A Glove Experiment Finished

I have finished my gloves! An experiment for me, turning my Mothers old glove pattern that was knitted on two needles into one knitted on double pointed needles. They are a much better fit than the last pair, & no seams to sew up. Just lots of ends to work in because I changed colours. Why do they fit better? Well, for one thing I used the size needles that they said in the pattern instead of what was suggested on the yarn label. I also made the little finger a few rows shorter.

For an even better fit for the next pair, I think I will knit the little finger first next time & start it a few rows lower. Now I have worked out the stitches for each finger, it will be quite easy to knit them little finger first.

A little too warm for these gloves now, but at least they are finished & ready for next winter.

A Tissue Cover

I have been busy stitching a cover for those little tissue packets we all tend to carry in our purses. One of the ladies in my embroidery group has been showing me how.

Worked on Dublin fabric with Perle thread in a pulled thread style of embroidery, they look so much prettier than plastic with brand names written all over them.

 

This is how they look flat, before being stitched up.My apologies for the quality & colourof the top pic, it was taken with my phone. The actual colour is more like the bottom pic which was done with a scanner.

Fabric

I wonder what I will make with this?

Colour

I had such a fun day on Saturday with my creative stitching group. One of the girls led us though a discussion on colour with some exercises to follow. I chose to use a pic from a food magazine & picked out the colours using some coloured pencils. I'd seen this done before of course but had never actually done it myself. I'd always seemed to miss out on this step in my colour choosing before. Later I matched up my colour swatches with some thread & fabric colours. It would be so interesting to play with these colours in a series of stitching exercises, where the colours are moved around from background to stitch, using different proportions of each colour in each stitching exercise.  Mmmm................food for thought!

My Feather & Fan Scarf Finished

My feather & fan scarf is now finished & ready for next winter. Just in time too as the weather is really warming up already & my hands were starting to sweat on occasions.

I've knitted feather & fan patterns before but not as a scarf. If ever I do another one I'll think about the pattern more. I'm really not happy with the ends looking different & am not quite sure what I could have done about it. I could perhaps have started in the center, knitted one way then the other, but I am not sure how that would have looked at the cast on area. Maybe a few rows of garter stitch would help & I am sure there is a method of casting on that will let you knit two ways.

I guess I could also  start two ends separately then graft them together in the center. At least then I would end up with two wavy ends the same with the pattern going the same direction when the scarf is being worn. Mmmm........... food for thought.

Note to self:- make notes on my pattern, practice some grafting, & research cast on methods.

A Glove Experiment

Back in June when the weather was cold I made an effort to knit my first ever pair of gloves. At the time I followed the pattern, changing only the yarn and needle size. The end result were these, complete with seams up each finger and one side of the hand. I declared then that my next pair were going to be without seams, & knitted on 4 needles.

So behold my 4 needle glove experiment. I have used the same pattern as before, just adapting it to 4 needles. So far so good. Then one day at a lace meeting, (which has been combined with a knitting group), someone had a book on knitted gloves which they had borrowed from the library upstairs. In this book it mentioned about knitting the little finger first if it was set lower into the hand. My pattern knits the index finger first. When I looked at my own hand I found that my little finger is set a good 1cm lower than my other three fingers. Mmm.......... what to do.

To knit from the little finger first I will have to sit with my pattern & really work it out. To knit  the index finger first, I think it will only be a little bit of adjusting the pattern, not so much thinking. Something I will have to sit in perfect quiet to do no matter which way I turn.

This pair of gloves is using remnants of the same red yarn as my previous pair, as well a a variegated yarn, both wool. Way too hot for gloves now but something else I want to get finished ready for when the cold strikes again in about 8 months time.

Knitting a Scarf in Feather & Fan

I can't believe it has been so long since I have posted anything here. I have been creating of course, every day, I've just been slack in sharing.


Above is a pic of my current knitting. Way too warm for it now of course with spring well & truly here, but this scarf will be perfect & ready for when the cold hits next year. It's in a two ply Cashmere & a Feather & Fan pattern. I purchased the yarn at the Sydney Craft & Quilt Fair back in June, and when I did so I had the choice of a few different complimentary patterns. My intentions were always of making a scarf in Feather  & Fan, & as this was one of the pattern choices, guess which one I chose. After all it saved me from working it all out by myself. The yarn sat there for a few weeks & I thought it might be a good project to take to do while away for a weekend back in July. The morning before we left I thought I would start it & have it on the way, so I could just pick it up & go. Mmmmmm............................ famous last words.

If I un-pulled that scarf once, I must have un-pulled it 50 times. The first few rows were fine, but after that I would end up with one stitch or more too many at the end of the row. At first I tried unpicking one stitch at a time, but the  yarn is fine & I was having trouble seeing the tiny stitches. I even tried using my magnifier. In the end it was easier just to pull the needles out & start again. I think I went through this process about four times on that first morning alone. Needless to say I packed some other stitching as well to take with me that weekend.

I did get some quiet time to myself that weekend, so tried again, and still ended up with the same problem, un-pulling it another few times. At one point I thought that it may have been an error in the pattern, but as the error was turning up in different rows I dismissed that idea. Can you imagine the frustration? I am not one to let a problem beat me, & usually the bigger the problem the better the challenge. My mind was thinking of all  the ways I could possibly solve the issue.

In the end, I sat in perfect quiet, with no distractions, & cheered every time I got to the end of a row with it correct. There were jumps of joy when I got the first repeat done with no errors. Yippee! Thank goodness also for my row counter, I haven' used it for a very long time but it sure has come in handy with this pattern.

My scarf is over half done now, taking much longer than I thought. The two ply yarn would have something to do with that I am sure. The weather is much too warm now for cashmere scarves, but I want to finish it before the weather gets too hot & while my hands can still handle the yarn without sweating. I fear if I leave it for something else now it will never get finished, and that is just not an option.

Texture

Last Saturday I spent the day with my Stitchers Plus friends. It had been a while since I had seen them due to other personal social events. One of the girls led us through some texture exercises & we had some fun playing with paper, fabric & thread. I chose to only work with fabric & thread as paper upsets my hands on occasions.

Above is the small piece I came up with. I had fun with running stitch, using it to gather & pleat the fabric. Of course there was also the obligatory removal of threads from fabric, this time to create frayed & fringed edges. Not sure what this piece will be for yet, maybe a book cover.

I have been removing a lot of threads from fabric lately, and for anyone interested my piece of reticella, (maybe it is antique cut-work) is finished at long last. Finally, after 5 years from conception, 3 years of stitching, numerous samples, and one failed attempt, my piece was unveiled at Guild HQ on Saturday to a selected few. Where is the pic you all ask? Well, you will all have to be patient because the piece is set for exhibition next year.

Intermediate Retrospective Pt 3

One exercise that we did during our course was with collage. I made two collages, one from leaves & bark, the other from papers. It was the paper one I used as a base to to create this design.

There was lots of tracing & view finding involved before I even got to the design below, then lots of applique & stitching to get to the final product. I was really happy with this one, & had plans of framing it to hang on the wall, but that never happened. It might though one day, because even after all this time, I still quite like this piece.

Intermediate Retrospective Pt 2

This is a copy of a tracing from another still life that I did from early on in the Intermediate Certificate Course. It was this tracing that was the basis of a number of other designs. We learnt three different ways to take a sketch & turn it into a design, one of which was the age-old window view method.

If you look closely at the sketch above, you will find the shell that inspired this "One Stitch" exercise. We were only allowed to use one stitch in the whole piece to stitch with.

Intermediate Retrospective Pt1

For some time now I have been having some correspondence with Linda, the most recent of which has been about our stitching experience & how we learnt our craft. Part of my experience has been through the Embroiderer's Guild here in Sydney, where I have participated in a few courses & classes over the years.

About 12 years ago I enrolled in their Intermediate Certificate, and as this was long before my blogging days I thought I would show some of the work that I did back then.

I'll never forget that first day. On our equipment list was drawing materials, no fabric, no thread. That alone was scary, let alone the still life that was set up in the middle of the room for us to draw. It was very cleverly done, boxes at different levels, covered with a multi coloured cloth. Then on top of each level sat something, a pot, a vase, a book, etc etc. It was done so that no matter where one sat around the table there was something to look at & draw. Guess what we did that first lesson.

Our homework was to go home & draw. We were supposed to draw for at least an hour every day. We were to set up our own still life, draw it, then interpret it into stitches.

Below is the drawing that I did, very faint so I do apologise. But the pic at the top is my stitch interpretation of the sketch below.
That is something that I still find hard, trying to find stitches that work for a particular design in surface stitchery.

Another Scarf

This scarf was born out of a gift from a friend. Over six months ago I was given a hank of knitting yarn that was textured & variegated. It sat wrapped in it's tissue paper for 5 months waiting for me to think what to do with it. A scarf was the obvious answer, but what pattern? I also needed to add anther yarn with it to have enough to make a scarf. Then back in May my friend M___ & I ventured into the city to see what yarn we could find, and also a pattern that might inspire. I came home with 2 balls each of a green & a red/brown wool, and the pattern for a ruffled scarf.

After much experimentation with yarn combinations, needle sizes & patterns, this is what I have ended up with. The two different yarns required two different needle sizes so there was much playing with needle sizes alone to get something I was happy with. I even tried combining needle sizes, but ended up knitting the whole thing in just one size, somewhere between the two required.

Then there was the pattern. There were two colours involved & I was adamant that I didn't want stripes. That's when I ventured into the ruffles, but that gave me funny wedges which might be OK in different yarns than this. So the hunt was on for something else. In the end I settled for this drop stitch pattern, something that I hadn't done before and which was oh so easy.


I still had to experiment as to where to use my two colours, un-pulling a few times before I was happy with the result. I have ended up with something very textured in mottled colours, and not stripes which is on the plus side, something that should go with a few different colours.

My dilema now is whether to add something to the ends or not. I have no textured yarn left, only the green, and personally I think a fringe would be the only answer as anything else would add another texture which would be too conflicting. I think I might just leave it plain as is. What does everyone else think?

Irish Crochet Bits

On & off for a while now I have been continuing with some Irish crochet. In particular I have been playing with leaves, wanting to get them with little bumps on the edges. I have found the leaves tricky, trying to start them over the cording. The thread is fine & leaves nothing much to hold onto when starting. Once I get going I am fine, & then it is the picots on the edge giving me curry. It is hard trying to get them the same. My biggest problem is that I don't sit at it in anyone hit, it might be two or three weeks between sittings & in that time I have lost my flow & have to find it again. I have many more of these little picoted leaves to make to finish the project I have to do. Maybe I should just sit & do them, but my scarf is nearly finished & the reticella is calling.

The Penguin Quilt

This little penguin quilt is another one for charity that I have been working on. One lady has
pieced it all together & layered all the appliqué pieces. I have stitched the appliqués in place.



Some of the pieces are so tiny, like the fish tails in the corners & the eyes of the penguins that were only a few mm across. So with the combination of my own machining skills & my trusty Bernina I am happy with the result. I love my Artista 17o, she does anything I ask of her without complaint.

The quilt will now go back to my sewing group for someone else to quilt & bind, ready for some very lucky small child.

The Hippo Quilt

My local sewing group is sewing for charity. This little hippo quilt is one of the many that are being made. The center features a cute little hippopotamus stitched in pinks, blues, mauves & black. It is a digitised design & has been stitched by another lady in the group. Other mebers have added scrap fabrics to the edges to turn this into a delightful little quilt.


For my part, I added the bind. I like stitching binds, especially creating the mitre in the corner.

A sick little girl should be happy to receive this.

New Gloves

Behold, my new gloves! This is a first for me, to knit gloves that is. I always looked upon them as too hard.

The yarn is a red Merino Bambino 4ply by Cleckheaton, an Australian Pure New Wool . The pattern is one of my Mums, Patons Classic Book 50, possibly from around the early 1970's.

Besides the yarn & the needle size, I have knitted them to the pattern. The pattern was for a 4ply using a slightly smaller needle size than that listed on the label of my yarn. I opted to use what was suggested on the label.

When I knit my next pair, I will change the pattern slightly. The fingers are a little long, especially the fourth or little finger. I could do with a good 1.5cm off the length. I found this a little surprising as my own fingers are quite long.

As for the actual knitting, the only tricky part was at the base of each finger. The yarn had to be joined in, stitches picked up, knit part way, turn & cast on, all in a few short rows. I found I had to really concentrate for this small section. The rest was easy.

Now I have made one pair, I will quite happily make more. These are much warmer than my commercially made pair. I am on the lookout though for a 4ply pattern on circular needles as I am not fussed with the seams up each finger on this pair. I am also not fussed with the way the finger tops are finished. The next pair though will be a little more creative than plain stocking stitch. I'll see what I can find.

Finished

My blue scarf is finished, just in time as the weather is wintry today. Cold, showery & windy. I really wanted it a little longer, but when I went back to buy another ball of the same yarn there was none left. I guess it doesn't need to be super long as the ruffles are enough to come up my neck & keep it warm. No need to wrap around, it would be too thick for that, and it's long enough to tuck into a coat neckline.
It rolls into a little ball for storing and I just love the picots along the edge, super easy. This one is made in a cheap acrylic yarn, not something I am particularly fond of, but it is warm & will serve a purpose.

Knitting Needle Box

It is amazing what I find when I am not looking. Yesterday I was putting some thread away in a cupboard & spotted this box. I had forgotten I had it, I thought someone else had it. It is a box made for my Mother by a family member, especially for her to keep her knitting needles in. I have had it since she passed away & have not looked inside it since. So of course I had to open it.

Inside I found the remainder of my Mother's collection of knitting needles, and the box was quite full. There were a great variety of sizes, both plastic & metal. Some of the metal ones sadly had gone the same as mine, coatings coming off. They have since been cleaned & sorted, damaged & odd ones tossed.


The box now looks like this, and is full again, complete with a combination of my own, my Mother's, & possibly my Grandmother's knitting needles.

After hearing the story of the lady in the store last week & her experience with coatings coming off her needles, I have started to ask my other textile aquaintences. Most have never heard of it before, but one lady (J***) in my stitching group yesterday had also had the same trouble. Another lady said that it was from lack of use. Mmmmmm................... posibility. I have been knitting on & off over the years, but over the last 15 years it has been with large size needles, not the finer ones. What is interesting to note though is the needles that have remained in their packets are still OK, while the ones left out of their packets are not. Even the ones of my Mum's that I found yesterday ( & certainly would not have been used in the last twenty odd years) are OK if they were in their packets.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......................................interesting.............

Knitting Needles & Yarn

I had reason today to go back to my local store for more knitting yarn. While I was there I got chatting with another customer & low & behold all the coating on her metal knitting needles was coming off too. You may remember I mentioned it in my last post. I wonder why that is? We chatted about storage, which I thought may have been my problem, but as this lady used a different storage method to me, this was not the case. Her thoughts were towards humidity. Personally, I think it must be quality.

As to the yarn I purchased, the red is a 100% pure new wool, while the blue is a bamboo yarn. I haven't knitted with bamboo before so this will be interesting. I'll keep you informed. Both yarns are 4 ply for something special. Watch this space!

The Knitting Bug

I've been hit by the knitting bug.

I was given some lovely textured yarn a few months back as a gift & it has been sitting there waiting patiently for me to decide what to do with it. I knew I had to add something to it, but first I had to decide what to make and a scarf was the obvious choice. So when my long time friend M... came for a visit from the country, we headed off into the city to Morris & Sons to see what we could find. Well of course there was plenty, & I came home with some 8 ply in two colours & a pattern for a ruffled scarf.

That night I dug out my knitting needles & as the 8 ply required a different size needle to my textured yarn, I chose a needle size halfway between the two. Nothing like a little creative knitting!

After a little play, I decided to go down a size, but found that my lovely needles that I'd had for many years had started to deteriorate. All the coating was starting to come off & the yarn was catching. Bugger! Not to worry, I had another stash that had belonged to my Mum & I found a pair of appropriate size in plastic which got me out of trouble.

So last Saturday I visited my local Lincraft store to stock up on my knitting needle supply. It had been years since I had bought any, I had a great range of sizes. So much variety! Which length to choose? Metal, plastic or bamboo? I am used to knitting with metal needles so kept with those in a long length. Then I spied these lovely wooden ones with turned ends which I can't wait to try.

So what am I knitting? My ruffled scarf of course! I started off with the pattern I bought, then found a similar one elsewhere but with great variations, so I am trying one variation in a cheap yarn to see if I like it or not. It has picots along the edge, something I have not done before. I hadn't knitted ruffles like this before either but they are relatively easy.


Once I finish this one, then I will decide how I can incorporate my lovely textured multi coloured yarn with my plain coloured wool. The weather has turned decidedly chilly with snow falling last week not to far away so scarves will come in very handy.

Weddings

With all the attention on the Royal Wedding this past week, the talk for the last few days has been about "The Dress", who designed it, what it was made from, etc etc. As a dressmaker, embroiderer, & lace-maker, I want to be able to touch, feel, turn it inside out, & really look at how it was made. ( especially the bustle detail) . I want to talk with the people who were involved in its making to find out every little detail. Television footage, internet pics ( even with magnifiers) & even press releases from the Royal School of Needlework are not enough to satisfy my hunger. This video makes me even more hungry.

We all know by now that "The Dress" was made of lace, & motifs were hand stitched to the dress by skilled embroiderers. So now I would like to show you all a wedding dress that I made back in 2008 using the same process. The bride wanted a wide lace border around the bottom of her dress, but fabrics that included this were out of the price range. So I created the border for her.

I cut the border from the purchased lace fabric, then very carefully trimmed all the excess tulle away. This border was then hand stitched every few mm onto another piece of tulle that became the over skirt of her dress.

The lace fabric had different sized motifs scattered all over it, so from the scraps left from cutting the bodice, I very carefully cut lots of little lace motifs and appliquéd them onto the tulle above the border into a different pattern.It was 7.5 meters around the hem of this layer, so with hand stitching the border both top & bottom, and hundreds of little motifs being appliquéd in place, I think you can all imagine the work involved. I may not have had the Royal School of Needlework to help but I did have help. The bride, her bridesmaids, and my dear friend R.... helped to cut out motifs & to appliqué them in place. My friend & I are both members of The Embroiderers Guild here in Sydney.

When the lace was purchased for this dress, we found out that we could have lace especially made into any design we wanted. It was a little late for that, but still interesting to know, though the extra cost involved still may not have been in the budget

This dress may not have had the amount of lace or work that "The Dress" had, but it sure had a lot of love with every stitch. I think it is one of my greatest creations.

Special Book Marks For Special People

Back in late February & early March I made some bookmarks to say thankyou to some special people. It was a spur of the moment decision to make them, and as I was going away for a few weeks R & R, I packed some of my own hand dyed linen, what I thought was some co-ordinating threads to stitch with, & just one book for inspiration. They have all been recieved now so I can show you all what I did.

This was the first one, and I started by buttonholing the edge first, no counting. Then I decided I had better count what threads I had to work out what would fit in. The book I had taken with me was Gay Eaton's "Wessex Stitchery", so I found a motif that I liked, worked out placement & started stitching. I could fit three motifs in the space, but they needed something to link them together, so the back stitch borders were born. There are three in all, one is in a fine gold thread which is not really clear in this pic.

The second one I made was this pink one. After having fun trying to fit patterns in the last one by not counting the edge, I decided to count fours on this one, that way I would be able to fit in lots. Mmmmmm............. So the buttonhole stitch edge was first, and all the while it screamed "drawn thead " at me, so the satin stitch & eyelets were born. The coral knot channels were first, then the needlewoven center channel. It was fun, because by the time I got to working the center channel, I had decided I wanted to mix up colours & patterns, & this is where my counting by fours didn't work, hence the dominant three needle woven bars in the center. In retrospect, I wish I had of placed this section one block lower, it would have made it more interesting. Maybe next time. The back stitching in burgandy was an after thought to bring out the burgandy backing.

Finally we have bookmark number three. This one was born following a day with my creative stitching friends. On the day, one of our members had us closely looking at pieces of work with a list of questions. I had picked out one piece from across the room which I thought was a piece of counted thread work, but on closer inspection found to be smocking. The patterns were interesting, so from across the room I drew in my sketchbook the patterns that I saw. It was these sketches that I tried to interpret into this bookmark, but they didn't quite work. All that did was the yellow line. So the yellow line got repeated, stitches added in between, & thread colours changed as I felt, usually when they ran out in the needle. The extra yellow lines were added to give balance.

So the bookmarks have all been recieved, & I had some creative fun. They are all original

one-0fs that I am proud of & I know the recipients are enjoying.

For Charity

My local sewing group meets this week & one of the tasks I promised to do was to add some fabric to these cute little digitised animals. The blocks are to be a certain size so they can be cut down & patch-worked together with sashings. The end result will be a quilt to be donated to charity.

My sewing machine nearly had a fit this morning it has been so long. Poor girl has been neglected after all that wedding sewing I did a while back. Must get back into it & do my quilts that are hanging around.

Fun & Frivolity

Last Saturday was the monthly meeting of my creative stitching group. It was a coolish, very wet day( it absolutely poured!) so what better way to spend it than stitching with friends.

Part of the day was spent study a particular embroidered piece, in particular how the stitcher had used her stitches to effect. So the afternoon was spent playing with stitches on a doodle cloth. As it happened, my doodle cloth was a piece of scrap linen left over from something, and my stitch play has turned into this bookmark.

Anyone interested can read about the remainder of the day here.

My New Book

The latest edition to my library. It's in Italian, but who needs to read when the diagrams & photos are so clear? Watch this space!

Irish Crochet Play

I've been playing with some Irish Crochet lately, getting ready for a challenge for one of my groups. My Mum taught me to crochet when I was very young & I have wanted to do Irish Crochet for many years. I thought it was just crocheting motifs & joining them together, but on doing a little research I found it to be much more involved (isn't anything?) , and much more challenging that I thought.

So after practicing some new techniques & getting the feel of them, I present my first ever leaf. It is far from brilliant, and I am sure they will get better, but it is the best motif I have done in my practice. With all the other motifs I have been practicing on, I came across challenges, two of which have been solved on this leaf. So now I am off to find some matching thread & cord, to have another go ready for the real thing.

Round Robins - The Good & the Bad

Way back in late 2006 I signed up for a Counted thread round robin. In case no-one has noticed, counted thread work in it's many forms is one of my most favourite needlework types to do. At the time I was still doing a course which was taking all my time, so the group waited until the new year. That was the beginning of 2007, and there were 9 of us participating from all over the globe.

Today in the mail my sampler has finally arrived home, with only 5 people stitching on it including myself. The stitching is exquisite, and the introduction of the red colours are just amazing. They have made the sampler pop.

The stunning band on the left has been stitched by Norma, the gorgeous blackwork fish are by Mandy, and the fabulous seahorse & shells are by Margaret. Thank you so much girls for such beautiful & inspiring stitching. The hardanger panel is mine.

I have participated in RR's & swaps before & have learnt that you never know what you will end up with, so I decided right at the beginning that this was going to be made into a carry bag, that's why all the bands are going vertical. I would mount it to a backing, add some other fabric top & bottom, some handles & some lining, & I would have a usable article. Well, that was the plan, and hopefully it will still be the plan.

However, did anyone notice the two fine rows of blue & green? The lady who did these had so much trouble that she gave up , but it has left me with a problem.


With all the unpicking that went on, there are now three broken threads that I have to deal with. I have known about them for some time & said I would deal with it when the sampler came home. All the while I thought I would cut the fabric & add some faggotting, the type that joins two pieces of fabric together together. But I am faily certain I need to add a hem to do that, & the broken threads are way too close to my hardanger band.

I have thought about removing the offending broken threads & re-weaving others back in, but I need a place to start & finish. I think I can just cut them back to the hardanger buttonhole, then start a new one from under the buttonhole stitches, weave it in, & finish where? I can't take it all the way to the other end as there is such beautiful stitching in the path.

Anther idea I had is to scatter eyelets everywhere, but in reality I don't think they suit what I have.

A fourth thought was to cut each band apart and applique it seperately onto a backing fabric. Personally I don't think this would work either as there is very little room between my hardanger band & the damaged threads.

So I am appealing to all the stitchers out there as to how I can fix my problem. At this point in time it looks like it will be a case of removing the two lines of stitching, & designing a new band to allow for somewhere to end the old damaged threads & start a new one.

Any one got any other ideas? Feel free to add comments.

How many Eyelets?

At long last I can show my table mat, finally finished. It began as something small to take away on holidays last year and grew and changed lots. At first I decided on the border, then the hem. I wanted to do another type of picot hem but didn't have enough fabric so settled on a buttonholed hem. Then when everything was finished it looked to plain so I added the bullion picots. This is the first time I have ever added them to a piece of work and I think they just finished it off nicely. This was also the piece that was supposed to feature some filet work in the center, but instead has a considerable number of eyelets.

Just a closer look at the corner.

Filet Bookmark

This is the second sample of filet that I worked on the side of my table mat. I showed you the first sample here. This one had a different drawn count than the first one, so leaving slightly larger holes. I've also worked a linen stitch into this one in a pattern that I adapted from Pauline Knight's book "The Technique of Filet Lace". There were no instructions of how to work it, I had to work that out for my self, and it certainly got my brain working!

In retrospect, the linen stitch would probably sit better if I had worked it on smaller holes, but that after all is what samples are for. Something to put in my notes for future reference, and in the meantime I have another bookmark to use.

A Bookmark Sample

When I had the idea of working some filet on the inside of my table mat, I first played with some samples along the side of my piece of fabric. The above book mark is one of those samples & I deliberately made it bookmark size so that it could be useful.

This one is worked by first creating a mesh, withdrawing threads in two directions, then whipping over them to make them strong. As I wanted a special hem finish around the edge, I very laboriously wove all the ends back in to give solid fabric again along the edge. I then worked the filling stitch & finally the hem. Just for the moment I can't place my hand on the reference I used for the filling stitch, but there is one very similar in Moyra McNeil's book "Drawn Thread Embroidery".

A very pretty, useful sample.