Over the past week I’ve been working on two large sewing projects (along with my writing). Each project has a pattern with very lengthy instructions. For one project, I’m trying to make a stole, and the fifty page instruction booklet has these words on page 38.

Now we will try to make the stole.

from Elizabeth Morgan’s instructions for making a stole

This writer/seamstress has some very clear points to make about the techniques she is going to use, before she gets to particulars, but still, thirty-eight pages could seem extreme. The problem she is facing, as a writer, is that she worked out a really great system for constructing stoles, but the process is decidedly counter-intuitive. A new friend and I spent half an hour reading a single page of instructions to each other, with three pieces of material already cut out perfectly (it was a kit from the author). We sewed one seam about four inches long during that time, and at the end I moved a single piece of material from above another piece to under it, and voila! The whole thing became clear.

If we had simply been able to watch the inventor, right from the start, we’d have been done in three minutes, with that particular new technique, anyway.

What I get out of this is that writing is a triumph of civilization. … If it’s done well. … If those who read are as careful as those who write. … You can pass on vital knowledge using only ink and paper.

I love YouTube because, if there is a video about something I want to do, seeing the process is so useful. But I guarantee that YouTube is more ephemeral than paper and ink. I remember when people were going wild about microfiche and how it would allow us to save archives. Yeah, not so much. And since microfiche was overtaken and left in the dust, and floppy disks, and CDs, why does anyone still think that electronic storage is actually so long term? Short term, sure. I’m not a Luddite, I’m just trying to be realistic about what is actually a long-term solution to the problem of knowledge transfer.

Anyway, part of the technique for the stole involves hand sewing a six-foot or more seam, so I need to get to work. I’m still just practicing!

I leave you with a link to pictures of churches in New York because I love pictures of church interiors. It’s much better than pictures of my practice efforts.

https://www.jeffreybrunophotojournalist.com/p/the-spiritual-heart-of-the-city-a