VALENTINE’S DAY 2024
Among my other projects, I’m working away on sequels to my two book series. Those who know me know better than to ask when they will be released, but progress is being steadily made on The Third Carolingian Modelbook, and on Ensamplario Atlantio Volume III.
EnsAtl3 is moving along faster, in part because it’s largely my own doodles with no time spent researching, documenting, writing prose descriptions with counts, or creating indices. As I was playing in it today I felt a jolt of magnanimity, and in light of the season, I decided to share a small preview. As ever, an easy print/easy read PDF can be downloaded from the link below, or from my Embroidery Patterns page.
This is my own original design. I haven’t stitched it yet. When I do I will come back and add a photo. The band repeat is 47 units tall, and 18 units wide. Two cautions:
- In an uncharacteristic move for me, the points of the arrows are formed by two half-stitches. I try to avoid these, but to get a sharp arrow, they were essential.
- The arrows themselves are NOT aligned on the center line of the hearts. Were I to do so, there would be a lot more half stitches. Be aware of this and don’t be alarmed when the shaft is one unit to the right of the heart centers. I did this uniformly throughout the design – every arrow regardless of up/down orientation is shifted to the right of the heart centerlines.
I can see this stitched for love onto the collar and cuffs of a paramour’s shirt or chemise, or adorning the linen of a beloved offspring. Archers especially might be charmed by it. Of course it can also be used on a band sampler – especially one celebrating a wedding.
To download the Hearts and Arrows Border in PDF format, click here.
Like all the other downloadables on String-or-Nothing, I offer this as good-deed-ware. If you use this, please pay it forward by assisting someone else, or making the day a bit brighter for a friend, family member, acquaintance, or stranger. And also as usual, if you want to use any of these patterns for commercial purposes, either for combination into a new published design work, or to produce for sale or donation (especially in quantity) please contact me before doing so. But please feel free to use it as you wish for your own private enjoyment. And if you want to share a photo of your piece back to me, either for inclusion in the Gallery, or just for me to see – such things always make me smile.
FILE FOLDER ARCHAEOLOGY
It happens that this week a couple of people have stumbled upon this old unfinished sampler that now hangs on my Wall of Shame.
It’s unfinished because I had started it as a wedding present for a friend. Sadly her engagement ended before the wedding. I never felt like finishing it off after that, although I still have it. It’s also the only piece I have ever done on Aida. I didn’t enjoy working that ground, which is probably another reason why it has languished since the early 1980s.
The reason these folks found it was that they were looking for a charted Hebrew alphabet. I knew I had one. Somewhere.
I had drafted one up, and it had gone through several iterations. The first was for a contemplated but never started service project for my family’s congregation – a Torah cover, to be exact. But I never had the time to follow through, so the scrap of graph paper was stowed in my doodle notebooks. About 8 or so years later I began this gift. I rescued the earlier scrap, played with the letter forms a bit based on the Macintosh pixel based Hebrew font. I added back a bit more of the pen and ink serifs, and messed with proportions a bit. After this project went into dormancy that doodle joined the earlier one. And I went looking for both this morning. Needless to say I didn’t find either. But I still have the sampler, so I re-graphed the alphabet based on how I stitched it (and tinkered a bit, again).
Click here for an easy to save PDF of the Hebrew alphabet chart above.
The first two lines at the upper right are the full alphabet. The five characters immediately below them are special. A few of the letters are written differently when they appear at the end of a word. You can’t write without them, so I offer them, too.
In addition to just a plain alphabet, I have charted up some of the most commonly stitched words.
Shalom – Peace
Mazel – Luck
Matzah (also spelled Matzoh) – The unleavened bread eaten at Passover. Some families have special linen napkins to cover the matzah for their Seder celebration.
Lechem – Bread. Like the Matzah cover for Passover, some families have a special napkin to cover the bread for holiday meals and for Shabbat.
Mizrach – East. In Europe it was the custom long ago to mark the Eastern wall of a place of worship or learning as a reminder of Jerusalem. It’s not done as often now as it used to be, but Mizrach embroideries do pop up on Judaica collections.
Now please don’t go asking me for translations or interpretations. I’m pretty much a late entrant to Hebrew School and I continued to struggle with the language in college. So much so that I ended up dropping back to French for my language credit to graduate.
The Hebrew chart will also join the others on my Embroidery Patterns tab.
Another Artifact of the Past
While I was hunting around for the alphabet doodles, I stumbled across the original of the handout I used to use when teaching basic sock knitting. It contains an abbreviated sock that we would work through together in the workshop, plus some of the other sock patterns available here on String. Also, it includes the pattern for the famous “You’re Putting Me On” Socks by express permission of Judy Gibson, that pattern’s author. Judy was major inspiration for sock knitters in the early days of the Internet, and merrily led hundreds of us astray into projects we wouldn’t have dared without her support. The 15 page booklet ends with some other useful references, including a chart of standard sock sizes and measurements, some (mostly dead) links to sock resources on the ‘net, and a visual on Kitchener grafting.
Click here for a free download of my Sock Knitting Workshop handout.
I’ll probably add it to my books page. Eventually.
ENSAMPLARIO ATLANTIO – UPDATED
Back in 2011 I issued Ensamplario Atlantio – my first doodle notebook full of fill designs for inhabited blackwork. Many of those designs are also suitable for use as an all-over design or strip pattern. Back then many people had to cope with bandwidth restrictions which made downloading a larger file problematic. So I cut the book up into four pieces to mitigate the problem. Now in 2023, that need has passed.
I’ve taken the original book, corrected some mistakes and typos, added four new pages (24 individual designs), and stitched it back into one single file. Ensamplario Atlantio, Second Edition is now up and available for free download. Having the thing in one piece should make using it easier. And it will make keeping track of it easier for me.
So please click here to download and enjoy!
The sequel, Ensamplario Atlantio Volume II, with 200 more patterns including fills, bands, and yoke designs is also still available as a free download.
FIRST BUGS, NOW BIRDS
I’m edging into a new neighborhood on the Unstitched Coif Project. This one is inhabited by birds. The first one is stitched and I’m thinking on the fills for the second. You can see him at the center bottom of the piece, now presented in the correct orientation.
I think he looks a bit like a tiny raven, A slightly confused one at that. I could not resist the visual pun of using the feather fill from the collection presented at the official website for his body. You can make out another oddly shaped bird sketched in below and to the right of the pansy/viola flower.
All in all, I’m pleased with the way this is turning out, although like all participants, I wish my project was proceeding faster. Working so tiny is taxing. Mr. Raven for instance took about four hours to complete, counting the fills, outlining, sequin eye, and couched gold feet.
My game of not repeating fills between units is still afoot, although I am finding it harder and harder to find or devise fills for the particularly tiny areas, like the sepal-leaves on the pansy. And I have to go back and add lighter gold banding the the wings of the big bug.
One more challenge is that of adding the overstitched elements – the couched vein leaves and feather markings on Mr. Raven. I do the fills first, then neaten up their edges with the heavier outlines. But the fills obscure the placement of the overstitching. I do that by eye, referring to a printout of the master design. I’ve mentioned before that others do the outlines first, but with the heavy, embossed reverse chain stitch, working inside tiny spaces would be extremely difficult. I leave that to those who are using outline stitch, freehand fills, and speckling.
Today’s agenda will be filling out the spray of leaves at the (now) right edge, adding the gold stems to it, and flooding the few newly surrounded white space areas with spangles.
In other news, last weekend I visited Younger Spawn and surrendered the bespoken Eyeball Bolster Cushion, seen here in its forever home, on the target low back mid-century modern sofa for which it was designed. A perfect fit. The recipient was totally thrilled.
The sharp-eyed will spot my stitching set up near the sunny window. I added a hex wrench to my stitching kit, and can take the thing including the disassembled stand with me when I am on walkabout.
While I was out in Spawn’s neighborhood we went to a garden center/plant nursery. Spawn added to the resident collection of exotic houseplants that make the apartment a livable and calming oasis. I noticed that the prices for large, healthy outdoor plants were much lower there in the suburban Albany/Troy New York area than they are here in the outskirts of Boston, so I bought some plants to augment my growing perennial collection. Here they are, just before I plonked them into their spots.
The big blue pot in back is a Chocolate Eupatorium (aka Joe Pye Weed). It’s a fall bloomer, with white flowers. The white pot in the middle is a red-leafed Astilbe variant, with purple/red flowers in mid to late summer. And the little guy over near the hose is a low-growing creeping sedum, that blooms purple in the fall. They join the transplanted peony, curly leafed Hosta, lemon Hosta, pink Astilbe, and two types of Brunnera (one red leaf, one green) that survived last year’s drought and fierce heat that doomed my Aconitum (wolfbane), and Hellebore. A less poisonous garden this year, but one I hope will outlive my ungentle care.
PRICE ALERT
One last thing – if you are interested in buying my pattern collection The Second Carolingian Modelbook, you may want to do so before 30 June. Amazon Kindle is raising print fees, and because the thing is on a razor thin margin, I will be forced to raise the price. I am sorry for this. I tried hard to keep it under $30.00 US per copy, and it will remain so until the end of June, but after than the price will be going up.
GALLERY OF APPRECIATION
UPDATE: 6 FEBRUARY 2024 – I’ve added a permanent page for the Gallery of Appreciation. Click here, or find it in the tabs listing, above.
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I adore it when I see projects folk have worked up from my designs. I’ve shown off a smattering of them here on String under the tag “Gallery” on the categories list, but I have fallen behind of late. I will try to be more timely posting these fabulous finishes (and works in progress), as tribute and thanks to the creative people who have returned joy to me.
Right now I have several such submissions lurking in my email inbox. Apologies if you have sent photos to me that haven’t appeared yet. It’s a big inbox, and I am combing back, looking for the flags. Names and photos appear here with the permission of those who sent them. I also have some requests out to folk who have sent me photos, but from whom I do not yet have express consent to post. And if you’d like your work to appear here in a subsequent gallery post, please drop me a line. My Gmail address is kbsalazar (in the usual email format).
So in no particular order other than my stumbling around in the dark, I present the first of what I hope will be a renewed series of proud pieces.
The Second Carolingian Modelbook
Sent in by Alex Logsdon, a genuine original composition featuring many motifs from T2CM, selected, snipped, and arranged in true “bungee jump stitcher” mode – picked on the fly and fitted to the space available. There haven’t been many finished objects from my latest book, and this one made my heart sing.
The New Carolingian Modelbook
Elaine Cochrane is working on a big purple band sampler, and has included in it some strips from TNCM. Elaine is also choosing designs on the fly in bungee-jump mode. I love seeing her piece evolve with the addition of each new bit.
Ensamplario Atlantio, Volumes I and II
It’s hard for me to separate out the fills in the two volumes in the EnsAtl series. With only a few exceptions, even I can’t remember which ones are in which book. V Louise Behrman is working on a couple of projects using the patterned fills from the books. One is a lovely bit of inhabited blackwork – panels for a casket (a small fabric covered keepsake/display box), the other is destined to be made up into an adorable needle book (a small fabric folder to keep needles safe, dry, and at hand). Both images below are (c) V Louise Behrman, 2022, and appear here with permission.
Epic Fandom Stitchalong – Adaptations
Long time friend and occasional SCA mentor Robert Himmelsbach was a stealth beta tester for some of the bands appearing as part of Epic Fandom. He used the dinosaur strips to make collar and cuff ornamentation for an otherwise historically accurate Renaissance era shirt, proudly proclaiming his ancient lineage and participation in that group’s pre-history (provided you look closely enough at his outfit). He is intending the pirate strip for a second shirt.
Links and/or info about the books mentioned are at the “My Books” tab above. The Stitchalong also has its own tab, above.
THE SECOND CAROLINGIAN MODELBOOK!
I am delighted to announce that The Second Carolingian Modelbook is finally out and available for purchase!
I have listed it for sale in hard copy via Amazon.
If you have been following along over the past decade you know that it has been long in the making, and you have seen many (but by no means all) of the patterns it contains here on String-or-Nothing as I play-tested them in my own projects.
To recap for those new to this site – T2CM is the sequel to my The New Carolingian Modelbook, which was published by a disreputable outfit back in the mid 1990s and is now out of print.
Like the first book, it is a treasury of charted designs for needleworkers and artisans. The 75 plates present over 250 individual borders, motifs, or all-over designs. These include both linear designs suitable for double running stitch, back stitch or other similar treatments; and block unit designs, suitable for long armed cross stitch, lacis/buratto, and other solid fill work of the time. Block unit patterns are also useful for modern interpretation using plain old cross stitch, filet crochet, tapestry crochet, or stranded colorwork knitting. There is good representation of designs appropriate for voided (reserva) work – both with and without accompanying linear outlines.
None of the designs in T2CM duplicate those of my earlier book. The majority of the contents are redactions of designs appearing in paintings and artifacts, done to the best veracity I could achieve given the imprecision of many of the originals. My charting methods are clear and easy to work from. All historical works are fully documented, and include the date of reference and inclusion (many of these pieces are subject of ongoing study, and their provenances/dates change as scholars reconsider them). Many are accompanied by discussions of pattern “families” or other observations on origin or use. All original “inspired by” designs are so noted. The book also contains hints on some historical stitching methods, a supplementary bibliography, and a ready reference chart to help users pinpoint the designs by place/time of origin and unit count. And I’ve kept my vow to release the thing in print as affordably as possible.
Now, who might be interested? Well, it’s rather a niche market, to be sure, but potential users include needleworkers interested in creating new works with firmly documented historical origins; stitchers, knitters, and crocheters who delight in the past but want to mine those aesthetics for contemporary use; and mosaic and marquetry specialists or other artisans who rely on graphed inspiration for their own designs.
Is this book suitable for beginners? To be sure, it’s not a how-to piece with clearly defined projects laid out in final form along with shopping lists for materials. But there is a range of patterns presented, from the small and simple to those of mind-bending complexity. I believe that a beginner who has needle, thread, countable fabric and motivation could use T2CM as fodder for self-paced learning, and produce stellar pieces along the way.
So please enjoy! Pass the word! And feel free to send along questions, or post pix of works done from T2CM’s pages. Nothing thrills me more than seeing what mischief the “pattern children” attempt while cavorting with the creative and inspired out in the wide, wide world!.
INFLECTION POINT
Yes, it’s true. I have reached the Age of Post-Employment.
After decades of proposal management for high tech companies, I’ve packed it in. No more deadlines. No more herding cats. I could go on listing the things I will not miss, but it would quickly turn into a rant. What I will miss are the in-the-trenches comradery; the energy and off the wall ideas of all the mad inventors; seeing technologies evolve in real time; and the thrill of visiting, viewing, or reading about the final projects that came from the bids on which I have worked.
Still, I’m happy to walk away from it, noting that the average span of tenure in proposal pursuit is something under 5 years. Very few people make it a lifelong career as I did. And even fewer can boast that they survived ulcer-free, and never missed a deadline in 41 years.
To celebrate my new freedom, The Resident Male, a specialist in surprise rather than programmed gift-giving, has presented me with a Wonderous Treasure Box: a tabletop jewelry armoire, shown here on the dining room sideboard, but destined for my dresser.
The drawers are fitted out with small compartments, both sides open up to reveal hooks for necklaces and bracelets, and the top hinges up with a mirror on the inside, and another storage bin beneath. I will add some canvas inserts to the side door inside panels, so I have mesh on which to hang hook-style earrings. The wood and build of this piece are magnificent. I adore it, and have showered him with copious thanks.
What will I do with myself besides organizing my slovenly dresser and precariously piled bling-midden? Well, there’s plenty going on here, and I will be in the thick of it.
We are at the cusp of a major basement renovation project, with the goal of updating a smelly, always-damp, slightly moldy cavern of 1960s vintage cheap paneling and suspended ceiling tiles into a comfortable, clean and usable space. This includes the area where my desk sat, the kids’ old TV area (including a ramshackle home bar, repurposed into shelving for my needlework library); the craft/sewing room; a strange “leftover” alcove at the back of the house; and what can be described as a bathroom only in the most generous terms (right now it’s just closet hiding a fitfully inoperative toilet and a population of house spiders).
The goal is to make a great room with a comfortable TV/sitting area at one end, that can also be used as guest space,plus an exercise area at the other end; a true half-bath with a sink and working fixtures; a functional storage/pantry alcove to house our freezer; and a craft/sewing room with actual useful and accessible storage and organization space. My office area and needlework library will go upstairs to one of the spawns’ former bedrooms, now that those are no longer tenanted year-round. Demolition should be beginning on the project by the end of April.
In addition to that, there are all my own projects. I can (gasp) STITCH DURING THE DAYTIME on a weekday! A strange concept for sure, and one I am still getting used to. It still feels wrong, like ducking out of class, or skipping an appointment – but I suspect that feeling will eventually pass.
One problem I have to solve is with Big Green. Remember that worn area I noted a few posts ago? When I unmounted the thing to try to capture the ground above the abrasion, it gave way before I put any stress on it – falling to pieces and making an enormous hole. The hole is beneath the “keeper bar” that holds the fabric in the frame’s roller, and is clearly seen here. I’ve flipped the thing – this is the right side, but it’s on the frame with the rollers on top rather than behind, in an effort to make the largest possible area accessible for stitching.
See that narrow border that’s part of the [grapes, hops, berries] strip? I have just enough room to complete it below, with about an inch left over. Obviously when I go to finish this piece I will need to trim it out with a border strip of fabric, and do it hanging scroll style. But that’s in the future. Right now the problem is that I don’t have enough room in the frame to stitch that narrow bit. Once I am done with the main body of the current panel I will have to take the sampler off the big frame and figure out how best to work on it in my sit-upon hoop frame – how to avoid abrasion and distortion of the established stitching as I relocate the hoop, and how not to stress the already-fragile threads of the weave itself. I may even end up having to work in hand, something I dread doing.
And yes – I brought this on myself, both for letting the piece languish so long and suffer such abuse that it weakened in the first place, and for choosing an overly wide and ambitious border to finish. I should have picked my second choice, one that was about an inch less tall. Live and learn…
Oh. Folk will also be happy to hear that I’m diving back into T2CM – updating some of the blurbs to synch with scholarship that has evolved since I started the project (museums have revisited the dating and provenance of many of their fragments in the past 15 years); and with nothing to stop me, I hope to have it buffed, re-proofed, and ready for publication later this year.
ANOTHER WEEK. ANOTHER MOTIF
Moving on from the dolphins, we leap to the next motif. I wanted something both darker and less dense than the massive meshy panel, and hit on this column/flower meander. It’s another one from my ever-forthcoming The Second Carolingian Modelbook (T2CM – it includes both linear patterns and block unit designs).
The columns design appears on Plate 70 of my book, but it’s source is a 16th century Italian openwork piece in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession 20.186.27
The museum description is rather cryptic. It says “Bobbin lace, buratto, punto a rammendo.” To me it looks like buratto – darning on a woven gauzy ground, and not bobbin lace or a withdrawn thread technique (punto a rammendo). Buratto and lacis are very close, with lacis being worked over a hand-knotted net mesh, and buratto being worked on a purpose-woven gauzy linen fabric. It’s structure is not unlike Penelope canvas, but made from much finer threads with much wider gaps between them. It’s effect is entirely that of an open mesh – no where near as dense as the Penelope. Admittedly this piece might be lacis. I am not seeing knots at the junctures of the meshes, but sharper photos might reveal their presence.
While my treatment of it in plain old cross stitch isn’t necessarily something that can be defended as a common historical usage, the use of these designs for both openwork (lacis or buratto, or even withdrawn thread designs) and surface embroidery on the count is well documented. Since I am not doing a historical piece I chose POCS because it on this ground with only one strand of silk, presented an airy and lighter contrast to the mesh technique, and the long-armed cross stitch and Montenegrin stitch that I’ve used in elsewhere on this piece.
Oh. And the source for the dolphins? Plate 29 of T2CM. But it is my rendition of an illustration in Lady Marian Alford’s Needlework as Art (Plate 42), originally published in 1886. There it is cited as 16th century Italian. I tracked it down. That piece from Lady Alford’s collection and shown in her book is now in custody of Belton House, Lincolnshire UK, and registered with that country’s National Trust (#426944). I know of no no on-line photos of it. If you do, please share the citation in the comments.
As mentioned before, the original shown that I drew up for T2CM features the dolphins and connectors (but not the rondels) and the background of the original is voided – filled in, but with a grid of tiny one-unit squares.
When will T2CM be out? I know it’s been a very long wait, for which I apologize. However I do know that if all goes well, my schedule will emerge from some significant time constraints in late spring, and I will be able to devote myself to publication. I am loathe to promise after so long, but 2021 has every indication of being The Year.
SUMMER IS COMING – I PROMISE
Time once again for String’s annual post of shameless self promotion.
Summer 2021 rental reservations have opened for our beach place on Cape Cod. It’s in North Truro, just over a mile from the Provincetown line.
Reservations can be made at the Kinlan-Grover website. For some reason the link has changed this year, wiping out the prior years’ reviews and feedback. But it’s still the same place, same amenities, and is already filling fast with repeaters from prior years. Prices vary by week, and there are significant savings in the shoulder seasons.
While I’m at it, how about something to read while you self-isolate on the beach?
Fernando’s catalog continues to grow. Of course I am biased, but I do recommend all of these most wholeheartedly.
Fractured Symmetry
The first of a burgeoning science fiction/mystery series. This collection of stories features a strong woman of action and a reclusive alien genius as the detectives. It’s fast plotted, tight and full of compelling characters, alien cultures, heroics, and intrepid investigations. With great lashings of sarcasm thrown in.
The Temple of Beauty
This collection features retro-inspired short stories, and includes both SF and fantasy, ranging across a wide variety of tones and subjects. More aliens, stealthy killers, high camp wandering heroes, and the clash of class and ideals. Some played for ironic amusement, some less flippant.
The Lady of Dungeness
The latest offering – a novella for plague times. This is an intrepid tale of perseverance, love, art, science, and separation, set in a near future that is both all too familiar and strange.
Treyavir
A novella length taste of epic fantasy in the classic style, this is the story of Reginal Maigntar, Falcon Knight and Lord of Thul, who seemed destined to live a life built on the achievements of his predecessors. Until…
REACTIVATION AND SPOILING
I admit it. I was horribly spoiled this holiday past.
My family has fitted me out with all sorts of stitching goodies for the new year. There were silk threads and linen grounds from my mom and the Elder Offspring – enough to keep me going for quite a while. In addition, The Resident Male drew inspiration from a recent Facebook post (plus the general state of the stitching supply midden next to my favorite chair), and gave me a mercer’s chest from Sajou in which to store my embroidery supplies and tools. A princely gift. And yes. It’s already full.
Younger Offspring hand crafted me a Special Object. That book next to the chest – assembled and bound, with an embroidered and beaded cover all of their own devising, it’s full of graph paper pages – perfect for stitch design and doodling. I think my family knows me very, very well.
During the supply sort and consolidation to populate my new tiny chest, I stumbled across the thread I had been using for my Long Green Sampler. That’s a project from about six years ago. I was working on it just before we departed for our expat stay in India. I brought it with me but had no well lit comfortable place in which to work on it, so it languished. I poked at it a couple of times in the years since, but I hadn’t set it up for reactivation. I remounted it and set in again yesterday evening.
No, that’s not a real cat. I would love to have one, but I am very allergic to them. It’s a stuffed toy, liberated from the Spawns’ menagerie. It usually does duty as a very conveniently sized elbow rest, but here he’s blocking sun glare. He can be both obliging and versatile, although (sadly) not very affectionate.
To reprise, Long Green is a long strip sampler, done in Au Ver a Soie’s Soie d’Alger, in color #1846 on 40 count linen (20 stitches per inch). I am picking my strip patterns on the fly, mostly from my ever forthcoming book, The Second Carolingian Modelbook. This particular strip features my attempt at the tightly pulled and totally overstitched meshy background found on so many historical artifacts worked in the voided style. The design is one that appears in museum collections, and that exists in several clearly related versions. I’ve nicknamed this one “The Lettuce Pattern” for obvious reasons.
My redaction with its curious Y-spring companion edging is largely based on this version in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts collection, Accession 99.176:
The date attribution has wandered forward a bit over the years, but is now listed as probably 17th century, possibly being of Spanish or Sicilian origin. Here is another example of Lettuce, also from the MFA, now cited as being Spanish and 17th century, Accession 95.1116 :
Although this one shows quite a bit more in-motif detail than the one above, it is still clearly a closely related pattern, and not a slice off the same original artifact. Both of these have meshy grounds, worked by tightly stitching and displacing the warp and weft, bundling them tightly together – NOT by cutting and withdrawing threads, then stitching over the remaining scaffolding. That’s another technique but distinctly different from the one employed here.
Here’s another example of the Lettuce family. This one features a simple boxed ground (no drawn meshy work here). The original is in the Brussels Museum of Art and History, Accession 20048516. The description cites it as being stitched in red silk, and dates it to the 1500s, but does not include a geographical provenance.
The Brussels example has another special spot in my heart. You can’t see more than a sliver from my clip, but it pairs Lettuce up with another favorite design, proving them to be contemporaries.
As you can see from the photos of my green piece, I’m about half-way done with this band. Here are the others above it, a photo montage shot and composed by fellow India Expat, artist, and friend Tamar Alsberg. I’m a bit greyer now, but so are we all in these salon-challenged days.
Some highlights – bit of braiding in the lower left was a ton of fun – the solid stripes are done in Montenegrin Stitch, and the bit between my hands in the center top – that’s the back. Double running rules!
If you still want more info on these individual bands, you can call up the whole project (in reverse chronological order) here.
String-Or-Nothing 