Slow-stitching my way through 2024 / by Beth Winegarner

I did a lot of good things for my nervous system in 2024. I tried craniosacral therapy. I went through listening exercises as part of the Safe & Sound Protocol. I continued with psychotherapy and different kinds of massage. I started somatic tracking meditations. I did a lot of pilates, and began regular cold-water dunks/swims. 

Also, at least once a week, I engaged in a little slow stitching. Slow stitching is both an art form and a mindfulness practice, in which you hand-stitch and embroider something, letting your intuition and focus guide you, not worrying about perfection or the end result. It’s about the relationship between the stitcher, the thread and the cloth, the feel of the textures in your hands, the beauty of the finished work (or, sometimes, the fact that it’s hideous but you had fun making it). 

Late in 2023, I lucked into discovering Kathryn Chambers’ YouTube channel, where she posted prompts for weekly stitch-alongs throughout 2024. She also opened a really kind and supportive Facebook group for people participating in the prompts, and it was beautiful to see each one interpreted so differently. I did most of the prompts, skipping only a few, but I stitched at least one “page” each week to put into my stitch journals. I filled four journals in 2024 and started a fifth. You can flip through each one with me in the videos below: 

I enjoyed trying so many different approaches and techniques, but there were a few things I returned to, over and over. Weaving blanket stitches into a kind of web was one. Creating circular portals or doorways was another. Often, I combined these two. Sometimes it felt like creating a boundary of protection around myself, and a way through. Other times it was a way to quiet my mind. Sometimes, it was both. 

Portals

I could talk about why this kind of stitching is great for my nervous system: The experience of being in a flow state, the benefits of bilateral activities on the brain. Many people have written or talked about how a slow, laborious process of working with textiles by hand can be incredibly healing. 

I can’t say that I was necessarily “healed” by this practice (I’m not even sure what that means), though I’m grateful for the extended periods of calm it granted me. It’s also just satisfying to make something pretty out of scraps, something you saved from another project, maybe something you hand-dyed, maybe a bit of a favorite but worn-out garment. You can make deeper meaning out of that if you want to, and many people do, but you don’t have to. 

I have had a stash of embroidery threads for a long time. I did a lot of embroidery when I was in high school, including embroidering one of my fictional characters, a red-headed vampire, onto the back of my denim jacket. When my mom died I absorbed all of her leftover embroidery threads and still have some of them (I never would have purchased so many shades of brown on my own). There were times this year, using her threads, when I felt like I was stitching with her. It made me wish I could actually go through Kathryn’s prompts week by week with her. And in some ways, I was.

A lot of people have told me they find my stitch posts on Instagram inspiring, and that makes me feel amazingly good. I’d love to inspire you, too. If you’d like to give slow stitching a try, follow some of the resources I’ve linked to, and let me know how it goes!