chain · linen · domestic
the needle comes up, lays a loop, returns through the same hole, and comes up again just inside the loop, catching it. one link, then another. the line is a rope of small commas; in the hand it sounds like a clock.
tightened, it becomes a written line; loosened, a flower. a single un-anchored loop is the lazy-daisy petal. four make a flower, six a star. it is the oldest of the surface stitches: tambour-frames worked it by the mile, in other rooms and elsewhere, faster than a hand can write.
field-note: pull a chain stitch by the wrong tail, and the whole line unmakes itself in a single breath. a kindness.
running stitch · blanket stitch · small birds · sewing room · thimble