A new for me method

Although my head has been filled with thoughts of bricks during the past couple of weeks I have also been working on Charlie’s tallit.

I had cut squares of white wool to the proper size. I knew that the letters needed to closely circle the eyelet for the tzitzit. Charlie had mentioned that he wanted the lettering close in to the eyelet. I marked the spot for each eyelet by dipping the back of a pen into a stamp pad and then painting the letters around that marked dot.

I did the diamond stitching around each of the pinot and then sewed each corner piece to the tallit using gold metallic thread.

Normally I make the hole for the eyelet by cutting into the hole with an X-acto knife. I chose not to this time because the lettering was so close to the hole that there was no margin for error. X-acto knives have been known to slip.

I remembered that one traditional way to make the hole in an eyelet is to use an awl or a stiletto to punch the hole and then embroider around that hole.

I used a variation on that method.First I poked a hole with the tip of my scissors.

Then I enlarged the hole with a knitting needle.

I then satin stitched around the hole . Pulling the thread tightly enlarges the hole.

Now all I have to do is sew the atara onto the tallit.

And this is the result of the brick problem solving.

The curve meets the right angles in an elegant way. Now that it is done the solution seems obvious but it took several of us lots of thinking to figure this solution out. You will be able to see this on my building’s front courtyard for the next century.

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Connecting with the past

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sarah in nyc

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