Having fallen a bit behind in timely progress posting, I present current status covering three strips.

First, here is the sword interlace – my own design with no direct historical precedent. Here it’s finished and the color accents have been applied. Since I wrote about it in my last post there’s not much to add other than I am pleased with the way it turned out. The yellow bits are worked in two strands, using plain old cross stitch for the blades and pommel, and two strands in double running (on skew count) for the interlace embellishments and sword hilts.

This pattern in its original slightly taller and more graceful form it will appear in Ensamplario Atlantio Volume III. I think this would make killer trim on the shirt of someone who might favor martial motifs rather than floral or plain geometrics.

The next strip down has debuted here on String, about a year ago. It’s available at my original post, and in the embroidery tab page on this site, where it’s listed as “Sleeve Band, 1500.” I may put it into The Third Carolingian Modelbook, as well. (Yes, I’m working on that one, too). The short story is that I redacted it from a portrait in the collection of the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Accession K1651; Italian, circa 1500. Here is its page in Art UK.

Although the majority of the design is as close as I could get to the sleeve decoration in the portrait, for this decidedly non-historical piece I took two liberties. Obviously the first is my use of the second color – in the case done in single strand, simple diamond mesh to contrast with the strongly horizontal/vertical foreground in black. The other departure is the small black square I added at the centerpoint defined by where the birds’ tails meet. That detail isn’t on the original and isn’t on my chart of it. I added that because I work in double running, and it served as a very convenient bridge point that helped me navigate jumps between the non-contiguous motifs.

The only connection I can see between this motif as a tribute to the Treyavir source material is that this style of pattern persisted for a very long time, working its way from haute adornment for noblewomen during the Renaissance to becoming part of a peasant folk tradition that could have been stitched anywhere from the Baltic to the Aegean at any point in time over the past 300 years. And there is a very brave peasant woman in the Resident Male’s novel.

The third band is something that started out with historical underpinnings but took a whole bunch of left hand turns along the way.

If you have a copy of my Second Carolingian Modelbook to hand you will find the original on Plate 27:4. The accompanying blurb cites it as being redacted from an embroidery at Belton House, Lincolnshire, UK, registered with the National Trust as Inventory Number 436944. But in the original the roses were a supporting secondary border, all sprouting from a single straight baseline in the same direction.

I started working the first one that way, then decided to go feral, and do them more closely spaced together, and in the zig-zag manner below. I also added the second color accent I didn’t bother regraphing the design, I just did the mental rotation and kept going. If you like it this way, you can find the book and do the flip yourself, too.

As for why I did it, this is a themed piece after all. Treyavir features an estate that’s a safe haven for women who are economic refugees or endangered survivors of a feudal, patriarchal society. So I’ve taken that and put my roses each in their own secure room, open to come or go as they please, yet protected from life’s more brutal realities. Non standard presentation, but I think it’s an improvement on the rather humdrum original.

Finally, here is the whole thing to date so you can see the balance of density, accent color, and movement. I have room below the roses for one more strip. And I’ve drafted up something special to put there.