Besides the books, an element in Bookworm that runs through the shelves, across the walls and hides in secret spaces in the Library, are the stitches. Stitching is a much practiced craft at Bookworm, and each person who joins the team learns to stitch, from hand stitched logos, to collaborative stitching activities, that when put together form beautiful pieces of art that come together because of each person’s contribution. From the very first instance of poked fingers, slipping thread, and squinting eyes, the thread slowly moves smoother, the stitches line up neatly and lucid designs begin to appear.
In the month of January, Alexis, our newest Bookworm team member, tentatively put forth an idea that her mother, Genevieve, who loves stitching and embroidery, could facilitate a library workshop on this craft. She was surprised by the enthusiasm and shining eyes with which this idea was grabbed, and scheduled, and before we knew it, Alexis’s mother was on her way to the library, cloth, thread, needles and rings in hand!
Sujata, the inspiration and reason behind every stitched artefact at Bookworm, suggested that we also open out this workshop to the children from two of our community library sites. Every week for the last three years, we have been going to a boys home and facilitating library sessions with them. Around two months back, and after much planning, cancelled plans, and hesitation, sessions were finally initiated and put in place at the girls home, which is some distance away from the boys home. The joy of opening and starting a new community site, and experiencing the happiness of everyone’s first introduction to libraries and stories and books, is something that is precious.
While the boys have, on a few occasions previously, come to the main Bookworm library and participated in workshops, it would be the girls first visit to the library. On the day of the stitching session, laughter, talk, and expectant faces announced the children’s arrival in the library. The boys confidently strode up the stairs and into the admin room, where we were all sitting and talking, promptly settled down, and began discussing the change of resource persons, the other changes happening and life in general. Few of them wandered around the room, looking at all the different objects they found intriguing, while they chattered away. The girls remained tentatively in the hall, grouped together, with smiling faces.
The workshop began with a short screening of the film ‘Stitching Stories’ by Nina Sabnani, following which we went through the book and discussed what happened in the story. The stitched illustrations were immediately pointed out as something special in this story. Genevieve, soon had everyone grouped in circles, cloth, thread and needle in hand. The first step was to thread the needle. With many sighs, much exclamations and with nibble fingers helping each other, the needle was threaded, knots were tied and the first stitches began. The running stitch ran in curvy lines and big and small lines, and crooked lines, and some straight lines, through the edge of each one’s cloth, slowly gaining confidence as the lines became straighter.
After the running stitch came the hemming stitch and then the button hole stitch and then stitching one’s own name. As they stitched, each one became more comfortable, hopping from one side of the room to the other, words flowed free and the lines between groups blurred and disappeared. The girls and boys, limited in interaction in spaces besides school, were chatting and teasing, with threads and needles exchanged, conversation flowing free and unencumbered. Some of the boys had sisters who were in the girls home, and this workshop provided a space to meet their siblings and spend some time together.
In the session following this workshop, many of the children expressed that this was the first time that they had engaged with this act of stitching. For some it evoked memories of home and mothers stitching, for others it was the act of patiently working on each stitch that they enjoyed, and for others yet it was simply being together in the library that was treasured.
For us at Bookworm, it was another instance of so many lovely things coming together in the library. Stitching, community, children, reading, and stories. And another experience of how the library can be a space for so much, and then much more.
