Tallit

This year, even though I was on a deadline making the High Holidays Torah mantles for my shul and busy coordinating some HH details and writing a little talk, I made a new tallit. It was compulsive. I gave myself a reasonable excuse: my original tallit, made from a piece of woven fabric a friend brought me after she visited her sister in Kenya, is one of the big shawl-type tallitot. Rosh Hashanah was sure to be hot, so clearly I needed a smaller tallit to help me deal with the heat.

I had an idea for what I wanted. I'm a sucker for night sky imagery, so it was going to have stars and the moon. I wanted it to be a little on the Starry Night side of things. I was going to combine sewing, painting, and printing, and it needed to be done with only the fabric I had on hand since there really wasn't time for a fabric expedition.

I gathered some fabric, carved one more swirly block to add to my collection, and got going. I stitched stuff together, added background color, and painted in the stars and the moon.

 Then I printed swirls over everything.

After that I added the atarah (neckband) and pinot (corner pieces).

The verse on the atarah is from the psalms. I'm still torn on whether it should be in English or in Hebrew. Since it so directly relates to the pattern and painting, I wanted people to be able to understand it. At the same time, I love Hebrew, and I feel like it always loses something in translation. I guess I could've put both on it, but for now, it'll stay English.

The last step was to tie the tzitzit. The corner pieces are hard to see here, but they're printed with a compass symbol because your tzitzit are supposed to help keep you from going astray.

It was all finished up in time for services, and it was a fun project. I'd love to make more, but I want them to be made intentionally and with a collaborative process so that they fit together well and really suit people. Tallitot like this one need to add to your experience of prayer. They make it special, remind you of what you're doing, and give you something to fiddle with and focus on if your mind starts to wander off (tzitzit are great for fiddling with. I swear, between those and the motions folks use when davening, Judaism really sets you up with good outlets to expend any extra energy and redirect your mind and body to the task at hand).