cycleduc® is an "analogue app"
With cycleduc® the female cycle can be documented and evaluated without a mobile phone, app or other digital processes. For the implementation the multi-sensoric perception of handicraft, the quality of cloth and thread, the aesthetics of the finished stitched cycle image, and a simple and active handling were all equally important to us.
We procure the working materials that we finance through donations:
A piece of linen, a few threads for stitching, needles and an individual bag made of fabric remnants serving as packaging for the kit. It's all pretty simple. But not at all ordinary.
A basic guide describes the steps in an easy-to-understand way:
Every single cross that is created on the plaid symbolizes a specific day in a woman's cycle. The colour of the thread signifies: red for bleeding, green for fertility and white for the infertile days. Before a cycle is completed, the white cross initially serves as a placeholder for the days without bleeding in a cycle.
After a month's cycle is ended by the recurring bleeding, the fertile and infertile days can be calculated for that cycle. Then the actual brainwork begins, because some white (placeholder) stitches have to be embroidered green. These green crosses show when ovulation took place.
For cycleduc® to function reliably, the daily cross stitch is a must. But just a routine like any other. Gradually, an increasingly accurate grid appears, which after six months already represents an individual woman's cycle.
And that's quite a benefit.
Instruction // pictograms
Instructions
The calendar starts with the first day of the period. The first red cross is stitched.
On each of the following days of the period stitch another red cross, thereby creating a vertical red line.
On the first day without bleeding stitch a white cross below. Continue doing so every day until the next bleeding starts. This is where the line ends.
On the first day of the new period start a new vertical line to the right of the first one.
Now go back tot he first line. Count fifteen days backwards from the last white cross. The 15th cross is the most likely day of ovulation and gets re-stiched with green thread. From that point re-stitch three crosses downwards and four crosses upwards in green color. Those eight green crosses signify the possible eight days of the last cycle on which the woman could have got pregnant. On all other days the woman is most likely infertile.
With each beginning of a period a new line in red, white and re-done green crosses is stitched usually varying from 24 to 36 days.
After a few cycles, the interpretation of the cycle images can begin: visually, an imaginable frame around the green crosses is created, which automatically adapts with each new cycle:
1. Relatively equal cycles (standard cycle): narrow frame is created
2. Alternating long and short cycles that follow a pattern (forecast can be created according to a pattern): frame runs in a zigzag pattern with narrow or wide intervals
3. Short and long cycles but without patterns, where the whole range of cycle lengths must be included in the prediction: very wide frame is created
A glance at the cycle picture is enough and the women can see where they are in their cycle. They immediately realize whether they are approaching their fertile days, have exceeded them, or whether the next menstruation will begin soon.
After a few month a woman without any further medical information about her body, has a very good overiew over her cycle and her fertiltiy. She learns about herself and her body’s biolgical rhythm, can uderstand and act on it.
So any woman, literate or not, can learn about her indvidual cycle with ease.
Short and long cycles but without patterns, the whole range of cycle lengths must be included in the prediction: a very wide framework is created
Relatively equal cycles (standard cycle), the prognosis covers almost exactly only the fertile days without any outliers: a narrow frame is created
Alternating several short cycles and a long cycle that run according to a uniform pattern
(Forecast can be created according to this pattern): Frame runs in a zigzag pattern
with narrow and wide intervals
Alternating only short and long cycles that run according to a very uniform pattern
(Forecast can be created according to this pattern): Frame runs in a zigzag pattern
with narrow intervals