The photo shows my progress on the little Halloween stocking. I first stitched the two black robed figures with black Krienik 1/16" ribbon in cross stitches. Then I stitched the middle figure in tent stitches using Rainbow Gallery's Soft Sheen Fire Werks (color FT8). This is another ribbon-like thread that is a variation on the original very shiny Fire Werks. It is less reflective although it is a metallized nylon.
Now that I've finished the background figures that will showcase the fancy buttons, I started on the background. I happened to have the perfect color and texture in my stash-a skein of Felicity's Garden in 049 Heather. Felicity's Garden is a crewel type thread that is half silk and half Australian Merino wool. It has a bit of sheen but when you contrast it with the very shiny metallic threads I've used in the figures, it looks very wool-like. I wanted a very neutral stitch to use with my Felicity's Garden and it took several tries before I hit on the right one, a woven stitch from one of Brenda Hart's stitch books. Basically it is a Burden Stitch variation. You lay a long length of thread in a channel between two NP canvas threads, then couch it down with a perpendicular thread that goes across the channel at a 90 degree angle. Skip a hole and do another perpendicular thread to countinue couching. When you do the next row, you put the little couching stitches in the holes you skipped while attaching the first row. In a thread like Felicity's Garden, the result is a woven pattern that's not too hard to compensate. In the photo above, I have done all the rows except for a bit at the bottom and around the figure with the green fright wig.
I'll finish those tonight and start on the striped stocking top.
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