Handstitching - where do you do it?

[Orphena]

Good day!

Question about the "etiquette" of bringing some handstitching projects along to some social events. I have a lot of stitching to do to get all the trim on m'lord's new ensemble, and yesterday I brought some along to work on when we visited my MIL. I don't THINK she was offended - our visits mostly consist of us sitting on the couch talking.

My question is - where do you get all your handstitching done? Do you bring smaller manageable projects with you to work on?

[Kate XXXXXX]

Hospital visiting
Morning coffee meets
Weight Watcher meetings
Waiting rooms for appointments
Car journeys
Visiting friends and relatives for the afternoon/day

if I'm going away for a whole weekend to stay with folk, I take a full sewing kit and a machine (or two: sometimes I take a serger as well).  I can usually pinch a couple of hours to seam stuff together, and then sit and gossip with the hand finishing in the evenings.  In a big house party of my friends, there is usually a gathering round the X-box of kids, a gathering round the sewing machines of creators in fabric, and a gathering up a hill for the hardy!  There's a several day gathering planned over New Year, at which I plan to sew some of my Kings Musketeers kit.  I know a number of friends and fellow sewists will be interested in what I'm doing.  Our hostess is a bonkers quilter and has her own sewing room.

[gem]

I don't take sewing with me (although my grandmother was like Kate and always traveled with her sewing machine... usually so she could make stuff for the host's family while she was there), but whenever I travel I bring some needlework. I often don't get to it because we end up busy or especially because other people's light is usually too poor, but I almost always have some with me! I remember whipstitching the fabric edges for a particular needlework project at my brother's wedding. (Not in the actual ceremony, of course! But during a lot of the downtime the wedding party has.)

[Hoowil]

I have been taking a small kit with to work on while my daughter has her dance and gymnastics classes. Works great, gives me three hours a week to do nothing but the little hand sewn finishing touches, and gives me something to keep occupied with while I wait.
As a side note, I had somebody notice what I was doing during one class, and I got pegged as a rennie.

[Margaret]

Back when my kiddo was wee and still spent time at places like Jeepers and stuff, I always had my sewing stuff with me.  Usually a hat project too.

Got to the point were the staff would stop by to see what I was working on. 

[Hoowil]

I kept getting comments about fixing people's dance costumes....

[Lady Renee Buchanan]

Depending on where we are going, I sometimes take my knitting with me.  Although, as much as I have tried, I can not knit in a car.  A train, an airplane, yes, but not a car.

If it's a good friend's house, I take it.  That way, I can knit while we're chatting away.  Depending on how long a wait I expect at a doctor's office, may take it there.

Some people I know knit at church, but I've never done that.

[Koshiba]

I'm just like you Lady Renee, knitting in the car is a bad idea most of the time. It's like reading in the car, makes me feel sick. =( I did manage to get about half a fingerless mitt done on the ride to PARF this past weekend though, because it was dark and I couldn't see it! So I take knitting places (to work for on my lunch hour, anywhere I know I'll have to wait a good while, relative's houses) sometimes, but I'm still pretty new to sewing so I've never really taken it anywhere.

[iain robb]

There was one time -- and one time only -- that I took some hand-sewing along to do while my son was at soccer practice. "Are you REALLY going to SEW out here where people can see you?" he asked, with the same tone as he might use to ask if I was going to dance naked on the soccer field or spread oatmeal in my hair.

I'm not sure any of the other dads or moms would have thought it nearly that strange, and I normally would not have let that affect my plans. But he had enough trouble with some of his teammates that I didn't need to give them something else to use as ammunition.

Maybe now that all the children are out of the house I'll be able to discover what a social occasion is and decide whether I can bring sewing. Would that be, like, a Super Bowl party?

[Cilean]

I do hand stitching if I have to? Anywhere! At orthodontist waiting room, at the hospital when my Mom was in for a bit, when I was hurting recently with something called "Uvetis" not fun I can assure you!  When I have a free moment and in public I am ready to answer the questions people always have about it, I pearl and bead on silk and they just go nuts!!   So I see people crocheting and knitting all over so why not hand stitching?


Cilean
Who would rather not do hand stitching but what can I do?

[Hoowil]

I had been working on garb while my daughter has dance class (as I said earlier) until I busted my wrist. I just spoke to the owner of the dance studio, and she offered that if I'll do odd jobs helping maintain the costumes they use for parties (they do princess and super hero parties, originally to help pay the bills, but now for fun) it'll count as my paying for Amara's classes. So, don't be afraid to do your hand stitching in public, you never know what else you might get out of it.

[Dinobabe]

I trade sewing for dance classes all of the time!  I'm about to trade embroidery for some metal work.  You never know.

I don't really hand stitch but I do love to knit.  I will do it anywhere!  I find it makes a great conversation starter when you are kinda forced to be with a group of strangers.

[gem]

Thanks to this thread, I have recently taken my embroidery to two medical appointments to work on in the waiting room. I'm very fussy about the conditions in which I stitch (how I sit, the lighting), alas, so I didn't get a whole lot done, but at least the hour wasn't wasted reading the same magazines I've already memorized!