinkle pretty spindle, let the white wool drift and dwindle…”stuck in my memory long after I forgot the rest of the poem and the other night, while casting around in my brain for a short Halloween poem to illustrate with a cross stitch idea, I formed this little rhyme, based on that line. Apologies to scholars of literature, but I liked it.

I’ve drawn it up as a cross stitch chart. I kept the lettering simple and twisted the lines around the spinning wheel to echo the twisty, floaty ghosts. One ghost is caught in the spinning wheel. If you’ve ever seen a spinning wheel with a distaff full of wool roving, it does look a little ghostlike. This is a screenshot of Norman Kennedy, a past master weaver at Colonial Williamsburg, USA. You can see the distaff full of fibres there tied up with purple bands. The top is just out of picture, but it generally ends in a slight point at the top. Long Threads media are here if you are interested in any more spinning info.

In my design one of the ghosts is caught in the spinning wheel and is spun out in threads, catching his friends up in the process. The poem is stitched in simple but slightly old world style with the phrases drifting from side to side to echo the floaty shapes of the ghosts. The theady ghosts make a loopy border for the poem. Twinkly stars abound in the chart but it can also be stitched without the twinkles for a simpler homespun feel.

I’m still playing around with the look and feel of the Etsy store since I’ve transitioned to cross stitch charts, I’m trying to avoid the pictures looking like AI but since I can design charts faster than I can sew, it’s inevitable that some of the charts will have chart art only until I get the samples done. If it goes well maybe someday I can get a few sample makers on board, until then, it’s just me.

I’m liking the clean cut style, but I’ll let the images sit for a day or two before I make any more decisions, I’ve been at my desk since 10 am this morning, it’s now 2AM so I might take a wee break from screen tomorrow, do some actual sewing! ta for popping in. As always feedback is welcome and if you would like to see the Spooky Spindle cross stitch chart in store, here is my Etsy link.