TALKING HOOPS AROUND THE SUBJECT
Yesterday was a needlework housekeeping day. I put away the supplies from my last project, neatened up my stitching-on-the-go box, and cast an eye over my kit in advance of whatever project I will do next. And there WILL be a next – it’s just a matter of getting a couple of holiday obligations finished first.
Among the reassessments I made was an evaluation of my hoops. I have several. My best ones are three in-hand hoops, and one sit-upon hoop on a stick. All are hardwood wood and better quality, with sturdy brass hardware – not the bamboo ones with fragile clasps. Three of them are shown in the family photo below. The other one is an unwrapped duplicate of the smallest, shallowest hoop. I haven’t wrapped it because it happens to have much better tension than the one I did wrap, and there might be call for me to use an unwrapped hoop for a specific purpose. Since I don’t leave my projects hooped when dormant, there’s no call for me to have two absolutely identical ones, both prepped and ready.
The in-hand hoops are all 6 inches (15.24 cm) in diameter measured across the inner hoop. I find that the most convenient size both for maintaining tension and for use in tight places. The sit-upon is 8.75 inches (22.22 cm) across the inner hoop. I note that a 6 inch diameter hoop/stick part is now available from the maker. I might pop for that someday.
The ring of one of the in-hand hoops is 1/4 inch (0.63 cm) deep, and the other hand held one is 5/8 inch (1.59 cm) deep. The hoop on a stick is even wider – 7/8 inch (2.22 cm).
I also have a selection of both plastic and wooden quilting size hoops, a foot in diameter or more that I’ve gotten as hand-me-downs, or as part of “take the lot” yard sale/jumble sale needlework bundles. I rarely use them because I find they are cumbersome, and they don’t provide the drum-tight tension I prefer. None of those have been promoted to my on-deck group, and aren’t shown.
But why so many of the smaller diameter? Well, it happens I do have several larger scrolling frames, and use them when needed – mostly for things that have fragile threads, metallic threads, or other raised embellishments; or that employ crush-prone stitches that a hoop could injure when it is repositioned. But for smaller pieces, non-fragile pieces, and in some cases REALLY big projects like tablecloths, I prefer the hoops. These days I mostly use the sit-upon, but for sitting on the beach and stitching, the sit-upon is useless. You can’t sit upon a hard paddle seat in a soft fabric sling chair – so hand hoop it is.
Why both the deep and the shallow? The deep ones (including the hoop on the stick here) work better with thinner fabrics – the 38 and over count linens and blends I usually use. The shallower ones work better for thicker fabrics, especially heavy 28 to 36 count evenweave, denim, and other sturdier fabrics. If I used most Aida I’d probably employ the shallower hoop for that, too. Do you have a standard deeper hoop and you are struggling to get it over your Aida? Try a thinner wall hoop. It will be easier, even if you wrap the hoop.
Wrap the hoop?
Yup. Makes a world of difference. Wrapping the inner hoop with 100% cotton twill tape vastly improves the grip of the thing, and makes the fabric much easier to mount and to tension. It also cushions the work a bit, cutting down on stitches being crushed. I will probably wrap the outer hoops, too, to prevent those shiny areas that happen when densely packed stitching meets hoop tension. But so far I haven’t bothered.
How to do it. Note that the deeper hand-held hoop is wound with wider twill tape than the other two. That was the first one I wrapped. I have to say it was significantly harder to do it with the 3/4 inch (1.9 cm) tape than it was to do with the 3/8ths inch (0.95 cm) tape. The narrower stuff is easier to stretch to conform to the circle of the hoop, without lumping and gapping.
Lumping and gapping on the outer edge of the inner hoop is to be strenuously avoided. That leads to high and low spots with suboptimal tension. The inner surface can be less “policed” but it shouldn’t present gaps or kinks that might work their way around to the top, or catch needles during stitching.
I find the best way to achieve as uniform a contact surface as possible is to overlap the tape by 50%, row on row, and wrap as tightly as possible, maintaining the established angle and stretching the tape as I go. Yes, it can take me a couple of tries before I hit on the angle that produces the most even results.
I don’t use glue or tacks to hold the end, I just wrap, gripping the tape and hoop very tightly, placing each successive course with special attention. Here you see the start and the midway point. Eventually the origin end will work itself a tiny bit loose as I go, but I keep it folded flush against the inner surface of the ring, and take care to wrap over it. Eventually I get back to the start. I cut the tape, tuck the ends under to prevent fraying and firmly sew it to the inside surface of the ring, back where it meets the beginning. That spot is indicated by the arrow, below.
The only caveat on this whole thing is that wrapping may add so much diameter to the inside hoop that the little thumb screw holding the clasp together becomes too short. This happens mostly on the less expensive/mass market type hoops. If that happens, a quick stop at an old fashioned hardware store can help you land a longer replacement. And by that I mean a store with actual people who know the inventory, not a big box/self-serve hardware department store that sells everything in quantity, entombed in blister packs. Bring the hoop and screw in and explain the problem at a non-busy time. The staff will be able to size it and find **just** the right thing.
And that’s how it’s done. If done with proper care, wrapping a hoop of this size takes me about a half hour. And a half hour well spent.
Other Recent Projects
The multicolor headscarf I was stitching has finally been made up into its finished form – a lined triangle with ties. The ties are also 3/8 inch twill tape, but a heavier/denser and whiter one than that used on these hoops. I folded it in half longitudinally and stitched it to make robust tie strings. But I didn’t remember to take a finished item photo, and then decided to give it as a present to a dear old friend who married over the weekend past. I forgot to ask permission to use a photo of her wearing it. But I am happy that she loves it enough to tie it on immediately after the ceremony.
And the Fractured Symmetry sampler joins the rest of the to-be-framed or finished works on my Wall of Shame.
He is tucked in next to the underskirt panel at the far left, just below Stone by Stone. In addition to some of my perpetual unfinished objects (UFOs), there are now six pieces there, stitch complete, waiting for framing or other finishing. I suppose I should get on that.
BUT in the mean time I have seasonal obligations to meet. I promised a stocking with a wolf on it before the holidays hit. I’m on it. The recipient’s name with be duplicate stitched into the white band at the top. I’m afraid that the distortion inherent in translating squared graphs to rectangular knitted stitches (wider than they are tall) has stretched poor Wolfie a bit. I am hoping that additional embroidery – maybe an eye and some ornaments on that tree, will make him both more identifiable and more festive.
The pattern is one I’ve done twice before, once for each of the spawn. But the last time I knit it was 25 years ago. I found one of the pattern pages, but not the others. I’m extrapolating from the other two extant stockings. An interesting exercise, for sure.
FERTHAN, FURR, AND FUSTOV
Mind, fist, and blood (concentrated, dedicated, personal creativity; traditional hand skills; and the effort of expression).
It’s done. My tribute to my Resident Male‘s book, Fractured Symmetry.
The supplemental lacing I had to do for the lower third has stretched the linen a bit. It needs to relax. I will probably mist it and hover-steam it to help. Actual ironing of course is right out because of the rayon faux silk I used for the stitching. But that plus a bit of “gravity therapy” on my wall of unfinished projects will square it out again for eventual framing.
All in all, I’m pleased. I considered going back and adding more background mini-motifs to the motto section, but decided against it. Having the words float in empty space draws more attention to them, and the larger but less dense treatment of the Yyrgamon strip (the yeti-like creature) balances that empty space well enough.
From initial kickoff of hemming the linen and basting the margin and center lines, to the last stitch of the camouflaged signature initials and date took 42 days, just under two weeks longer than Stone by Stone. Although this piece is a bit narrower, it’s much longer with more strips, and the thread count was a bit finer. This one is about 9 7/8 inches wide by 18.5 inches long ( 25 x 47 cm). Stone by Stone was 9.25 inches wide by 10.25 inches long (23.5 x 26 cm). More stitches per inch = more time.
To answer some inbox questions:
- Did you graph out the whole project? No. I have drafted out the strips individually, most in advance of this project as part of my eventually to be released Ensamplario Atlantio Volume III collection. Several I drew up specific to this project as I was working on the piece, but I didn’t choose the strips ahead of time or draft up a full project plan. I did have to draft out the saying as a single unit (without the framing strips left and right) because the upper case letter was heavily modified from my inspiring source, and I invented the other letters just for this piece to accompany it.
- Can I get this chart? No. But eventually you will be able to download EnsAtl III and have these bands as individual building blocks.
- How do you do your graphing? I use a home-grown system based on the free drafting program GIMP – the same one I use for all of my books and broadsides. No commercial embroidery design program handles linear stitches as effectively and at the scale I need. And as far as I know, only my own system produces the dot-and-bar style charts I (and others) find especially easy to work from. I have a free tutorial plus free templates for my system elsewhere on this blog site (read up from the bottom because blogging software presents the retrieved posts in reverse order.)
- Why do the patterns look tall and squished? I’m not working on purpose woven evenweave linen sold specifically for embroidery. I am not sure where this well aged yardage from my stash came from, but it was “fabric store” linen sold off the bolt for home sewing. The count is about 37.25 threads per inch in the east-west direction, and about 31.9 threads per inch north-south. There’s a more complete explanation of what that does to a charted design in this linked post.
- How are you going to frame or finish it? In truth, I haven’t a clue. Yet. For the moment to relax and chill while I noodle on that problem it’s going to join Stone by Stone on my basement workroom’s Wall of Shame, with the rest of my completed but unfinished projects and perpetual WIPs.
- Why would you spend so much effort for a book? Because it’s a good book, and I believe in the author and the quality of his work. I am his Fangirl Army of One, and my most effective weapon is my needle.
Have other questions? Feel free to post them in comments, and I’ll try to answer. In the mean time it’s off to other projects. I’ve not exhausted my itch-to-stitch, but I have a couple of knitting and crochet projects in queue, plus holiday deadlines to meet, so I’ll working on them in the coming weeks.
IT’S BEEN A WHILE
A catch-up post on what’s been stitched since I explained the Mystery Saying. Just a bit over two weeks, in fact. This is what I’ve been up to:
Forgive the tilt. The lacing is a bit uneven and the work appears skewed. All will be nice and parallel when it’s finally off the frame.
I was in the middle of the fish strip when I last posted. Obviously that plus three more have been completed. Plus a partial that I’m currently stitching. All of these new designs are my own. The fish, pretzel knots, crystal-like flowers, toothed border, and strange furry beast will be in Ensamplario Atlantio III when that’s finally released.
The fish, crystal flowers, and the current monster-bearing strip are all keyed on various stories in Fractured Symmetry, the Resident Male’s book that I am using as inspiration for this piece.
- The fish is well, an otherworldly fish, not much to say about them other than they are a point of minor triumph when they appear.
- The crystal flowers are an interpretation of fractalites – engineered/grown aesthetic constructs that are a special hobby of Terrendurr, the alien half of the detective duo whose adventures the book chronicles.
- And the menacing yeti/gorilla/bigfoot creature is a Yyrgamon, a forest dweller native to the planet Raylic – a bit less mythical than a yeti, rarer than gorillas, and of greater cultural significance than the bigfoot; and of highly significant appearance in one of the books’ stories.
On the sampler the Yyrgamon’s presence will bring some balance to the bottom half of the piece, and provide weight to compliment the saying block, above.
Note that basted line down below my current strip. That’s the bottom edge of the stitching area. I have room for one more band. Or possibly one with a “sprouting” narrow edging across the bottom. No clue as to what will end up there yet. I might have to draft up something new to fit.
Stay tuned!
THAT MYSTERY SAYING…
More progress on the sampler tribute to the Resident Male’s book Fractured Symmetry. I’ve teased the photo of the motto on Facebook, and promised to explain it here. I’m now further along, and can do so.
The phrase comes from a discussion describing a settlement of Raylics – furred, pack-dwelling aliens, close allies of Terrans. While their society as a whole is a technologically advanced one, space-flight capable and modern in every aspect, they retain a closer bond to their past than do many other species of similar achievement. One way this manifests is the presence of artisanal/subsistence communes, preserving the skills, values, and lifestyles of prior generations. In this discussion, the Raylic founder of such a commune refutes a scoffer, who doesn’t believe that their efforts would be viable.
“In my youth I traveled space, and on other worlds there are still those who appreciate what is built with ferthan, fuur and fustovv” – Raylic for mind, fist and blood – and we will sell to them if our own folks have so much forgot what it means to truly live.”
Fractured Symmetry, page 224 of the print edition
So in a way, not unlike Roycroft and other similar movements grouped together under the Arts and Crafts banner, this statement echoes the tenets of concentrated, dedicated, personal manufacture; of valuing traditional hand skills for the vision, effort, expression (and any possible personal sacrifice of choice) that they contain. A weighty thought, and one not too often found in gadget-oriented/low-touch science fiction in general. And quite appropriate for a hand-embroidered piece.
As far as what’s what in the stitching, some but not all of the strips have allusions to the various stories that make up the book. The latest band with its fish-like creature is one of the ones that does. All of the band patterns (but not the alphabets) are in my books. A couple are in my free download Ensamplario Atlantio Volume II. Several are from the third volume of that series, on which I am currently working. One is in my for-pay work The Second Carolingian Modelbook.
The fancy initial F is based on yet another of the listings on the Patternmaker Charts blog – adapted from a linear alphabet in Sajou number 182. Although it’s shown in two colors, I opted to do the letter in just one. It was also a bit tricky because it contains a lot of half stitches, which are not well documented in the original chart. Obviously I also modded the letter a bit, making it taller by inserting a bit of my own interlacing, eliminating the solid cross stitch (or satin stitched) units, and smoothing out some pointy ends. The rest of the letters I made up on the fly, as needed. So if you go looking for a full A-Z of them you won’t find it.
One thing I’m still thinking about is adding more to the background field surrounding the motto. A lot will depend on how dense the stitching is beneath it. I don’t intend to do full voiding, not even in a sparse pattern, but there might be some need to add a bit more around the letters. Possibly a couple more spot motifs in blue. We will see…
How far am I along? There’s a little bit of basting remaining, left of the working end of the fish strip. That marks the north/south center point. The fishies straddle it. So there’s still a lot more to go. But that’s good progress considering I only started stitching this one only 14 days ago.
TWISTING THE DAYS AWAY
More progress on the latest small band sampler. Just a little to go on the latest band.
That basted line below the ribbon strip marks the top quarter of the piece, measured from the top edge of the stitching. Next I will probably do a narrow red band, and then on to the lettering. Advance warning that it will bear another incomprehensible motto in yet another non-Terran language, in keeping with my themed tribute.
On to answering questions from my inbox.
First one up is “Why do you leave twigs as you go?” I think the person is referring to single stitches like the ones hanging down in the upper left of this snippet.
These are a temporary artifact of the way I work double running stitch. In this case I had just enough thread left to do the blue bit shown, but not enough to continue down the other two parallel lines that make up the ribbon. But I know I’ll be coming back from the other direction. So to make life a tiny bit easier, instead of coming back and then having to noodle around to hit the **exact** spot along a continuous line where the previously laid stitches pierce the ground, while I was at that spot I added just one stitch along each of those future branches. That way when I return from the other direction I have a nice, easy to see spot point to join up with instead of having to squint. It’s a tiny thing, but makes life a lot easier.
The second item was phrased as a minor accusation – “You say you almost never use stitches over 2×1, but the angles on your piece clearly show them.” To this person I can say that I haven’t violated one of my stitching conventions. My weave is skew and makes the angles that are 45° on my chart look closer to 60° or 30° when stitched. Here is how that works:
Using the penny method I counted 28 threads going east/west, and 24 threads north/south. Multiply each of those by 1.33 and you get roughly 37.25 threads per inch in the horizontal direction, and 31.9 threads per inch in the vertical (I rounded up to 32 on that one).
That means that a square stitched over 2×2 threads will appear as a rectangle – taller than it is wide, with a ratio of about 1:0.83. Here’s a rough illustration of what’s happening.
All three of the simple quaternary flowers above are exactly the same in terms of stitch count. All of them model what happens if you stitch over 1×1, 2×2, 3×3 or any exact ratio count. The one at the left is what most people expect to see when working on Aida or evenweave, and for the most part it is. But if you find a piece of woven, countable ground that isn’t exactly even – that has more threads in one direction than in the other, the stitched expression of the fully symmetrical pattern will appear a bit distorted in one direction or the other. If you have more vertical threads per inch, the design will appear squished – wider and more squat. If you have more horizontal threads, the design will appear stretched out and taller. In my case my fabric has more horizontal threads per inch than vertical ones. You can clearly see this here when you compare the length of three stitches in each direction.
That vertical arrow bar is visibly longer than the horizontal one.
I stitch on skew count quite often, mostly because I am frugal and use countable grounds NOT specifically sold for embroidery. These include vintage linens, newly purchased finished goods (like napkins), and yardage sold of the bolt intended for regular garment or home goods sewing. But when I do use these non-standard materials I try to plan the direction of my stitching or the design of my work to either take advantage of the distortion, or avoid calling attention to it.
If the counts are close, most likely no one will notice, and if they do it will be because I’ve chosen to do a pattern that goes around a corner. Here’s an example. These are closeups of the same pattern from my first Fangirl sampler (the bony bois). The left photo is of the strip pattern running up the side of the piece, and the other from the same strip stitched along the bottom.
Side by side it’s very clear that there is distortion. But I doubt you noticed it in the last post’s photo of the entire piece.
The easiest way to avoid this challenge is NOT to work the same design both horizontally and vertically on the same piece of ground. That’s where band samplers show their strength. The bigger the percentage deviation between horizontal and vertical count, the more I lean towards doing a piece featuring strips or parallel bands.
As a closing thought on this, note that I planned the direction of the count on my Unfinished Coif rendition in response to the ever so slightly skew 72×74 thread per inch count. I had purchased the meter piece of wide linen but in spite of the cost I discarded the frugal method of cutting it to maximize the number of coif-size pieces I could get from the yardage. I was only making one coif, and saved the remnant for future work. So my ground for that project was cut on the other direction of the grain than the ones worked from the pieces supplied to the in-country stitchers. I did this so the stitched filling designs on it would be stretched and thinner rather than wider and more squat.
In the example above you can best see this in the big leaf with the fancy interlace filling. That filling when charted presents with the larger “circles” formed around the center interlace by the twists as being of equal height and width. But as stitched they look taller than they are wide. It’s a very tiny and subtle difference, but one I think added to the elegance of the overall presentation.
Oh, and as an aside…. The ONLY place aside from use as part of eyelet formation I have ever seen a 2×1 stitch unit in ANY filling or band artifact or historical work prior to 1650 was found by Toni Buckby, our fearless leader on Unstitched Coif. She redacted the “stirrup” fill I used in the paisley shape in the lower left. The 2×1 units form the elongated crosses in the center of the scattered motifs.
STONE BY STONE FINISHED, ANOTHER BEGUN
The blackwork mini-sampler I did to celebrate The Resident Male’s latest work (now in Beta reading) is complete, a mere 30 days from the first stitch done on 27 June, to stitching the signature on 27 July.
Dated and signed. If I had been thinking, I would have left spots at the left and right of that bottom flower edging for the initials and date, so they would have been in line. But not wanting to pick anything out (stitching in hand on the edge is a real pain), I went outside the lines and signed/dated the piece in the margins.
For the record, this was done in one strand of Sulky 30, a mix of black and deep green. I am not particularly fond of the Sulky look here using only one strand stitched over 2×2 ground cloth threads. It’s a hard finish thread, and was a poor choice for the rather open holes on this 33.25 threads per inch count ground. The threads rattle around in the ground cloth weaving holes, making sharp corners and straight runs rather wobbly. I probably should have used a double strand.
While I could have been happier about that stitch regularity and alignment problem, I’m not un-pleased with the end result. All of these bands will be in Ensamplario Atlantio Volume III. With the exception of the ribbon immediately above the letters, they are all of my own devising. That ribbon band is something I redacted myself from an extant artifact. No timeline yet on Ens Atl III‘s release, but I am close, with 20 pages of new fills (a few with source annotations). It will also have an as-yet undetermined number of pages with narrower bands, plus several full page plates with larger, all-over designs, wider fills, strips with mitered corners, and shirt yokes. Neatly symmetrical mitered corners on these strips are very rarely seen in period pieces – usually designs are butted up against each other, or the corners are fudged and display no planned diagonal mirroring. But modern stitchers prefer them, so I’ll furnish a few.
For now Stone by Stone has joined the other pieces on my Wall of Shame – the pin-rail display of as-yet-unframed, or unfinished stitching in my sewing room. And you can see why I called this a mini-sampler, compared to its brothers.
While I will be finishing this off as either a framed or fabric scroll piece, I’m not quite sure how to do it yet because the margins around the stitching are so small, and the antique pulled thread hem too charming to hide. I might baste it to a piece of deep green or black cloth, and either frame or scroll-finish that. But such things are to contemplate in the future.
Now on to the next piece.
Since I’ve established a pattern of these needlework tributes to The Resident Male’s writing output, I have decided to do another small piece to honor Fractured Symmetry, which so far has been unrecognized in stitchery. This time however I’m starting with a piece of cut yardage rather than a rescued vintage linen item, complete with finished edges. To that end, I need to prepare my ground cloth for stitching.
First I need to true it to weave, because the cut edges of remnants (and even purchased pieces of ground cloth) rarely follow the threads. Here you see my chosen piece of stash linen. I’ve found the first unbroken thread along each edge, and carefully pulled it out, leaving the partials above it intact. This gives me a nice, straight line along which to cut. Note that there is a bit of skew that will be snipped off before the next step:
In total, that’s about an inch (2.5 cm)of wastage north/south, and about 3/4 of an inch (2 cm) wasted east/west. But it can’t be helped. I carefully cut along the lines created by the withdrawn threads, and hand-hemmed the cloth all the way around. I know others use sergers or sewing machines to do this. It’s a pain to haul that puppy out. If Klaatu (my ancient Elna) was out and being used for something else, I probably would have done an off-the-edge zig zag or other specialty stitch using it. But I don’t begrudge the time to hem. It’s the sort of thing I can do while watching TV.
After hemming my ground works out to about 9 7/8 inches wide (25 cm) across by 18.5 inches tall (47 cm). This time I’ll leave about 1.25 inches (a little over 3 cm) of unworked margin all the way around, to avoid the stitch-in-hand challenge of Stone. That gives me a stitching area of roughly 7.5 inches x 17.3 inches (19 cm x 43 cm).
And the thread count? Easy with the penny method.
In this close zoom cell phone photo, the penny obscures 28 threads going east/west, and 24 threads north/south. Multiply each of those by 1.33 and you get roughly 37.25 threads per inch in the horizontal direction, and 31.9 threads per inch in the vertical. Obviously not evenweave, but I can work with that. It does mean that the designs as stitched will be a bit compressed in the horizontal, and a bit elongated in height. For example, squares on the count will present a bit like rectangles, but since I’m planning a simple band sampler, that will just end up being part of the piece’s overall look.
The next step is to iron the cloth to get out the storage creases (yes, I should have done that first), then baste in my guidelines to mark the vertical and horizontal centers, and to establish the top, bottom, and right hand margins. (I could do the left, too, but since I generally start in the center then finish symmetrical bands to the right first, I usually just work them to that same point in the repeat to the left.)
And while I’m doing that bit of tedium, I’ll be thinking about what strips or motifs to include on this piece. I’ve got a couple of bands I want to try out, but no full piece designed. And I also still have to find a word or short phrase to enshrine on it, so I’ll be thumbing through Fractured Symmetry to pinpoint that.
This is the fun of being a bungee-jump stitcher. You get to surprise yourself as you go along.
String-Or-Nothing 