A Very Big Deal Indeed

See this? This is a design by Jane Zimmerman called "Angulation 1" which is the newest class offered in cyberspace through the Shining Needle Society. Angulation 1 is worked on congress cloth using silk or cotton floss and metallic threads. If you are interested in the class, you need to join the Shining Needle Society (it's a Yahoo Group) and look at the class information.

I'll quote the important bits here from Kate Gaunt's posting announcing the class to SNS members--

"This class explores techniques of Far Eastern and Western silk andmetal thread embroidery through the ages in addition to traditionalcanvas work. The model of this 10" by 11" challenging geometric design, inspired by a Danish rug, was executed on gray congress cloth in gray-white and two color families of silk(or cotton) with metallics to coordinate with the silk colors chosen. The techniques include overlaid Florentine, burden stitch, trellis on satin ground, Japanese novelty pattern, fly stitch, web stitch, eyelet stitch and many other canvas stitch variations.

Since the color combinations for this design are endless and such fun to select, Jane decided to offer the project as a chartpak only. Use Soie d'Alger and/or Needlepoint Inc. and/or Vikki Clayton's hand-dyed silk, or cotton floss with Kreinik metallic braid -- supplies that can
be found easily at your local needlework store. You will need 6 values of silk (or cotton) and one of metallic with congress cloth of a color that coordinates with your silk choices. (A supply list is provided upon enrollment in the class.)"

More information, including cost and how to sign up, is at the Shining Needle Society's Yahoo Group. Join the group which costs nothing and hear about this class and others as they are offered.

This is a Big Deal. Jane Zimmerman is retiring from teaching except for virtual classes like this, In other words, classes that were always limited are now expanding into cyberspace without Jane's having to travel. Jane has also started a fabulous website where we'll be able to order her books, see her designs and look at diagrams of stitches.
Have fun exploring.

http://www.janezimmerman.com/

Those of you who are like me and not into geometrics, let me tell you these things are really beautiful in person. If they are well executed, the shine of the silk and metal threads is incredible. They take ordinary geometric patterns into the realm of art.

Jane's books are very popular with really talented stitchers I know. I've not seen any of them in person but here's a review of one.

http://accesscommodities.com/blog.htm#012908

This is a big deal and a great deal for stitchers everywhere. Thanks, Jane!

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

The Snowman's Scarf Done (except for fringe)

The photo above shows the scarf finished on the snowman and the background begun. First, the scarf.

With the snowman canvas turned so his scarf was at the bottom (and his stocking cap at the top) I did rows of reverse skip tent in my count/color sequence of 5 pale rose, 3 red, 7 lime green and 1 blue. I started with the knot at the front and did that in mostly lime green because that was the color I wanted in front. Remember, a scarf wrapped around your neck won't have the pattern continue in a regular manner (that's one thing I might have done to the Joan Thomasson wizard's robes, made the pattern irregular to mimic the folds in the long robes). So you are free to play around with your starting point doing Chottie's Plaid. That will make the scarf look more real.

Once I finished I outlined the scarf ends and knots with buttonhole stitch except for the line dividing the two scarf ends which is stem stitch. I turned the canvas so that the stocking cap was on the bottom to stitch that line and discovered buttonhole stitch done upside down is stem stitch. Or something. It isn't buttonhole! But it looks ok, particularly since it is not the bound-off knit sides of the scarf, so I left it alone. Mistakes aren't necessarily disasters, you know.

I've now started the background of the ornament using Caron's Snow, which is a chainette type thread that comes in a ton of colors these days. The white is perfect for Snow, but some of the other colors are very pretty. It's an easy metallic to work with but you need to use short lengths as the chainette will start to unravel after a while, especially since I'm using Interlocking Goblein for the stitch which means the thread goes down between threads which stresses it. I also experimented with switching to tent stitch so that there is a raised border and then a less prominent background but I'm not sure I like it. I'll think about that for a bit and continue the miles of tent stitches around the wizard's perimeter instead.

Eventually I'll create fringe for the scarf's ends but that has to wait until the background is done. Looking at the photo I posted, I see I forgot to outline the second lime green knot on the scarf. Maybe I'll do that next.

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

The Snowman's Scarf

The photo shows the snowman's scarf underway. I discovered the fancy Marnie Ritter stitches I wanted to use were too big in scale for them to show up in the narrow, long space of the scarf. What to do?

Obviously, this is a job for Superman!

Well, actually, Chottie Alderson came to the rescue. Not in person but I've always admired the late Ms. Alderson's design sense, creativity, and sense of humor. (Her website of chottie.com seems to be down right now or I'd show off some of her fabulous designs.) She's the one who said if it isn't fun, it isn't needlepoint. Words of wisdom to live by! One of her most famous inventions is the Chottie Plaid which is what the scarf is being stitched with.

It's basically a plaid based on skip tent and a series of numbers. I choose the number sequence of 5-3-7-1 for my plaid and I'm using four colors--lime green, light rose, blue and bright red. I stitched a purple and yellow glasses case with a monogram in the center based on the birthday of the lady I was making it for once. You can use any number sequence you want (your phone number, your street address number, etc.) but since I had a limited space I only used four colors and a series of four small numbers.

If you look at the photo, you'll see the two-part scarf is stitched but the left end closest to the snowman's face looks denser than the right end. That's because the right side is only half finished but the short end of the scarf on the left is done.

I started at the top of the long end of the scarf and did five rows of skip tent in my light rose color (5-3-7-1, remember?). The next three rows of skip tent were in red, then I did seven rows of skip tent in lime green, followed by one row of blue, which ended the first sequence. Starting over at 5 again, I did another five rows of light rose. I worked the scarf all the way to the bottom doing my skip tent according to my pattern of 5-3-7-1 in the light rose-red-lime green-blue colors. You don't have to use four numbers and four colors (you can use 5 numbers and only two colors, or really anything you want).

The second step to finish Chottie's Plaid is to turn the canvas 90 degrees so that the scarf is at the bottom and the tip of the carrot nose of the snowman points down. Now, using the same number sequence and colors, do reverse skip tent stitch in the empty thread intersections. This makes the plaid denser and is a lot of fun because it is when you actually see what plaid pattern you have created looks like. Remember, I started with 5 rows of my light rose, then switched to three rows of red. Because the scarf is narrow, that's really all the reversed skip tent I could do.

I could stop at this point because right now it looks as if the smaller end of the scarf nearest the face is in shadow. This is a good way to shade scarves, in fact. I'm not going stop here, but remember this the next time you have a flowing scarf that is partly in light and partly in shadow. Today I hope to reverse skip tent the longer end of the scarf so that you see my plaid creation in full.

This isn't the only way to stitch plaids and I'm not 100% certain that another lady didn't come up with something similar about the same time, but Chottie gets the credit for a fun way to create a mystery plaid.

Thanks, Chottie, wherever you are!

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

Why are my finishing disasters not this funny?

If you've hung around here a while, you know I am not wild about finishing. I've done about everything wrong, from gluing my long hair to ornaments all the way to hemming my new pants to the skirt I was currently wearing. Why does Coni make her finishing disasters sound so much better than mine?

http://spinsterstitcher.blogspot.com/2008/09/there-goes-my-career-working-for-ralph.html

Her dog is cuter than me as well.
sigh

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

Anything Seem Familiar?

This image comes from Madonna's Free Range Stitcher blog. She's just finished her version of Anne Jerlow's Five Geishas, an outlined (with painted areas only on the geishas' black hair and hair ornaments) canvas that sadly is no longer available since Ms. Jerlow's death. Notice anything familiar about it?

If not, you might want to look at the header photo if you are visiting with me via Blogspot or look at the background design if you are over at Yahoo 360.

Yes, I stitched this design myself along with a sixth geisha in a separate canvas for ANG's Auction in Baltimore in 2007. Mine are framed together and live with Barbara who placed the winning bid. (Thanks, Barbara!)

This canvas has also been stitched by Susan Portra who sells a stitch guide for them. You can read about Madonna's stitching at her blog here.

http://frontrangestitches.blogspot.com/2008/09/5-geisha-standing-in-tray_25.html

Susan Porta's version of the same five geishas can be seen on her website.

http://www.bringyourcanvastolife.com/catalog/item/2232567/1662442.htm
Madonna told me her canvas came from a knitting/needlepoint shop in Phoenix, not one she ordinarily visits since it doesn't carry the latest and greatest items. Just remember that stores which are a bit behind the times in trends may have hidden treasures you don't want to miss. Madonna has had the canvas about a year and stitched it over the last six months. Read her blog to hear more about her stitching adventure with Anne Jerlow's Five Geishas.

It is fascinating to me to see how three folks did the same canvas in similar and also very different ways. Let me number the geishas from left to right so you know which ones I'm talking about. All three of us dressed No. 5 in purple and we also put No. 3 the middle geisha in a shade of red. My No. 3 was pink, Madonna's was rusty red, and Susan's was bright red. Madonna and I also dressed No. 1 and No. 2 in greens and blues respectively. Madonna used wools for her hair while I used Soy Fiber. We both added quite a few beads in No. 3's elaborate hair do. I can't tell what Susan did with her hair dressing as the photo isn't detailed enough. I did notice that both Madonna and Susan turned the fan shape on the top of No.4's head into hair instead of the fan-shaped ornament I put there. Two of us used two different stitches in shades of off-white for the floor and walls while I used one stitch in two shades to show where the floor and walls were. It's interesting that all three of us felt the need to "ground" our geishas with an environment instead of letting them float on a pretty background stitch.



Hope you enjoy picking out the details you particularly like on each stitcher's version. Here's one last photo, my sixth geisha who is a singleton on her own canvas but obviously taken from one of the geishas in the main design as she was painted exactly as No. 5 is. I just dressed her differently to give myself six geishas.

I'm just sorry this canvas is no longer available for more stitchers to enjoy.

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