When you’ve done a bit of Hardanger you soon get used to the standard pattern of cutting – five stitches and four cuts to every Kloster block, and never, ever cut a fabric thread unless both tips of your scissors share a hole with a stitch. And when you’ve removed the cut fabric threads, it looks something like this:

Of course there are variations on this. Sometimes a design will use double-sided Kloster blocks, that is to say cut on both sides. It is sometimes used to create a heavier line than is possible with woven or wrapped bars, sometimes to delineate different parts in a design (like the dragonfly’s wings in Resurrection). Even so, the pattern of the holes is the same as usual.

Sometimes the cutting pattern, the distribution of the holes, is the standard one, but the Kloster blocks aren’t; they may be a different shape, with longer or shorter stitches, or they may be wider than usual (some of the Kloster blocks in Frills are 7 stitches wide instead of 5). Or they may not be blocks at all but a continuous line of satin stitch, so that you have to be very careful which fabric threads to cut and which to leave, as in this blossom motif from Blackthorn.

But a year or so ago I came across a different cutting pattern; it took me a while to realise why it looked odd, and then I twigged – the holes were in a different and rather unexpected place! It made for a very attractive pattern, though, and when I saw it again in a Hardanger Atelier leaflet I felt it would be a waste to learn about something new and nice and then not use it! Badges, a set of tiny projects designed for ornaments or quick invitations or place cards, seemed just the right opportunity. So here is the alternative cutting pattern, once with one hole, once with four; they’ll be finished with a variety of bars, fillings and extra surface stitches once my right middle finger recovers from a slight mishap while chopping chorizo last night …