A Year of Stitches Day 12: Chain Stitch

Today I'm adding a chain stitch line in two threads to the right hand spiral. It's not entirely even but it's neater than I anticipated.

A Year of Stitches Day 11: More French Knots

Today I continued with the French knots, this time as a single stitch. I really do enjoy doing them. I like the way they break off from the centre and spread throughout the spiral.

A Year of Stitches Day 10: French Knots

Today I started with French knots as a fill stitch. I filled the middle of one spiral with them to balance the yellow satin stitch circle in the other spiral.

Today's Stitch

Yet again I used Sarah Homfray's tutorial to learn this stitch. I thought it would be hard to do but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The method she demonstrates makes it quite straight forward. The one problem I had was tangling my thread on the back of the work. I don't know what caused that problem but I now check after each stitch that the thread hasn't tangled.

I used two strands of the yellow to make the knots as I thought that one strand would make them too small.

A Year of Stitches Day 9: Even More Satin Stitch

I finished off the satin stitch circle this morning. It turned out better than I expected although I'm sure it could be better. The split stitch has certainly meant it has a much neater edge than it would have without the split stitch.

A Year of Stitches Day 8: More Satin Stitch

I forgot to mention in Day 7's post that I started the satin stitch in the middle of the circle. Naturally I would start with a tiny stitch at the side, but this makes it difficult to get the stitches at the right angle. It was a tip from Sarah Homfray's video on satin stitch that taught me to start in the middle. I also didn't know that you outline the shape before doing satin stitch. I do love her videos.

A Year of Stitches Day 7: Satin Stitch

I'm late posting the stitches from the last couple of days as Diablo III season 9 started on Friday when I should have posted this and I got caught up playing that.

Today's Stitch

Using the split stitch outline as a base, I started to fill the small circle at the middle of one of the spirals with satin stitch. I used one thread of the yellow thread and just did a few stitches. It's so hard to get it to look even.

A Year of Stitches Day 6: Even More Split Stitch

Finally done with the split stitch. I've finished the spiral and outlined the circle in the middle of the spiral which I'm going to cover with satin stitch. I ended up unpicking some of yesterday's split stitch as I thought the line was going in the wrong direction.

A Year of Stitches Day 5: More Split Stitch

Not much progress today. Hopefully I'll finish the split stitch spiral tomorrow although there is still quite a long way to go.

A Year of Stitches Day 4: Split Stitch

Today was the first new stitch for me. I followed Sarah Homfrey's YouTube tutorial. I find her tutorials very clear and easy to follow. They have lots of useful tips.

Today's Stitch

Today's stitch is split stitch. I used a single thread of the peachy orange Anchor cotton I started using a couple of days ago. The other stitches so far have all used two strands. I found it a bit tricky to do as you have to pierce the thread from under the fabric. It was hard to keep the stitches an even size, and to pierce them consistently in the right place, half way along. I'll try to finish it tomorrow although I've still got quite a long way to go!

A Year of Stitches Day 3: Woven Running Stitch

I wasn't sure I'd get the stitching done today as the cold I've had since before Christmas has left me somewhat knocked out. I slept thirteen and a half hours last night and when I sleep long, I end up with back and hip ache, making sitting difficult.

Today's stitch

Today's stitch is the third of the running stitches, woven running stitch. In contrast to the fairly smooth whipped running stitch, this stitch gives a wavy effect.