PENULTIMATE, BUT ROSY
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.
FALCONS AND SWORDS
Of course we’ve got them. This is of course an homage to an epic fantasy adventure.
A finish on the voided falcon panel. Foreground first in double running stitch, using black thread. Background then worked in the same accent yellow I’ve been using, in long armed cross stitch (LACS). The telltale plaited look of LACS done in rows that alternate direction is clear:
Working the voiding after the outlines can be tricky. First, on a design this dense, there are lots of angles and small spaces that need to be accommodated. Those starts and stops are a headache for sure, and make the texture a bit murky in that last stitch where the fill abuts an outline. And then there’s the care taken to not snag or penetrate the outline stitching itself, so that it isn’t covered by the voiding. You can see a couple little spots on this were I wasn’t totally successful, and a black outline has been eclipsed by the later work in yellow. I did my best, but no one is perfect.
On to the subsequent three strips. First two fillers – a simple bud meander to balance the narrow border just above the falcons. My own invention, and destined for Ensamplario Atlantio volume III (EnsAtl3). Just a touch of yellow in the tulip like flower, and a stitch in the long leaves to bring the color into this band.
The one below with small quad flowers and slanting rods with fleur-de-lys terminals is also my own, and will be in EnsAtl3. I was thinking the rods or staves of office held by seneschals and stewards. A design element congruent with such folk in Treyavir. Again, just a touch of accent yellow to keep it in play.
The current panel is a bit of a departure. I did a spot motif of similar style on my big dancing skeleton Fangirl Sampler, based on an entirely different as yet unpublished book by my Resident Male.
I have since done some modifications, morphing that spot motif into a repeating border. I really like it – lacy and complex. That border will also be in EnsAtl3. But the design didn’t quite fit here. There was too much empty space, and that was distracting. So I picked out the small bit that I had started, and redid my concept specifically for this sampler. The main elements of the design are still there, but they are denser. I think that it will balance out the lighter, more airy two strips just above it. I’m not sure how to deploy the yellow. Possibly filling in the sword blades and embellishing other elements of the interlace. We will see where fancy takes me as I continue with this strip. This variant will NOT be in EnsAtl3.
After this comes one or two more bands, tops. No clue as to what they will be yet. Existing pieces? Prior art reworked? Something entirely new, doodled up to fit? Keep watching these skies and you’ll find out.
DO WHAT’S RIGHT
And we have more progress to report on the latest sampler strip in my series of stitched pieces commemorating the literary output of my Resident Male.
First we start with the now expected Mysterious Saying. In this case, “Ant-Aransa,” a quotation from the inspiring work – Treyavir. It translates roughly to “Do what’s right.” An admonishment that should be heeded more often for us all.
The lettering is not from my usual source for typefaces. I started by looking up pixel based fonts, many from the early days of screen display, and mashed up several Uncial like adaptations to chart out the letters I used. There is no one clean source, but the closest would be Scriptorium. I probably should have allotted more space for the hyphen, but so it goes. The lettering is worked in four sided cross stitch (each cross stitch outlined by a straight stitch on all four sides. I did that to make the saying pop, and to have optimal coverage.
Below Ant-Aransa is a very narrow ancillary border from the upcoming Ensamplario Atlantio III. I believe I show it there in combo with other design elements, and without the second color accents.
Moving on, I designed the strip in progress specifically for this sampler, with specific points of reference to the source inspiration. Treyavir is a work of fantasy with science fiction elements. It tells the story of Reignal Maigntar, Falcon Knight, so of course there have to be prominently featured falcons. Other story elements here include the waning sun, his spear, Grey Hallet (his castle/manor house), and curious crystalline magic gems. All present and accounted for.
As usual the foreground black stitching is worked in double running, but I’ve chosen to do the yellow voiding in long armed cross stitch. This choice was probably not optimal, due to the headache of squeezing that stitch into a few of the very narrow spaces between the foreground motifs. But again, there it is. I might include the falcon strip in Ens Atl III. That decision is still pending. As is revisiting the center of the suns to add some interior decoration. I will wait to see the whole strip completed, including voiding before I make that choice.
What’s left? As you can see below I’m only at the halfway point and there is still plenty of real estate to cover. Probably more swords or other weaponry. In a knightly story there is always room for armaments. Other than that, I haven’t a clue. As usual I’ll figure that out when I get there.
POST REBOOT PROGRESS
Although I’ve been lax about blogging, I have made progress on the Treyavir sampler.
Although it looks like I used several yellows for the accents to the plain black stitching, they are all the same color. What makes them look differently are the numbers of plies, the stitch used, and the stitch density. The yellow in the acorns is done in two plies of DMC #3820 in plain old cross stitch. The interlink accents are two strands of DMC in double running, as are the yellow bits in the odd foliate S-repeat below the chain. The triangular counterchange design uses a single strand of the DMC in double running, worked in a simple box fill. And the flower meander currently being stitched uses that same single strand of DMC yellow and double running, but in a very open and sparse manner.
Catching up since the last post, Strip #3, the vaguely leafy S-repeat, is not my own original. I redacted it from sampler dated 1697 (a bit later than my usual sources). It’s from Detached Geometric Patterns and Italianate Border Designs with Alphabet” 1697. National Trust Collections, Montacute House, Somerset, NT 597706. It’s the black one in the second row, upper right. Obviously the yellow is my add, specific to this piece. I’ve puzzled out several other designs from this sampler, and may include them in the next Ensamplario volume, since being post 1610, they are out of the timeline spread I try to stick to for my Carolingian Modelbook series. But in one place or another they will eventually escape from my desktop.
Skipping ahead to Strip #5, this simple meander is another of my own doodles, and will also be in EnsAtl III, but with a departure from that to-be-published version. Like all of the other placements of yellow in this, the background play was improvised on the spot just for this piece.
The one above the in-process stitching deserves a longer explanation. Strip #4 is something a bit far afield. I can’t call it my own. I would say it’s “After J.R.R. Tolkein.” That’s right. I used an on-newspaper doodle done by The Professor himself as my leaping off point. The heavily embellished newsprint page from August 1960 was displayed in the “Tolkein: Maker of Middle Earth” exhibit. The photo of it was captured by a fellow follower of the Prancing Pony Podcast: Tolkien & Middle Earth discussion group on Facebook, and shared in that group on 9 August 2024. I played with it and produced my version within hours of that post. Here is the inspiring image:
I was moved by the three-color bit at the upper left. Redacting it to be compliant with my blackwork standards was a bit problematic. For one, I stick to a single unit, 90°-45°-180° angle schema. I avoid half stitches and stitches taken over 2×1 units or other multiples. Curved lines are also a challenge. But for all of that, plus trying to keep the thing in as small a footprint as possible, I do think the lineage of my rather art-deco looking version can be perceived.
I also note that the visual designers working on the aesthetic for Gondor in the movie versions of Lord of the Rings might have been likewise inspired by these doodles. Evidence:
Now, what’s this design doing on a piece dedicated to the work of my own Resident Male? I looked at the strips already laid down and then went nosing around in my doodle pages for something that would contrast well with them. Preferably of medium width and a geometric, with potential to be worked up as a relatively solid band rather than a meander or baseline-sprouted design. I wanted something to balance the chain links above it and provide counterbalance to the extra wide designs I’m considering for use in the lower half of the piece. This one was just too juicy to pass over. And flowing from arguably the greatest wellspring of fantasy literature, from which every epic in that genre since has contained at least a drop of legacy, the filtered scion of my interpretation seemed appropriate.
Next up, another Mystery Inscription from Treyavir. Possibly a narrow defining band to frame it, then on to some really complex custom strips that echo bits from that book.
REBOOT
Yes, I did go back and tease out ALL of the stitching seen in my last post. I was not happy with the discontinued DMC linen I was using. Single strand it was (mostly) too thin for this 26.6 tpi linen ground. Doubled, the slubby nature of the thread – especially where two thick sections ended up side by side – made what should be smooth lines very haphazard in appearance.
Not being near home base with my stash to hand, nor near any useful retail outfits or access to reliable one-day delivery where I am, I had to rely on what was already in my stitching box. Back to the black Sulky 30. In this case, on the very coarse ground, two strands work nicely. I teamed the black up with a strong golden yellow (DMC 3820), also worked as two strands.
The yellow is not dark enough to be distinctive on its own for the linear elements, but as fill and voiding, it is effective. So I’m playing with it as accent rather than as a full-fledged “partner color” as done with the two colors on Stone by Stone and Ferthan, Fuur, Fustovv.
The sharp eyed will note a major error on my part, that I will go back and fix the hard way. Look at the right side of the piece. The chain elements end there two units further along in the repeat than they do along the left edge of the stitching. Because the squirrels are not a symmetrical repeat, I did not notice that my centerline was off until I did the second strip. I will go back later and fudge those two left side units in the shorted strips so that everything is nice and even.
And if I hadn’t confessed this sin here, I bet you would never have noticed.
The squirrels and the double chain are both slated for inclusion in Ensamplario Atlantio Volume III. Both are my own designs. The chain will include variants like corners, a centered yoke treatment, so that it can be easily stitched up as embellishment on cuffs and collars for shirts and chemises.
I haven’t decided yet to include the current strip in EnsAtl III, or to hold it in reserve for The Third Carolingian Modelbook (also in production, but not as far along). The reason is that it is a redaction rather than an original. I have a clean point source for it, although it’s late (1697). More on the design as the stitching develops and I figure out how to bling it up with yellow accents.
As to the size of this piece, it’s narrow, but long. You can see how much real estate I have to cover:
I do have a few very tall strips to include on this one. And another Enigmatic Saying in an Unearthly Language. Stay tuned!
A START, A FINISH, AND POSSIBLE DESTRUCTION
And of course we are off and running on another small sampler honoring another of The Resident Male’s fiction books. The Fangirl Army of One is on a roll here. At this point I have only a few more to do before my production catches up to his.
This sampler celebrates Treyavir, a fantasy novel, relating the adventures of Reignal Maigntar, Falcon Knight. It’s a shorter read than most of his others, but no less engaging. There are mysteries, monsters, magic, epic truths and deceptions, love and loss, all presented in a tone echoic of Jack Vance’s Dying Earth fantasies, as a tribute to their blend of light banter, irony, and deeper issues. But on to the stitching…
First, the ground. I rarely work on grounds with counts below 36 threads per inch, but this well aged stash piece is roughly 26 or 27 threads per inch, and is a true evenweave, 100% linen. Penny method count, below – the penny obscures about 20 threads both north/south and east west (or close enough due to thick/thin threads not to matter). A US penny by definition is 3/4 of an inch in diameter. 20 x 1.33 = 26.6 threads per inch.
I think it may have come to me in a bag of remnants provided by Long Term Needlework Pal Kathryn Goodwyn, but I’m not sure. It’s evident that whomever had it before began a project using it, marking centers and edges in blue thread, but ended up cutting this narrow piece off from the larger whole after those bastings were complete. My remnant is about 10 x 20 inches (25.4 x 50.8 cm). It will be a long and skinny band sampler, and look all the more so due to the scale of the bands when stitched on this coarser weave.
I’ve started work on it but I am not entirely pleased with the linen thread I picked out and packed. It’s a long discontinued DMC product – one that was only briefly available in the US circa 2017, and is now gone. I bought a handful each of black and white from my local independent craft shop, pretty much all they had.
Here are the first couple of bands.
The thread has too much thick/thin texture and is too “hard” for optimal display in double running on this ground. One strand looks skimpy, and it doesn’t do corners well. I previously tried out two strands with the squirrel band, but found that since the thread ranges from slubby to skinny the appearance was very haphazard, with some bits being too dense to see the design, and others very thin by comparison. It was especially jarring in double running, where one pass might be a run of very thick stitches, but the second pass that completes the line might interpose skinny ones between them.
For the Destruction part – I am thinking about ripping back the 1.25 bands you see here and beginning the piece again from scratch. But I am away from stash and alternate thread options are severely limited. My immediate option is the black Sulky I used on Stone by Stone. That’s still in my traveling stitching box. Two strands of that would probably work better than two strands of this stuff. I am not near a retail source for old reliable DMC 310 cotton, and mail order doesn’t work well where I am right now.
Even if I rip back, I will redo the squirrels as is. They will be in Ensamplario Atlantio III. I’m not sure I particularly like the geometric band below it. It’s from The Second Carolingian Modelbook, but I think given chance of a total re-do I will work something else in its place, and save this one for another piece.
The linen DMC thread I will save for something else. Perhaps pattern darning, surface embroidery, or a delicate needle lace edging. I might use the white stuff for cutwork or pulled work, But neither will be deployed for double running again.
And of course just NOT having this project to work on until better options present is an unacceptable course of action. If you are like me you would understand. So instead of actually ripping back, I just whine about it here.
And more happily, I do have a finish. The holiday stocking I previewed in my last post is complete. A quick finish, too. Only four days from cast on to darning in the ends.
The stocking on the left in the photo is the new one. It’s a copy of one I’ve done twice before. The first one (photo, right) was a stocking kit purchased at now long gone yarn shop, Wild & Woolly, in Lexington, MA, circa 1996. In a minor miracle, I was able to find my copy.
The pattern was part of a kit was put out by SM Designs of York Maine. It contained worsted weight (5 stitches per inch) rustic Maine style spun wool in three colors. The kit came in several flavors, including one with Xmas trees. I bought the last one in stock. It had a simple graph of little paper dolls holding hands, in silhouette around the cuff. I did up the kit for the Alex stocking below, but being unable to do anything verbatim, I added in the panel at the top to duplicate stitch the name, subbed in my own holly berry leaf design for the paper dolls, did French knots in embroidery for the berries, and whipped the purl welt “folding line” row with leftover red and green yarn.
Eventually I knit up a second sock for sibling Morgan. I used the same pattern, but couldn’t find a true worsted weight rustic Maine style yarn for it. I adapted the design for a slightly heavier weight yarn of similar texture, but used the same holly leaf pattern, in with a different green and red. Also bearing a top strip for a name. To save packing space, I didn’t bring it with me, so it’s not in this shot.
Elder Spawn Alex and partner just moved out of state, and return to the home nest for the holidays is unlikely. So to make the first holiday off and away a bit more home-like, I volunteered to knit up a matching stocking for Spawn Partner. They requested a wolf instead of the holly leaves. I doodled one up in the same scale as the original graphed bit. He got a bit elongated in the knitting (knit stitches are not 1:1 height to width like cross stitches), but I think he’s vaguely recognizable as not being a horse or reindeer.
Comparing the three stockings, the types of rustic Maine style minimally processed 100% two-strand wool are harder to come by, and what is out there continues to get heavier and thicker. The best match I could achieve was even thicker than what I used for Stocking #2. If that one was worked from yarn knitting to 4.5 spi, this stocking was done from yarn with a native gauge of 4 spi. Since I wanted all three to be the same size, I had to play with the pattern a bit (again) and experiment with needle sizes until I achieved the original gauge. More or less. Side by side though I think I did well enough.
Now I bounce back from the world of knitting, and return to embroidery. I am off to contemplate my (stitching) life choices. At least I have my Silly Putty with me. This linen thread crocks and sheds fibers onto the ground, too. If only there was a retail source for DMC thread nearby… Sigh.
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.
String-Or-Nothing 