I heartily appreciate both utility and beauty. Useful objects that are also beautiful bring me joy.
I'd never heard of sashiko until my therapist suggested I try it as a meditative practice. I loved the idea, and really like the look of the traditional patterns I've seen, so I gave it a try. I like it well enough to keep doing it, and made myself a sashiko thimble using a quarter, some scrap fabric, and a hair elastic.
But I find drawing grids to be both very difficult, and tedious enough to be a barrier.
So now I'm making a stencil. I've taped a piece of graph paper to an old thin plastic cutting board; the kind you can roll up, and I'm punching holes through it at the corners of the squares with an awl. I expect this would also work well using paperboard (the sort of thin cardboard cereal boxes are made of) and a regular needle.
I think making some of the tools I'm going to use is a helpful way of committing to the practice, so I'm more likely to keep doing it than if I just bought commercially available ones. Also, I get to enjoy making the tools.
Making the stencil is tedious, but I'm very pleased with myself about the idea, and I'll be happy to have an easier way to draw grids.










