The start of a wool embroidery

After reading nightly in this very cool new Swedish book about wool embroidery called Yllebroderi (a must-own-book!) I was very eager to start a wool embroidery of my own. A bit too eager (plus watching a movie at the same time). I tried drawing a flower and filling the contours of it, but because I used a bleak white pencil the lines got diffused and the whole flower too small and very wobbly.

Then I decided to do something I usually don’t do very often…

…ripping my work and starting over! I just cut it all away and it was very satisfying to do that.

I kept the middle circle even though I now realize that the stitch I used Chain Stitch (kedjestygn) was not used much in traditional wool embroidery. I am inspired by one of the flowers in the book Yllebroderier (page 23), and it does not have any chain stitching, but since it is one of few stitches that I really master I’m keeping ’em!

I decided to draw a paper pattern, cut it out and copy the outlines with a ballpoint pen to have a firmer line to follow. Later I saw an image at Jude Hill’s blog and asked her about it;
Jude do you draw the pattern with a ballpoint pen? I did that recently when giving up with the chalk you’re supposed to draw patterns with.

Jude said in reply to me;

depends, i use pencil or a fabric pen, either micron or pitt. usually when i cover it up quickly i use a very sharp pencil and that’s just fine. and it doesn’t run and washes out.

Drawing on wool fabric (kläde) is really difficult, but the ballpoint pen worked for this time, I had already started my embroidery when I read her answer.

Now I am following the lines practicing the Stem Stitch (stjälkstygn), a stitch I have used a lot, though before I used to sew longer stitches with quite a bit of overlapping. Now, in yummy wool, I am trying to get thicker lines going for the “rope look”, hehe. I’ll keep you posted on the update!

Inspiration: Embroidery & Space

If you’re interested in not-so-traditional embroidery you should check out Rachel Hobson’s beautiful beautiful space embroidery (I ♥ it!) at Average Jane Crafter and her new Space and Embroidery resource page, a theme that kind of references my own series of Fly photo embroidery? A wee bit at least. Oh, also take the time to read the post of textile artist Patti Roberts-Pizzuto who also is fascinated with micro- and macro-cosmos; A Walk Through The Universe, writing about The Fleeting Moment, The Backward Glance! I love Patti’s new-to-me blog Missouribend Studio, her writing and her awesome artwork. :-)