I found out today that my friend and mentor Linn Skinner passed away last June. I managed to get a card off to her a couple weeks before she passed, and was concerned that I didn’t hear back. I was planning a trip to Tennessee. But I got busy, and one thing led to another, and, well… here I am, finding out a year later, by accident.

THIS photo of Linn is the best one I’ve ever seen for capturing her character. And she WAS a character!

You may know Linn’s books on blackwork. She was a fanatic. She led tours to the V&A museum in London. She taught classes on the history of samplers. It was she who pointed out to me that most extant English blackwork pieces, even the reversible ones, are NOT counted (talk about blowing one’s mind)! She also pointed out that work from professional workshops historically is not quite as good quality as stuff done by the “amateurs” because they were working too fast to worry about carrying threads across the back, or being quite as neat as the folks at home stitching for fun.

If it weren’t for Linn, I would never have actually seen a real Berlin woolwork sampler.

If it weren’t for Linn, I probably wouldn’t be designing. She took my first four designs to sell at CATS shows in 2000, where they sold very well. (By the way, if you have one you purchased at that show, let me know.. at least one of the designs wasn’t proofread well enough and the legend is completely wrong for the chart! ).

If it weren’t for Linn, I wouldn’t have found a couple fantastic bookstores in LosAngeles, where we went shopping – I wouldn’t have my copy of Constance Howard’s Book of Stitches. There’s a LOT of things I wouldn’t have or do today if it weren’t for her.

She was a tireless crusader for the copyrights of designers and spent countless hours on the computer and before congress and the courts getting pattern sharing sites shut down.  If you haven’t read her testimony from 2003, I highly recommend it. These problems have been going on for a long time.

All in all, Linn was outspoken, generous, helpful, lots of fun to be around, and I’ve missed having her in my life for the last 5 years. I just didn’t realize she was gone for good until today.

Thank you for everything, Linn. I hope you have all the time and equipment you need to stitch whatever you want now.

But sometimes I just want something else. So I turn to other forms of embroidery. WHY? Here are five of my favorite reasons…

1. I don’t have to count.Sometimes numbers just hurt my head; and putting the right number of stitches in the right place in the right color hurts even worse!

2. Some designs are just smoother in “traditional” embroidery than the pixellated version created by little crosses (or the designs are WAY too huge for the intended end use!).

3. I can stitch on anything. I love my expensive evenweave linens. I love to stitch on silk. But sometimes, you know, it’s nice to just pick up a piece of cotton fabric from one of my husband’s old dress shirts out of my fabric bin and stitch something. I have yet to get the tension right for waste canvas: so needlepainting or other stitching genres it is!

4. I lean toward big, complicated cross stitch charts. Sometimes it’s nice to choose my own colors without worrying about how it’s going to affect everything else in someone else’s design.

5. Did I mention I don’t have to count?

Why is hand-dyed linen so much softer than the plain colored stuff I get at the LNS (local needlework store)?

Dear Stitcher,

There are a couple of reasons for this, mostly relating to the properties of linen, but one important one that relates to how newly woven linen is prepared and sold, and that is sizing.

Washing your linen before (or after) you stitch on it is a good idea in any case, for the following reasons:

• The sizing (glue or starch- really!) in the linen makes it stiffer, but it also can attract dirt and discolor over time. This one is the prime reason for washing your work after you have done your stitching, with some rare exceptions (all having to do with the threads you stitch with!)
  Also, all the linen fabric I’ve found has been woven somewhere outside of the US. Cargo containers are regularly fumigated with pesticides to get rid of unwanted visitors. Do you really want that stuff in your heirloom project?
• Washing linen makes it softer. You’ll find this with real linen clothing, too. Linen shirts get more and more comfortable and soft over time.

Hand dyed linen has already been washed. The sizing had to be removed so that the dye would bind to the fibers. Dye is often applied in a pot of water (more “washing,” though that is of course not what’s really going on). Then the fabric is rinsed thoroughly. While this last step isn’t really washing, it does serve the same purpose of beating on the fibers in the linen and making them softer.

In many independent dye houses, the final step is to wash the dyed fabric again to make absolutely certain all the dye has rinsed out.  Small independent dyers usually don’t put additional sizing back into the fabric, so it seems to be softer than fabric directly off the bolt.

Neither place does a really good job of explaining the problems of learning to embroider on knitting, especially in crewel stitches instead of “duplicate stitch.”

When I embroider on a piece of knitwear, I usually do it freestyle, with no pattern – because, quite frankly, transferring a pattern to a sweater is a pain. However, I would at some point like to knit the Voyager skirt, which has a very definite embroidered border. So I’ve been experimenting.

I am leaning toward recommending a wooden hoop and solvy dissolving paper stabilizer, because not only do I not like the feel of stabilizer on the back of my knits, I HATE having to work a pattern from the back, and I don’t think that particular skirt would hang correctly with stabilizer attached, so one of the dissolving stabilizers it is.

I’m going to try samples with two – the paper stabilizer and one that’s a clear plastic. I can see benefits of both, but I want to see which is easier to work with before I make recommendations. Stay tuned!

While I got my college roommate re-interested in cross stitch and needlepoint, and, OK, converted her into a Knitter with a capital “K.” many of my other close friends I met because of either needlework or another art form.

So yes, I stitch because I like to play with thread (the EO and heart-sister claim I’m at least part cat). I’d also be very happy on a deserted temperate island with enough food, water, and embroidery supplies to keep me busy! Even better is an evening of thread, good friends, and tea. Or a whole afternoon. Or a weekend.

On that last note, I’m trying to compile a list of regularly-scheduled needlework retreats and festivals across the United States. (I might consider adding Canada and Europe to that later, but I need to stay sort of local right now!) If you know of any you love to attend, I’d love to hear about them. Please post in the comments and I’ll add them to my list.

Years ago I bought Art Nouveau Floral Iron-On Transfer Patterns, by Ed Sibbett, Jr. from Dover Publications. Unfortunately, most of their iron-on transfer books seem to be discontinued, or at least not available currently. That’s sad, because I have an entire magazine box full of them and they are SO useful when I just want to stitch something – right now!

In any case, I’ve been not wanting to deal with counting recently, so I decided to play with some low-relief stumpwork over the past week. While I was doing it, I took progress photos, and today I turned them into a little video of the design growing on the fabric (the fabric is a dark, dusty lavender, despite the fact that the photos seem to have washed it to natural!).

Click on the photo to go to YouTube and see the video.

In addition, I put together a stitch guide (it’s a PDF file, so you’ll need a reader) in case you have the book and want to stitch it yourself. Note that the guide is in a different order than my stitching. Following the order in the guide will make the piece easier to stitch. I inevitably find that I think “If only I’d done THAT first!” when I stitch something like this. So my guides take those thoughts into account.

In addition, in my stitch guides for things like this, I make the assumption that you already know the stitches and the techniques. These are NOT classes. Just an idea for how I stitched something!

Today’s my birthday. And I’m back on the blog. And I’ve designed something special…

So Happy Birthday to me! I indulged in a little sentimental designing.  The kitty is Onyx, who lived with us until she passed in 2010.

This design is available through April 15 (U.S. tax day) as an instant download for 5.00 USD. I don’t know yet whether I will create it as a printed chart as it is so completely different from my usual style, so you may want to snag a copy while you can!

All full stitches, fabric completely covered. 250 X 158 stitches, which works out to 10 by 6 1/4 inches when stitched over one on 25 count fabric.

Get Onyx Eye now from the Golden Circle Designs Site!

Note: Let me just get this right out in the open. I hate this term for the kind of stem & satin stitch embroidery found on tea towels and pillowcases. I also hate “free embroidery”.  Embroidery is a blanket term  – for example, all cross stitch is embroidery, but not all embroidery is cross stitch. Really, this is “crewel work” done in cotton rather than crewel wool, and often on a much finer scale. That said, I don’t like that definition either. So I stick with the traditional term. If anyone has better ideas, I’d love to hear them!

Surface embroidery isn’t counted. Usually a pattern is traced onto a piece of fine-weave fabric – muslin, a tea towel, a piece of silk or broadcloth – and then the design embroidered on top of this “cartoon.” (Yes, cartoon IS the technical term for this drawing, whether it’s cartoony or not.)

Because of the generally high thread count and tight weave of the fabrics used for this type of work, a sharp needle is imperative. These needles have a wider eye so that threads can be drawn through easily, and are called embroidery, crewel, or chenille needles. Embroidery and crewel needles are two terms for the same needle type. Chenille needles are larger and were originally created for stitching silk chenille threads (chenille is French for caterpillar) which is fuzzy and thick. Chenille needles are about the same size and shape as tapestry needles, but have a sharp point.

The same rule of thumb for choosing needle size holds as for counted work. Especially if you are working with silk or wool thread, the fuzzing and breaking issues can become especially difficult if your needle isn’t big enough (working with a shorter length of thread is also helpful).

So, again with the starting point table. Remember that the only perfect needle choice is the one that works for you and your stitching style!!

Surface Embroidery (including Crewel) Needle Chart

Want to read the rest of the series?

Let’s Talk about Needles Part 1 – General
Let’s Talk about Needles Redux Part 2 – Size
Let’s Talk about Needles Part 3 – Counted Work

In general counted work, whether cross stitch, needlepoint, pulled work, drawn thread, or needleweaving, should be done with a blunt tipped needle. These are usually called tapestry needles.

Tapestry needles come in sizes from 18 to 28 and get thinner as the numbers rise. The blunt tip means that the needle will go through the holes in the fabric easily without piercing threads the way a sharp needle might.

I will usually err, as I said last time, on the size of a larger needle. The smallest needle I’ve been comfortable with is a 26, and then only on 32 to 40 count evenweave or linen. At these high counts some people like to use a size 28 needle and only one strand of thread. Size 28s are often a bit shorter than a 26, and I have large hands: I’m more comfortable with the length of the 26.

Any needle you choose should be comfortable for you, your hand, and your stitching style. Always remember that stitching is an individual art form! But here are some suggestions to use as a starting point.

Counted Work Needle Chart

The biggest issue I see with needles is size. People who stitch from kits often assume that the kit contains the needle they need to stitch the project. While this may be true in some cases, especially with kits created by the actual designer, often the needle included is either too big or too small for the fabric/thread combination provided.

With the notable exceptions of stitching through leather, paper, or vinyl, where holes are punched in the ground, you have some leeway in needle size. On woven and knit fabrics, it is better to err on the side of too large than too small. Let me repeat that, it’s an important point:

In general, it is better your needle be larger than necessary, rather than smaller.

I know, you don’t want to leave gaping holes in your fabric. If you choose your needle based on yourthread you won’t. Let me ‘splain.

The eye of your needle should be slightly larger than twice all of the threads you put through it.

So, if you are stitching with two threads, it should be slightly larger than four. This is so that the needle will push the fabric out of the way enough that the threads glide through the hole with minimal rubbing. Friction on your thread makes it fuzzy, which looks sloppy AND makes the thread weak and prone to breaking. Also, using a needle that is much too small can break the eye when you force all that thread through the tiny hole, either when threading the needle, or more likely, when trying to pull it through the fabric.

Fabric is flexible. Use a larger needle (within reason) and the threads of the fabric will snap back into place around your stitching. If they don’t, especially with counted work, you can gently stroke them back into place. Too small a needle and the threads and the needle’s eye are under too much stress and may break.

So if you have a kit where most is stitched with 2 strands, and a smallish needle, and then it calls for 6 strands and the same needle, do yourself a favor – walk over to your needle box or book and pull out one that’s a size or even TWO larger for that part of the stitching. You’ll be glad you did!

***

I didn’t realize there was so much to think about with regard to needles until I started thinking!

You can read Part 1 here.

Part 3 coming later!