Our French Medieval Cat in the Pet Guardian Angel series has a halo and fur trim along the collar and hem of her jacket. In the photo above you can see I've added a line of gold beads for the halo, tent stitching the background around the head first so that the beads can stick out a bit. I liked that look. I've also stitched the collar area in turkeywork with red Felicity's Garden, which is a silk/wool blend. I happened to have a skein in a very similar red to the red Petite Very Velvet and I really like the lush look of silk/wool blends in turkeywork, so that was an easy choice. Turkeywork is a stitch with many variations. I use one taught to me by Carole Lake. You start at the bottom of the area and come up/go down in the same hole, but don't pull the thread through. Holding the loop with the fingers of your other hand so it doesn't move, come up again in the hole above the hole that you came up in and went down in. Then go down in the hole you've sent your needle through twice already. This stitch variation is worked in horizontal rows from the bottom of an area up.
Another variation which is similar is a Stitch of the Month on the ANG website. This one is worked top down and you tie down your loop by using a hole two rows above the one you put the loop in. There are many more turkeywork variations but they all end up looking like the ruff around the cat's neck above before the loops are cut and the thread ends trimmed. Stay tuned to see how the turkeywork gets a haircut!
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2006/aug.php
Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
