Turnberry Ridge: Eyelets, Part 2

I have completed the eyelets portion of Turnberry Ridge and moved onto the four-way continental just outside the center diamond. Jean put a lot of helpful information of things to avoid when doing eyelets in her book. Did I read this information? Yes. Did I actually heed it? No. I am both blessed and cursed by the need to actually make mistakes on my own in order to learn. For some reason, I guess I sometimes unconsciously think I will beat nature when it comes to rules.

The particular problems I had were with the size of the eyelet hole. I was supposed to stop and enlarge the hole while part-way through the stitch in order to assure it stays a good size. I did not do this. By the time I really understood I needed to do this, it would have caused the piece to look lopsided (some holes small, some large). So I learned the lesson but did not really apply it to this piece. Luckily it still looks good.

The other error I made was not paying attention to the direction of the thread when carrying it across the gobelins to the next stitch. This ends up being important because if you carry the thread in the wrong direction, it can end up stretched across the eyelet hole. Fortunately, I only made this mistake one time and it is not very noticeable at all.

The four-way continental I am really enjoying. I am not sure the back of the work looks as good as it is supposed to in terms of stitch placement but I am gaining consistency. The one thing I have learned is that Fiesta! is a very slippery thread, more so than any I have worked with up until this point (perhaps not quite as slippery as Neon Rays). When burying the ends I have to really make sure I turn it a few times while weaving it in. I hope that the one I didn't bury that well hangs in there!

More Cashmere, Shading, Waste Knots

I have continued quite successfully with the Van Dyke and Cashmere stitches. Once the Van Dyke columns are lined up side-by-side, the disproportion I was seeing between the right and left sides disappears, which is good to know. As I create larger sections of stitches, I'm appreciating the effect of laying the threads -- even from a distance, the reflection of light enhances the pattern so that the stitch definition can still be discerned -- and these are tiny stitches!

Combining Cashmere with Mosaic was helpful in creating continuity in an unusually shaped space. Since they look very similar but differ in dimension (rectangle v. square) they can be paired together at those odd issues.

I had some fun using two colors of threads in my Cashmere stitch. I was thinking about ways to transition colors and didn't bother to look in "The Needlepoint Book" first. My mistake, I made it much harder than it is. What I tried to do was stitch Cashmere stitches partially with one color (there are four diagonal stitches in a Cashmere, I would stitch between 1 - 3, leaving blank space for the other color) in areas where I eventually wanted to transition. Then I when I was ready to move on to the next color, I would stitch in the blank spaces.

Here's two things I learned about this:

• It's really important that the shades by very close to each other in order to make the transition subtle. I can imagine situations where you would want a striking transition from one color to another, but if you are looking for subtlety, shade differences should be minimal.
• "The Needlepoint Book" has a great section on shading. The revolutionary idea I couldn't come up with on my own: use strand combinations of different colors to transition WITHIN stitches. Angels flew down from heaven to sing and strum harps while I reveled in this discovery.
• This is a third point but has nothing to do with shading. "The Needlepoint Book" has an entire section about the necessity of stripping threads and using a laying tool. Its a bit later in the book about projects and design, so I glossed over it in my eagerness to get started.
  

I've also gotten pretty good with the waste knot. This is much easier than holding the thread end under the canvas until it gets buried, although it does require that you have a "plan" when you get started stitching. Also, I suspect it would not work as well with line stitches. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, I think.

The First Stitch: Straight Gobelin

The first stitch I selected to do for my sampler is the Straight Gobelin. It seems simple, but it tossed me right into my first problem.

I selected a skein of floss from my floss purchases (a dark red), threaded a needle (size 18) and started in the upper left corner with an 18" length. Since I was a little leery of the waste knot method of starting, I instead pulled the needle and thread through until about an inch was left on the backside of the canvas, and then held it with my free hand while I did the first couple of stitches so it would be caught in the back by the work. This seems to work fairly well but is a bit of a pain because the thread has to be held.

After a row and change of stitches, I looked at it overall and felt I had a problem: the canvas was clearly visible between the stitches. This wasn't really what I was expecting, especially after reading about canvas coverage in The Needlepoint Book. However, I soldiered on. When I got near the end of my thread, I used the needle to tuck about an inch's worth underneath the stitching on the back of the canvas and trimmed it with the thread scissors.

Lessons Learned:

• Use a lighter-colored thread to see stitch definition better, at least in the case of this sampler. (Not implemented yet)
• Needles should not make the holes in the canvas permanently larger when pushed through. (Solved by later switching to a size 28 needle, and then a size 24 needle)
  
• A left hander should probably start in the upper right corner, if one is a corner kind of person. (Fix this in future projects)
  
• There's a problem with 6-strand Cotton floss on 18-count canvas. (See later posts for the solution)
  
• Holding the end of the thread at the back to catch it in the stitching on the back is an inefficient way to bury the thread because of the work it requires. (See later posts on my implementation of the waste knot).