BIGGER INSIDE THAN OUT? – CROWDSOURCE #4
First, thanks this week to our crowdsource design contributors – the patient Jane Wyant, and (as always) Long Time Needlework Pal Kathryn Goodwyn:
- #25 – Grapes – Kathryn’s own needlework sigil, offered up to our collection. (Kathryn’s deep love of grape motifs is legendary).
- #26 – TARDIS – From Jane Wyant, a Whovian tiny inter-dimensional call box should we wish to stitch in two places at the same time.
We’ve still got a few open diamonds. With some repositioning I think I can fit in seven more motifs. Feel free to send yours along.
On my own blackwork sampler, progress is being made. My Lipperheide panel is proceeding apace.
I am not going to have room for the entire repeat. There’s a head of one of the four winds (possibly Boreas), and a horn tooting satyr that will have to wait their turn on a future piece. Unless Kathryn gets there first. 🙂
After I finish out this strip to the left hand edge of the stitched area I will fill in a narrower band below the sprigged chimney pots. Then I’ll edge across the entire bottom with something nice and dark – probably worked voided style. I haven’t picked out the designs for either of those strips yet, but as folk following here know, I enjoy bungee jump style stitching. Once the dark area is done that will leave only the top. Believe it or not, the part you see stitched here is only about 65% of my total piece. I’m not sure what I’ll do up there, but that’s still down the road.
SUNSETS AND SPANIELS
A break from the crowdsource project this week. No new designs came in, so unless I cheat and post more myself, there’s no update. Feeling shy about submitting a design – please don’t be! We’re delighted to see your efforts, whether it’s your first venture into drawing a pattern, or if you’re an old pro.
Instead I share progress on my own sampler. As you can see, I finished the last band, described as “sprouting chimney pots” by Long Time Needlework Pal Kathryn:
And Kathryn is also to blame for the new band. She was gracious enough to lend me Kathleen Epstein’s Old Italian Patterns for Linen Embroidery – a redaction of one of the legendary Lipperheide volumes. This is the only design on the sampler that will not be offered in my upcoming sequel to TNCM because it’s in that book. If you’re familiar with the original you’ll see that I have adapted slightly:
My variation differs in the way that the background’s handled. I won’t be working this one voided like the original. I also tinkered a bit with some of the interior elements, the banding for example right under the central cherub. In the original the darker little vertical elements are filled in with cross stitches. Mine uses plain ladder like elements, which I repeat elsewhere in the piece. Thanks, Kathryn! You remain my chief enabler, even after all these years. 🙂
Now where do spaniels and sunsets come in? For spaniels, that’s easy to see: the odd little critter in the lower right hand corner. He’s got a spaniel-like fluffy tail, foot feathers, and floppy ears. Even the stylized dark area on his middle is reminiscent of the classic saddle-area markings on a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (a breed that was fashionable at in the 1500s-1600s.) As I worked him I could almost hear him barking at the cherub that will stand to his right (you can see the cherub’s hand and lower face at the edge of the stitched area). And if you’re eagle-eyed you’ll see the two mini-mistakes at the left hand edge of the completed work. Hint: I’ll be picking out the left hand lady’s upper arm and the hairline of the central angel-face.
Sunsets? That’s implied. This week’s vast amount of progress is brought to you by an impromptu mini-vacation the Resident Male and I took for part of last week – sans children, the youngest being in summer camp and the oldest being trusty enough to leave on her own. Three blissful days of embroidering while watching the tide roll in and out, basking in Outer Cape sunsets, wiggling toes in hot sand, snarfing up some fine food, and enjoying a production of A Winter’s Tale. I am now armed against the inexorable slide back to fall, school, heavy deadlines, December, and snow.
Finally, for folk who landed here looking for Ensamplario Atlantio. (Word is still spreading about it.) It’s here.
CROWDSOURCE #1 AND SOCK DISAPPEARANCE
Back from vacation! A week of Cape Cod sun, sand, salt water and doing as little as possible except enjoying those things.
This year my mom came with us and we had a great time. We spent most of our time on the sands right at our hotel, sitting, swimming, kayaking, even watching Provincetown fireworks from our room’s deck. We did our now traditional beach paella, salmon teriyaki on the grill, and flank steak kabobs. I am rested but could be easily persuaded to do a wash-rinse-repeat of the whole week’s experience. Seven days is not enough.
Arriving back home, I checked gMail to see if anyone had volunteered a graphed pattern for the crowdsource project. Lo and behold! There was one:
I present Design #1 – Twerp’s StarBee. The first design in the series. Red lines indicate straight lines “off the grid” or not at 180/90/45-degree angles. I like this cheeky little fellow. A nice one, Twerp!
If you want to draw up one of your own to be posted here, please feel free to download the JPG at the project’s kickoff page, then draw on it by hand or using any graphics program. You can email the resulting file, a photo or a scan of your design to me at kbsalazar (at) gmail (dot) com. Let me know whether or not you want your name or a link posted with your offering. I do reserve the right to do light editorial selection (this is a family-rated website).
Now, what progress have I made on my own stitching?
Some, mostly prior to our departure. I concentrated on two pairs of socks while we were on the beach.
I knit a pair of guy socks, with a simple broken rib ankle and k1p1 ribbing to finish. There is only one in this picture. The other is now at parts unknown. At best guess, I dropped it at dusk on the beach and didn’t notice that it was gone. Either seagulls or the sea made off with it. Somewhere there is either a lobster or a tern sporting a new brown habitat. And I need to get another ball of the same yarn and knit a third to make a pair. (Grrrr.) The other pair has a lacy pattern in the ankle. More on that another day.
And here’s the latest strip on my sampler:
To which I will return once the socks are done.
One last note – to date (using the click-through count of the fourth part) – over 1,000 people have downloaded the complete Ensamplario Atlantio since I posted it two weeks ago. If you are looking for it, it’s here. It’s a PDF file – you need a recent version Acrobat Reader to open it. You can get Reader for free, for both Mac and Windows. Although I’ve gotten some thank-you posts and a couple of questions from people unfamiliar with Acrobat, I’ve had very little other feedback, and only one bug report – of fonts not displaying properly on an iPad II running the latest version of Safari. I’m looking into that problem and may repost the files later this week.
SHOEHORNING
As you can see, I’ve finished out the dark, narrow strip on the right of the oak leaves. (I put a US penny on the frame for scale.)
It was a quick one, especially compared to the extra wide bands of long-armed cross stitch I’ve been working since March.
I like this design quite a bit, and I think it would be an exceptional choice for the top edge of a chemise (undergown), just barely peeking out at the neckline, as in Bronzino’s famous portrait of Eleanora of Toledo. Eleanora had a killer wardrobe and sat for many paintings. I’m hard pressed to choose a favorite because each one is spectacular. (Thanks to the Elizabethan Portraits website for collecting these links.)
Now I’m filling in the strip on the left. You can’t make out the design here, but it’s already clear that I’m mirroring along a horizontal axis.
Now, how did I know to leave enough room for these strips? I didn’t. I’m building this piece as I go, with little or no forethought on pattern choice other than a general idea of where darker and lighter strips should go. I still don’t know which way is up. To date all of the designs are non-directional, with neither up nor down. That will change soon. I’d like to include some patterns that feature mythical beasts, but I haven’t chosen them yet, and I haven’t figured out where they will go. But my fave beast strips are not up-down agnostic, so once I’ve picked one and stitched it, my up/down decision will be final.
Back to shoehorning designs in. To fill in these odd spaces, the first thing I had to do was to determine their width. Easy. I counted the stitches available in the target space. That’s design height, not length. I am not going to worry about centering these fill-in strips left-right. The just-finished area turned out to be 26 stitches tall. I had the center double bud design in the upcoming book. I also had a different pattern that used the little wiggle ancillary frame. I decided to use them together. However, each wiggle in its original form is 6 units tall. The center strip was 16 units tall – 28 stitches. Too many. I decided on a gambit often used in these period strips when borders are married to a main design. I stripped out a solid row of stitches between the wiggle and the main pattern but kept it at the outermost edges. This reduced the count to my target. An easy fix.
For this current strip, I’ve got a space that’s 27 stitches tall. But I don’t want to do another dark strip here. Something a bit less dense is in order. So instead of looking for (or drafting up) a single 27-stitch-tall pattern, I decided to take a 13 stitch tall meander from my first book and mirror it. (TNCM Plate 27:3). I’ll write more about this one as more stitching gets done. Mirroring in this manner is another perfectly common way 16th and 17th century stitchers used to to build wider repeats from narrower ones. I may play a bit though. There are a couple of bits where I could work in a gratuitous interlace to join the two mirrored repeats. We’ll see if that happens as I go along.
The blackwork fillings book…
I haven’t forgotten. I’m putting the finishing touches on it right now. I’ve asked some native Italian speakers for advice on the proper form for the name. Some say that Ensamplario Atlantio is the correct form. Others say it should be Ensamplario Atlantico. I’m leaning towards the former because the latter looks to be a form of Atlantic, not Altantia, and the book isn’t going to be named after the ocean. If you’re knowledgeable on proper Italian (especially Renaissance Italian), please feel free to chime in. It’s now up to 35 plates of designs, plus five pages of intro material. Ten of those pattern pages have NOT been previously posted here. So even if you’ve been downloading over the winter, there are ample new goodies for you in the final collection.
PROGRESS TOWARDS NORMALCY
Steady progress on the latest strip:
Now that life is beginning to get back to normal (or what passes for normal in this house) I can also report progress on the book front(s).
First, on the PDF collection of blackwork filling patterns, to be named Ensamplio Atlantaea, I apologize for the delay. This one will include all of the filling patterns published here over this winter past. And as an extra bonus for everyone’s patience, I will toss in several more pages of additional patterns, not seen here before. It will be free, and will be available for download here at this site. Right now I have 27 pages of patterns (the original 150, plus a dozen more), and hope to make it an even 30. Plus cover and some sort of intro essay. It will NOT include free drawn outline patterns for use with these fillings, nor will it include detailed working methods, although I may abstract some of the double running stitch guidance previously posted here. I hope to have this one up and ready sometime in the coming month.
On the big book – my sequel, to be named A Second Carolingian Modelbook: More Counted Patterns from Historical Sources, I’ve got about 45 pages of patterns drafted out in whole or in part. Each pattern has annotation, noting its origin artifact or source, or if it’s one of the few originals, that attribution. That’s about 100 individual patterns, some of which are main strip plus accompanying border. I also have all over patterns suitable for cushions and body linen, narrow strips for cuffs and collars or seam decoration, and wide pieces that would make nifty tablecloth, sheet or towel borders. Right now about 2/3 of the patterns are for double running stitch, although there are some that are good for Italian two-sided cross stitch, long armed cross stitch, lacis, or other square-unit styles. There are also quite a few that were worked voided, some with straight or double running stitch defining the foreground from the background, and some not. Working methods/colors of the originals are also described, and full sources are provided for all graphs, so stitchers can look them up. I do not anticipate finishing this one any time soon. Feedback is that readers want essays on techniques, materials, and methods of employ. All that will take time. As will figuring out how to do the actual publication. (Right now an on demand service like Lulu or one of its competitors looks most likely). This book will not be free, but I am hoping to keep it affordable.
And in other news, it’s the beginning of Birthday Season here at String. A much recuperated Smaller Daughter celebrated her 13th last Saturday, mostly by laughing with evil intent at the thought that others had decided that her becoming a teen was the cause of the end-of-the-world predictions for that date. Larger Daughter is now back from college for the summer, and celebrates mid-week. I note the passing of yet another anniversary of my 21st birthday at the end of this month. Today’s home-cooked lobster feast was in recognition of all three fetes. The Resident Male, the odd man out in so many respects, does not have to share his natal day with adjoining festivities. We will recognize that occasion later in the summer.
INCHING ALONG
Thanks to everyone who sent get well wishes to Younger Daughter. I can report that each day she feels a bit better, but it will take a while.
This weekend’s kid recuperation gave me ample time to work on my stitching:
I’ve got the repeat established now, and all mistakes have been corrected. Now it’s just a matter of finishing out this strip.
MORAL OF THE STORY…
“Don’t burst your appendix if you can avoid it.”
Younger Daughter is back home, after 19 days at Children’s Hospital in Boston. She’s still got a way to go before she’s school-ready, but she’s happy to be home with quiet, limited interruptions, and familiar food. Thanks to everyone who sent get well wishes!
I’d like to especially thank the staff at Children’s, not all of whose names I caught. They’re a very caring bunch, and did all they could to make the kid better and more comfortable. Here’s her much cherished souvenir – a little squeezy ball they gave to Morgan to exercise her fingers.
We asked the nursing staff we were assigned to, to autograph our “game ball.” We managed to get most but not all of them. Special thanks to Chris Mac, Sharon, Michelle, Josh, Maria, The Original Chris, Meredith, Rachelle, Caitlin, Paola, Cleanne, Cara, Audrey, Dr. Arnold, Dr. Hamilton, all of the residents on 10NW, and all of the other folk whose names slipped me by when I was in a sleep-deprived fog. The kids still has to go back to have the tatters of her appendix excised, but that’s a one day bit, not another extended stay.
As you can see, while we were there I had lots of time to stitch. I finished out the oak leaves and acorns at the right, and started another band at the left. That one is very dense, in long armed cross stitch, so it’s not exactly zipping along. Also stitching when sleepy led to tons of mistakes and ripping back, so what’s here is probably only about half of what I actually stitched.
Even with all of the rework, stitching was a much needed self-administered sedative while I was being a bedside mom.
The plan is to make this strip the same length as the oak leaves. Eventually I’ll either find or noodle out an even denser band for the narrow area immediately to the right of the oak leaves, and a less dense but similarly black band to put between the current strip and the established horizontal bands. I might take a break from dense work for a while though, and opt to work something in double running elsewhere on the piece before attempting those two strips. There’s tons more room both north and south of these.
One thing to note. So far, all of the finished strips are bi-directional. At this point there is no up or down on my sampler. Either end could be at the top. I could even opt to finish this out in landscape rather than portrait orientation. Jury is still out on what I will do, but I do have a couple of strips I’d like to include that are figural, with clearly defined ups and downs. Stay tuned to see how I work them in.
MY VEGETABLE LOVE…
…should grow. Vaster than empires and more slow.
This week’s progress is brought to us by an in-Barony performance of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, enacted by The Baron’s Players. The troupe is made up largely of friends, and the performance was quite enjoyable, played as a farce it had some laugh-out-loud moments. And as I watched, listened, and laughed, I stitched. This is not considered a faux pas in the SCA, where diligent quiet needlework is an acceptable audience activity, provided the attendee is not so absorbed in it as to be insensible or unappreciative of the performance.
Here you see a sideways view of the accumulated stitchery to date, so you can get an idea of scale and placement:
One more full leaf, plus an acorn sprig and part of a second, and I’ll be done with this strip and on to the next.
To Adelle, sorry to disappoint. I won’t be drafting this project up as a kit and selling it, but all of the designs in it will figure in my forthcoming book.
For those of you who follow such things, barring major crises – I have every intention of being at the Carolingian 40th anniversary at the end of the month, where I will be part of the “dim memories from the ancient past” contingent. I will be wearing my dress with the blackwork underskirt, and in all probability will be seated somewhere comfy where I can watch the fighters and embroider. Stop by and say hello.
LEAF BY LEAF
This week’s progress largely brought to you courtesy of a kid orthodontist appointment. The removal of Younger Daughter’s braces was good for a leaf and a half:
In the photo above you can see the room left for the next narrow band. It’s going to be darker than this one. But what to put there hasn’t been decided on yet.
On the SCA side, I will be at the 40th anniversary of the Barony of Carolingia later this month, where I will be part of the “Long Forgotten Artifacts of Elder Days” contingent. Provided I can rustle up a dress.
DRIVE BY PROGRESS POST
Deadlines have totally consumed me. No time to do more than post this minimal progress; and smile at the plaited look of long armed cross stitch, up close.
String-Or-Nothing 
