Because Sansa has mad skillz at embroidery. I know she gets dissed for it, but I love me a crafter.
by medlibrarian
ok, so while i see this, i’m gonna say something about this super quick.
so, women get shit for crafting, which i have never understood. i think in sansa’s case, it’s something along the lines of “LOOK, YOUR SISTER IS RUNNING AROUND BRANDISHING A SWORD. GO DO THAT.” or some bs like that, because for some reason, that’s more valuable/defies gender norms or what have you. i’m not going to go into comparing arya and sansa. they both rock in their own spheres. this is not an arya-bashing post. nope. not at all. she can rock out with her bad self. but, back to the point, doing that completely undermines the fact that sansa’s badass embroidery/dress-making skillz are just as relevant to her character arc/trajectory as arya’s romping around with weapons. arya’s on her way to being an assassin. right? yes. so, fighting=useful for her career choice, if you will.
guess what? so is sewing and dressmaking for sansa.
why? well, the answer might surprise you, especially if you are not a crafter. (here kicks in the part of me that’s been knitting since i was 7, and embroidering since i was 10.)
sansa is not going to be a warrior. she was never going to be. if she lives long enough to turn into a badass (please, grrm? please?) she will be a political one, who has learned how to move through society from her time married to tyrion and living with littlefinger. (i think most people can sort of agree on that fact? if not, come talk to me. i like discussion!) but what do political badasses need? what makes tyrion, littlefinger, and varys so much better than pycelle, cersei, and ned when it comes to playing the game of thrones?
seeing one little piece as part of a larger picture, and being able to turn that little detail into something else, to manipulate it, to grow it. and broskis, that’s what sewing and embroidery and needlework are. they are literally making something out of nothing, seeing how one tiny stitch will fit into a larger pattern and making it do exactly what you want it to do.
now wait, i hear you cry, aren’t you extrapolating? isn’t that a bit of a stretch, to say that sansa’s embroidery skillz are something that shows how good she is at being a creative and astute thinker?
no. i’m not. as i mentioned earlier, i’ve been knitting for years, and embroidering for nearly as long. to deviate from a given pattern can prove disastrous if you aren’t resourceful, meaning that you have to rip back hours and hours and hours of hard work. (don’t believe me? here’s a post i wrote about it in a fit of agony and depression. lace work knitting is hard because it requires full focus, and if you make a tiny mistake, you don’t just have to rip back, you have to pay attention as you rip back, because otherwise you’ll overshoot and have no way of figuring out where you are, or if you’ve just made everything so bad you might as well just start again.) anywho, if you don’t see how things fit together, you’re largely fucked, and that’s with a pattern. is sansa using a pattern? probably not. why? because middle ages, that’s why. she’s probably just hanging out thinking “ooh, this bird might look pretty. i think i shall embroider it.” and BAM. embroidered bird. she’s got vision, she’s got creativity, and what is it that we look for in potential leaders/badasses/queens? vision & creativity? ah yes!
I’m going to take a moment to casually reblog this from myself, in light of what happened on the Show this past weekend, where she made herself a new dress. There are some elements to the post I would add to, rephrase, etc. but I’m not going to in this reblog. I imagine you can guess what they are, based on how I blog. I’m also not going to comment on the making of the new dress. I think other people are doing it far more eloquently.
But here—have some thoughts about sewing and crafting and knitting and Sansa.