Last night I discovered I was running low on the black perle I'm using for the Pirate Cat himself, so I concentrated on his little shirt after I finished his little baby paw and put in a few pink stitches for his nose and mouth. (I think of the Pirate Cat as a kitten, you see. Having personality in mind helps one come up with stitches and threads since you would naturally use silks on a geisha figure while a clown would call for bright colors such as in a cotton overdye.)
The shirt and the cuff are pretty small areas, which can be difficult to find stitches for besides tent stitches. You will remember I used brown Vineyard Silk in tent stitches for the tiny bit of the signpost that shows. The cuff and shirt are larger, irregular areas, which means they are perfect for a small stitch that is a favorite of mine--Dotted Swiss. What you see in the photo above is Step One--do cross stitches on every other stitch intersection. For the next row, offset the stitches so that each cross stitch is under an empty space on the row above. Before you know it, you have little bumps in a regular pattern everywhere.
Step Two is to stitch the unstitched areas with tent stitches. Very easy stitch and I like the texture.
I could stop after Step One and let the gray paint interact with the Vineyard Silk to make the shirt pattern but I have something else in mind. You'll have to wait until tomorrow to see what it is....
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
