Halloween Cuff Done

I managed to finish the cuff of the Trick or Treaters stocking last night. Note that I stitched a row of tent stitches all across the top in the colors of each stripe. That will help in finishing. There's a row of tent stitches all around the perimeter of the stocking as well.

Here's the stitch I used for the rows, courtesy of Carole Lake's Stitch of the Month series for ANG in 2002. It has many names but Carole calls it "braided knitting" so I will also. I find it makes a lovely narrow border as well as very nice stripes on the stocking's top edge.

http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/2002/Apr.php

I made sure I held the threads tight as I moved from one long narrow cross stitch to the next, particularly when I was doing the orange and orange/red stitches with the Panache. It's well behaved as nylon threads go but I was taking no chances.

If you look at the photo, you'll see I still need to stitch the lime green fright wig, do something for the claw hand of the middle figure (the painted version of which is covered by stitches now, so look at the model photo in the side column to see how it looked when Squiggee painted it), and attach the buttons that are the masks of the children.

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Stripes for Halloween

These long cross stitches take longer to stitch and more thread than you would think, but I like the effect. The flat ribbon thread Soft Sheen Fyre Werks stands up to the red-orange and the orange Panache nylon perles well, better than I expected since one is a flat thread and the other two round perles. I also like the shiny stripes' contrast with the dull background stitches.

I'll try to finish tonight.

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Margaret Speaks

Yesterday Margaret wrote:

"I am waiting to see how you stitch the top orange and purple stripes. Will it be a bulky overturned knitted sock top or a spangle dangle banner effect? Also how are you going to do the green wig? Surely a squiggly wiggly loose ended stitch is called for. I'm watching to see."

You know, deciding what goes on the stocking top is a very interesting point. I could make it wooly and ribbed like a real stocking or do something more decorative. As you can see above, I'm going for more decorative. I am doing long cross stitches for the striped top. You can't really see how it looks yet as I only have two finished and a third started. But I didn't have any of the right colors in a wool or wool/silk thread and I did have leftovers from Autumn Leaves in the orange and red-orange. The stocking is painted with hot pink, too but I don't have anything that color so I'm going red-orange instead. In other words, what I am doing is dictated by what's in my stash. I don't have easy shop access so very often I must use what I have.

Even if I did have the right wool colors, however, I probably would not have used them. The silk/wool Felicity's Garden is perfect for a muted background, but do I want a muted striped stocking top? I don't think so. I want that to be over-the-top!

I also finished the background and dotted orange beads all about it in a regular pattern. Hope you can see them. They show up well in person but not in photos.

Hopefully tomorrow you'll see more stripes and can judge how they look. As for the green fright wig, you'll just have to wait and see!


Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Gold and White and New All Over

Gay Ann Rogers has rearranged her website to showcase various collections, update news in one place, and make a special offer of a new design in kit form (above) on perforated paper.

http://www.gayannrogers.com/site_2/Small_Designs.html

Yiou really owe yourself a visit. Start at the home page and explore the lovely feminine world of GAR....

http://www.gayannrogers.com/site_2/Home_Page.html

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Woven Stitch Background

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.

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow