Bits and pieces (II)

Posted on 26th October, 2015 by Flights of Fancy

Once a month there is a craft group at our village library; everyone brings whatever they are working on and we have tea or coffee and cake and a chat. This time I decided to bring the Toadstools. In a sense they are finished – all the outlines have been worked in different “thicknesses” of stem stitch, and although I want to make a few changes to some of the colours, otherwise I could just leave it as it is. But it looks a bit flat, and I decided it could do with a little shading in the form of seed stitch. Having decided this, I then proceeded to ignore the project entirely for several months. But I needed something smallish to take to the library, and Toadstools fitted the bill. In the end (and I will explain why a bit later) only a little bit of seed stitching got done, but I am rather pleased with its effect and will definitely do some more of it; with no chart to follow and only some standard DMC stranded cottons needed this may be just the right project to take when we visit my husband’s parents later this month.

So why did I get so little seed stitching done? Because at the very last minute before leaving the house I popped a piece of hand-dyed felt in a 3″ hoop – just to see if it would fit, you understand – and when it did I thought I might as well take it and do some flower embroidery on it using the colours in my Toadstool project box. And that’s what I did; with a little sketch I’d scribbled on a bedside notepad the night before as a rough guide, but otherwise just seeing where it would go. Unfortunately the Toadstool box is not very well-stocked with blues and purples which meant I couldn’t work a planned cornflower and sprig of lavender, so I then did some seed stitching, taking the flowered felt home in its incomplete grass, daisies and one poppy stage.

In the evening I got out my thread boxes and chose two blues for the cornflower, but for the sprig of lavender I decided to blend 2 strands of lilac with one strand of light green, and I’m rather pleased with the look of the resulting French knots.

Finally, having stitched everything that was in my sketch, I added an ear of wheat. I felt the design could do with something yellowy, and something tall. I had to cheat a bit by taking the stem behind stitches I’d done before; when I stitch this design again I’ll start with the wheat. Writing a list of colours and stitches used (as much as an aide-memoire for myself as for possible future use in a chart pack) another thing I changed is the way the cornflower is worked. Here it is a small circle of dark blue fly stitch, with a large circle of medium blue fly stitch on top. The effect of the fly stitches on top is fine, but inderneath simple straight stitches radiating from the centre will do just as well and be less bulky. And finally the middle daisy – that needed to come down a bit. So based on the finished stitching I cleaned up the drawing and made it into a proper line transfer, with all the parts in the right place and order.

And then I added a bee.

Well, what can I say – I like little creatures in my embroideries. (Stitched ones, that is; let no real-life moth dare come near them!) And I’ve been wanting to try out a bi-coloured bullion knot for ages. Anyway, I’m happy with how this came out, and in its cleaned-up form (with or without the rather challenging bee) it might work rather well as a beginners workshop; perhaps another one for the Church Building Fund? All I need now is a good method for transferring a design on to felt…

Bits and pieces (I)

Posted on 19th October, 2015 by Flights of Fancy

Stitching-wise, it’s been a bitty week – and none of it what I should have been stitching! Still, I’ve made progress on Join The Band, got some useful finishing done, and I’ve been trying out a couple of ideas which I’m sure will be useful as well some day.

The finishing involved all those little shisha tiles I stitched to find the version that I want to use for a second shisha kit. There they were, in a pile on the dining room table (which doubles as my place-to-put-projects-in-progress – as well as folders full of sketches, boxes of threads, a magnifier light, transfer pens, and my recently acquired lightbox), waiting for me to decide what to do with them. I could just have kept them as a record of all the variations, but I have photographs of them all and it seemed a bit of a waste, so an evening of production line cutting, padding and sticking turned them into 10 cards.

With Join The Band I’m finishing all the guilloche bands before getting to the cutting. At first I intended to complete each band before moving on to the next, but then – as with the cards – I got a bit of a production line going, finishing all the stem stitch first (done), then adding the satin stitch (two more left to do), and finally the lacing and French knots (only the middle one completed as yet). I decided to take a picture for my records because at the moment the project shows all these stages in progress.

And the ideas I’ve been trying out? More about those next time!

How a shisha clover changes

Posted on 7th October, 2015 by Flights of Fancy

I was getting on really well with the Shisha Clover. My order of working the various parts was not exactly as it will be in class, but that shouldn’t be a problem. On Monday evening I’d finished everything (including the clover outline) except for one part – an outer outline of fat, juicy French knots made with plump soft cotton to go between the top tear drop’s inner outline, and the clover outline. I’d done these before on other designs, and I like the look of them. They make a statement, they are bold. And when I’d stitched them the statement they made was “we’re too bold for this design”.

Don’t you just hate it when your stitches talk back to you?

Anyway, there was no help for it; they’d have to go. But what would the thing look like without them? I should really have been able to remember – after all, they’d only been there for ten minutes or so – but I couldn’t. And although I’d taken several progress pics, I hadn’t taken one at that particular stage. What if I took them out and then decided it did after all look better with them in? I turned to my photo editing program and a bit of digital French knot removal. The conclusion: with the French knots it looks fussy and cramped, without them it looks bare.

My first idea was to take out the knots and re-do them in a thinner threads, closer to the purple wool outline. I wasn’t absolutely sure this would work, but surely it must be better than the big French knots. Foolishly, I decided to sleep on it. The result: red ghosting when the knots had been removed. And in places where it wouldn’t be covered. Help! By now desperation was setting in, so I created a little mild ghosting on a corner of the fabric and then dabbed it with bleach. This morning that ghosting had practically disappeared and the fabric had not disintegrated. It might still disintegrate in the long term, but I wasn’t too bothered by that right now, as long as it lasted until the workshop in November.

The overnight ghosting turned out to be more persistent, and of course there were the pencil dots of the transfer, but on the whole it worked out all right. Except for the bit where I got some bleach on the green outline and turned some of the hand-dyed cotton white… Fortunately I found a crayon in the right shade .

So it was time to stitch. I still wasn’t sure about using French knots of whatever size and was debating what to do when a friend on the Cross Stitch Forum mentioned that she preferred the big knots to the empty version because it sort of echoed the lacy edge of the bottom motif. Bingo! The bottom motif uses a fly stitch shisha variation, so why not use fly stitches in red coton à broder around the purple wool? Not all the way around, but in the same way as the left and right-hand motifs, and working the stitches in graduated size. And so I did. And it worked. Thank you Sally Squirrel for your brilliant suggestion.

And if you would like to stitch the Shisha Clover yourself, and you’re in the neighbourhood of Rugby on Saturday 14th November, do join me at the Percival Guildhouse day class.

Nine variations on a shisha tile

Posted on 19th September, 2015 by Flights of Fancy

The first shisha kit I produced used a floral design; after some deliberation, I decided that my second shisha kit was to be a square tile with scrolls. OK so far. Draw the design, choose a background fabric. The fabric in the first kit is blue, so let’s have something else for this one. A visit to the local fabric shop yielded a nice yellowy cream (or is it creamy yellow?) cotton. Well, that’s practically it, isn’t it? Now all I have to do is decide on the threads and stitches!

This turned out to take a while… There were the scrolls. Stem stitch, yes, but what thread? So I stitched up models using Tamar Embroideries Brodery Cotton, 1 strand of TE stranded cotton, and DMC coton à broder. Then the corner motif – either pistil stitches or French daisies in Brodery cotton, DMC coton à broder, or 1 or 2 strands of TE stranded cotton. And finally I tried different stitches for attaching the mirrors (or sequins or coins), varying the number of petals as well:

Plaited fly stitch with 12 petals (in perle #5), 16 petals (#5) and 24 petals (#8)
Cretan stitch with 16 petals (#5) and 24 petals (#8)
Herringbone stitch with 16 petals (#5) and 24 petals (#8)
Long-armed fly stitch with 24 petals (#5)
Crossed long-armed fly stitch with 32 petals (#8)

And so before you know it you’ve got nine variations on a shisha tile!

I think the final version will use one of the long-armed fly stitch variations, simply because it seems most different from the petals in the first kit. As for the scrolls, DMC coton à broder. TE’s Brodery cotton is lovely, but it’s simply too heavy for this purpose, and it’s also very, very twisty – this can make it rather awkward to work with, which you definitely don’t want in a kit aimed at relative beginners. But I love the TE threads so I will use the stranded cotton for the corner motifs; I just haven’t decided yet whether to use one or two strands, and which stitch. On the whole I think if pistil stitch, then two strands – if French daisy, then 1 strand. But I may change my mind .

One nice thing in my search for materials for these tiles is that I found a source of “mirrors”. Well, they’re acrylic really, and very light; I’d had some before but couldn’t remember where I bought them. This shop has them in colours as well, so I got some yellow and green ones to try out. You can see them in the two long-armed fly variations.

On the website their size was given as 18mm (just what I wanted!), but when they arrived I measured some and they were 17mm. Not really a problem, but not accurate either. I was about to write to the shop to let them know so they could change their description when I decided to measure one by putting it on top of the ruler instead of the ruler on top of the mirror, and it was 18mm after all. Turns out the sides are slightly sloping, and the mirrors are 18mm at the bottom and 17mm at the top!

Model stitching for the SAL – a snag

Posted on 13th September, 2015 by Flights of Fancy

There are various reasons for stitching a model before releasing a design. With the SAL, one of them is that I need to work out how much thread is needed for each month (and preferably do that before 1st November…), but even when that is not an issue it’s a good idea to stitch something before allowing it out into the real world. The main reason is that you can do things on paper which you can’t do on fabric. On at least one occasion I managed to draw something that looked lovely, just what I wanted, but which was actually impossible to stitch. And I do mean impossible – if you’d tried to work it as originally drawn, you’d be undoing the first half of the stitch with the second half.

And even when it isn’t that disastrous, it is good to remember that a design on paper never looks exactly like that same design worked in thread on fabric. For one thing, Kloster blocks look beautifully square in my design program, and while in theory they should be, considering the number of threads they cover vertically and horizontally, in practice a Kloster block is a rectangle, narrower in the direction of the stitches than across.

Normally I have this in the back of my mind and sort of compensate for it while designing; but one of the SAL designs has what you might call a “floating” Kloster block, one that doesn’t border on a cut area but is only there to balance things out. On paper, where all the Kloster blocks are square, it works just fine. Stitched, I’m not so sure. The design consists of two identical halves, so I stitched the two in different ways – one with, and one without the non-essential Kloster block. And I’m still not quite sure which one to choose! I may do a bit of shisha-ing while I mull this one over.

Meanwhile, I leave you with a little SAL Sneak Peek (like the one I posted on FaceBook a while ago, but with different colours to keep things interesting ).

The best direction for whipping and the best length for stem stitch

Posted on 20th August, 2015 by Flights of Fancy

One of the stitches I want to use in the Tree of Life is whipped backstitch. Mary Corbet points out that the direction in which you whip the stitches makes a difference to the look of the finished line, with pictures to illustrate this, but in order to fix the difference in my mind and have a sample to remind me which direction produces which line I thought I’d better work both types myself. Both are stitched using floche, which is an S-twist (that is to say the direction of the thread’s twist is like the slant in an S, top left to bottom right), and I prefer the line where the whipping is done as a Z-twist (on the right; it’s worked bottom to top, taking the needle through from right to left every time) – it’s tighter and more rope-like, whereas the other version lacks definition to my mind. Note to self: if using a Z-twist (like rayon or some silks) whip in an S-twist to get the same result.

Besides some bands of Hardanger and satin stitch, the main component of Join the Band, for which I’m stitching the model at the moment, is guilloche stitch. It’s a very decorative band stitch, and although I’ve mostly seen it stitched on non-countable fabrics I’ve found it really works equally well on counted fabric, like my favourite 25ct Lugana. This goes for quite a few freestyle/surface stitches, as I’m finding out in charting the new SAL. But they do sometimes take a bit of working out; you can’t play with the stitch length and size quite so freely when you’re constrained by 25 holes to the inch. On the plus side, it makes consistency in spacing and length a lot easier!

One of the things I had to decide on was the stitch length for the two outer lines of stem stitch. It is worked in perle #5, so the stitches can’t be too short or it will look bunched up; on the other hand, make the stitches too long and you lose the rope-like look that characterises stem stitch. Some stitch samples were obviously called for. I stitched one complete band of guilloche stitch with the stem stitches stretching over 6 threads, and then an additional line of stem stitch over 4 threads. By the way, although the colours used in the sample are the ones used in the complete model, they are not distributed in the same way, so the final version will look a bit different. Also bear in mind that this sample was worked on a scrap of fabric which was too small to fit in a hoop (I shouldn’t be so stingy about using proper-sized doodle cloths); stitching in hand is not my forte, so the tension is, uhm, a little erratic. Still, it gives an idea of what the two stitch lengths look like.

The trouble is that, having stitched a sample, I’m still not sure which one I prefer! To my surprise the longer stitch length actually produced a thicker line than the shorter – I hadn’t expected that, although come to think of it perhaps I should have; the shorter stitch is a bit like twisting a thread more tightly, which makes them thinner. The long stitch length gives the lines a looser look which I quite like, but they do seem to crowed the centre part rather. The short stitch length is thinner and also more regular, but it would be difficult to claim categorically that that is because of the stitch length; it may just be my varying tension.

I may stitch another sample on hooped fabric, using the other colour scheme, and see whether that makes a difference; or rather, whether it makes it clearer to me which one to use. I think for the moment I’ll decide to be indecisive…

More hemming

Posted on 10th August, 2015 by Flights of Fancy

I’m still patiently (well, reasonably patiently; for me) hemming old projects preparatory to them being attached to shopping bags. My aim was to find a method that looks good, and is both secure and quick to work. Four-sided edging scores well on two out of three – quick it is not. Also, with most of its stitches being double, and the backstitch used to attach it to the bag doubling the single bottom line, it is a bit bulky. Better keep this for bookmarks and other items that are frequently handled.

Blanket stitch looks a little less “finished” but is a lot quicker to work, and the attaching backstitch will fill in the gaps at the bottom to make it look like a less bulky four-sided stitch. This is definitely one to keep on the list.

The next one was a bit of an experiment – cross stitch through both layers of the folded edge, but slightly away from the edge. By working this in two rounds the back gets a cross stitch pattern too, although of course this will be invisible once the fabric is attached to the shopping bag. This one will probably be attached with running stitch in the gaps between the crosses, worked in the middle of the line. it’s a bit difficult to explain in words, but it should look a bit like this: x-x-x-x-x-x

Cross stitch edging, second round, front

Finally I tried combination of surface hem stitch and nun stitch. It’s not quite hemstitch, as the “teeth” are pointing outwards and it’s worked away from the edge, and it’s not quite nun stitch, as all the lines are single, not double, but it works, and will be attached by means of backstitch along the open top of the stitches. This means the attaching stitches are closer to the edge than in any of the other methods, so there will be less of a rim to catch on things. The third picture shows a change of direction only noticeable on the back – this stitch can be worked in two different ways, and the one I started out with made turning the corners very difficult if not impossible, so I changed horses mid-stream. It made the corners nice and secure, and will be invisible once the patch has been attached to the bag.

The cross stitch version was quite fiddly to work so I don’t think I’ll use that one again; the hem/nun stitch is a bit more fiddly than the blanket stitch, but I like the look of the folded edge and the fact that it can be quite securely attached. Probably, then, future hemming projects for bags will use blanket stitch or hem/nun stitch as the fancy takes me. And with a bit of luck I’ll soon have some pictures of finished bags to show you!

Leaf motifs and shisha variations

Posted on 5th July, 2015 by Flights of Fancy

Having tried four different corner leaf motifs for my new Shisha Mini I didn’t really think any of them was going to work; but as I’m still trying to decide which shisha stitch variation to use as well, I decided to work another one with four different corners to try out. First one up (using the original dots on the pattern): a sort of fan of five lazy daisy stitches. This looks quite good, though perhaps a bit large. Keep it in mind and on to the next two options, for which I drew a leaf outline around the pattern dots.

The mirror, by the way, is attached using a herringbone variation in #5 perle cotton. The first one I did, last month, was Cretan stitch (also in #5). As for the two leaf shapes, one was outlined using buttonhole stitch (top right) and one filled with fishbone stitch (bottom right). Neither of them looked right. The buttonhole leaf, though I like it in itself, is too clunky (and wonky) for this design. The fishbone leaf I found too solid. Then as I was reading Mary Corbet’s blog I came across a project of hers using pistil stitch (a French knot with a tail). Another useful stitch, not too solid and easy to get into the right shape.

Looking at the two varied-corner projects, I wanted to try two of the corner variations on “proper” projects – the fan-style motifs using lazy daisy and pistil stitch. And although with hindsight it would have made more sense to vary only one thing in these two projects (namely the corner motifs) I decided to try out various other things at the same time. First of all the centre shisha bit. And then the threads. I’d ordered three different threads from Tamar Embroideries, all in shade 243 – stranded cotton, brodery or mercerized cotton, and matt cotton. The second one is described on the TE website as “similar to cotton a broder”, the third as “similar in weight to our mercerized cotton but with a softer feel and a matt finish”. From threads I bought from them earlier it seemed to me that the matt cotton is actually a bit heavier than the mercerized cotton, and that both are heavier than the coton à broder I have, which is mostly #25, but they would be interesting to try. What wasn’t noticeable until I stitched with it: the stranded cotton is a bit heavier than the ordinary DMC variety too.

So here is the third attempt, with herringbone variation in #8 perle cotton, two strands of Tamar stranded cotton for the curls and matt cotton for the lazy daisies. I like the central motif, it reminds me of a sunflower; it works better in #8 than in #5, I think. Two strands of stranded cotton makes quite a heavy stem stitch line, and although the lazy daisy fan is a pretty motif the matt cotton is far, far too thick for it.

The fourth version uses a crossed long-armed fly stitch variation in #8 to attach the shisha, one strand of stranded cotton for the curls and mercerized/brodery cotton for the pistil stitches. The mercerized cotton works OK for the pistil stitches, although it is still a little more solid than I had in mind, and the curls are more light-weight but perfectly visible in one strand.

So what am I going to use? For attaching the mirror, either Cretan stitch (if I want it to be suitable for beginners) or crossed long-armed fly stitch (for a slightly more challenging version). Although I really like the look of the herringbone version in perle #8, its petal shape is a bit too much like the plaited fly stitch of the Shisha flower I use for workshops. As for the corner motifs, pistil stitch would make sense as I want to use different stitches from the Shisha flower which uses chain stitch for its scrolled stem, and a lazy daisy is in effect a single chain stitch. Unfortunately, I like the look of the lazy daisy fan slightly better than the pistil stitch fan. One option would be to go for French daisies – lazy daisies secured with a French knot.

Now I want to stitch a series of Shisha Minis with all the different shisha variations, at the same time trying out different combinations of threads for the corner curls-and-fans. For example brodery cotton for the curls, and two strands of stranded cotton for the fans (in pistil stitch, lazy daisy or French daisy), or the other way around, or one strand for the curls and two for the fans, or perhaps go back to standard DMC threads after all. I’ll keep the updates coming!

Designing a mini shisha project

Posted on 23rd June, 2015 by Flights of Fancy

Designs start and grow in very different ways, and I thought you might like to see one in action. This is a mini shisha project which I’d been doing some sketches for over the past weeks, and which got itself to the top of my list when a lady who attended the shisha mini workshop asked whether I did any other similar workshops. I told her I did a Hardanger one as well, but she said no, she meant another 2-hour shisha one. Now as I’d been thinking of putting together a second shisha mini kit anyway, I thought I might as well get it done so I could tell her and the other ladies in her craft group that yes, I did do another shisha workshop.

From the start, the two important things about this second design were a) to make use of at least one of the other shisha variations I’d already drawn and diagrammed and b) to use it in a non-floral way. Another consideration was using different stitches for the non-shisha elements. The existing workshop uses chain stitch and fly stitch, as well as sequins and beads. I was happy to use the latter again – you can’t beat a bit of extra bling in this sort of project – but I didn’t want to repeat the others. Probably stem stitch instead of chain stitch for any line elements, then, and one other stitch.

Size-wise, I wanted the new design to fit in the same aperture cards as the first one, and possibly have a leafy element so that the two could be worked as a pair; not identical, not even very alike perhaps, but with enough elements echoing each other for them to go together. In order to get away from the floral theme (which wasn’t easy as the shisha variations remind me so much of flowers) I decided on a scroll-type border. After some very sketchy sketches it was time to work things out a bit more precisely. I wasn’t too bothered about getting repeated elements exactly the same as I like the informality of much shisha embroidery, but placement is something I did get a little fussy about; I’m a bit of a symmetry nut and I felt that if things were too wonky it would probably keep irritating me. So roll on tracing paper, compasses and what back home we called a “geodriehoek” (geo-triangle), a sort of triangular ruler with angle markings on it. I’m sure it has a proper English name.

By the way, the robin is another mini design I’m working on, inspired by a 1920s starch advert. Who’d have thought starch could be inspiring?

But on with the shisha. When I’d got all the detail I wanted in pencil, I scanned it and continued work in my photo editing program, where I produced three variations, with 16, 24 and 32 dots around the central circle, to accommodate herringbone, Cretan and crossed long-armed fly stitch shishas, as well as the plaited fly stitch version of the first kit. I like to keep my options open.

From the start, this design had bits I was certain of, and bits that I wasn’t. Or more precisely, one bit. The definitely-here-to-stay bits are the shisha placed centrally, the four scrolly bits surrounding it, and the sequins; although I hadn’t quite decided whether to use cup sequins (shinier, but possibly a little too big and noticeable) or flat 3mm ones. The not-quite-sure-if-this-will-work bit was the leaf shape sitting in the “valley” of each of the four scrolls. They might or might not look right with the rest of the design, but to find that out I needed to stitch the certain bits first. Here they are, minus sequins for now.

Then I added cup sequins, and I do like the look of them. They are sequins, which links this design with the other shisha mini, but they are cup sequins, which makes them different from the other shisha mini (which has the flat sequins). I think I’ll stick with the cup sequins, but I will try one or two with the flat ones as well, just to see the difference. Finally, I worked the little leaf shapes. That is to say, I worked one. And it didn’t work. I’d opted for triple chain stitch (used in one of the Happy Hour designs), which is three reverse chain stitches emerging from three spots along a line, but anchored by the same stitch. In Happy Hour it is a nice, plump stitch. Here it just looked very thin and elongated. The problem was the size – I was trying to make it too big. Some stitches obviously only work small.

So what to put in its place? The triple chain stitches were indicated in the pattern by a small dash and three dots, all in a line, and I had already made four transfers onto some Normandie fabric, so if I could work something that used the same placement dots that would save me from having to scrap four pieces of perfectly good fabric (that’ll teach me not too get ahead of myself). I started with an asymmetric arrangement of three lazy daisies (bottom right), but neither I nor my husband, whom I bounced this idea off, liked it. All the other elements are symmetrical, and this just doesn’t fit in comfortably. Usable if absolutely necessary, but not ideal. Next up was a symmetrical arrangement of three lazy daisies (bottom left). Better. Definitely. But not as pointed as I had in mind – my original drawing shows something that is longer on the diagonal of the design, pointing to the corner, than it is wide. Still, keep that one as a possible. My third trial stitch (top left) was what I called Chinese lantern when I first drew it for Round the World: East and what I’ve since learned other people know as tulip stitch. OK, but a bit small, and just not what I wanted. Finally I tried a single lazy daisy (top right) with what would have been French knots if I hadn’t run out of thread; if you could imagine those tiny straight stitches as little round knots you’ll get an idea of what I intended.

I like the look of that final one, but it’s on the small side. And if you make a lazy daisy bigger/longer, it does what my triple chain stitch did in the first place, it goes narrow and elongated (I wish I’d remembered to take a picture of it but I stitched and unpicked it at my stitching group and I didn’t have my camera with me). So it looks like a few more experiments are called for; perhaps a more solid leaf using fishbone stitch, perhaps a leaf outline in buttonhole stitch or something knotted like Palestrina stitch. I’ll remember to take pictures and will report back soon!

Incidentally, the little robin I mentioned earlier gave me an opportunity to try out a new purchase – to transfer it I used an iron-on transfer pen from Sublime Stitching. It works really well! I was in a bit of a hurry so my tracing wasn’t the most accurate and some of the lines were definitely wonky or even double in places, but the ironing process was quick and easy (just remember to iron the fabric first so it’s warm) and the two transfers I got from this tracing were both good and clear; I could probably get at least one and very likely two more transfers from it, judging by how little difference there is between the first transfer and the second (in fact the second one, on Normandie, looks if anything a bit clearer than the first one, on twill). I’ll certainly be using this again.

More wools – Renaissance Dyeing

Posted on 25th May, 2015 by Flights of Fancy

Serinde very kindly sent me some Renaissance Dyeing crewel wools so now I’ve got two types to try out! You may recognise the design I chose for my comparison – yes, it’s the goldwork pincushion design from Samplers & Antique Needlework. It’s nicely Jacobean looking, so why shouldn’t it work in wools as well as gold? A brief aside – judging the colour of threads by what they look like on websites is very unsatisfactory; the Pale Apple (far right in the picture) is clearly green on the RD website but in real life it is more like a slightly green-tinged pale yellow.

The RD wool is quite fine, and some threads have very occasional thinnish patches. To some extent this may be caused by part of the thread untwisting as I’m using it – as you can see, the thicker part of the thread looks much more loosely twined. However, even straight off the skein there seems to be some unevenness here and there. Still, it is very infrequent and otherwise the thread is beautifully even, and lovely to work with. As for the stitches used in this project, although I’d scribbled a few ideas on the design I’ve been changing things as I go along; one line of stem stitch looked far too spindly for the stem (perhaps I should have used a smaller version of the design) so I added another line, plus a line in yellow – good practice for my Tree of Life trunk! The leaf is outlined in Palestrina stitch (I told you I was going to play with that). I added two-coloured French and colonial knots roughly where spangles were in the original, and a thin yellow stem stitch line to one side of the satin stitch leaves. As for the decoration inside the blue Portuguese knotted stem stitch petals, fairly last-minute (just before starting the lazy daisies specified by the design, in fact) I substituted bullion knots in two colours so I could include the dark navy blue. The red outline on the flower is heavy chain stitch, and the wool behaved very well on that.

Stems and leaves in a variety of stitches

The orange inner line is Hungarian braided chain stitch, and with hindsight I don’t think wool is particularly suited to it. Its slight fuzziness makes it difficult to pick up the inner stitches without catching the outer ones. It doesn’t look too bad but the braided appearance isn’t as distinct as it would be with a smoother thread. Long & short stitch isn’t my forte but it did create the flame-like look I was aiming for. The three yellow French knots on the tip of the flower were added because there was a little dot of ink there which hadn’t been covered by the chain stitch…

The Renaissance Dyeing experiment, finished

I like this type of project – I can do pretty much whatever I like, change my mind half-way through, and add things and change things as the fancy takes me. It’s as close to anarchy as I am ever likely to get; very liberating .

Flights of Fancy

Mabel's musings on anything stitchy

Category Archives: Stitches