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So much of my work involves knit and crochet, that I occasionally like to give a different craft a try. At the trade show I went to last May, the nice folks at Random House gave me some books, including A Rainbow of Stitches
About a week ago, I decided to take the plunge and give embroidery a try. I copied one of the bird patterns on to a paper book mark. I read the instructions on the basic stitches, and tried it out. I was able to finish the bird in the time it took a pot of water to boil.
I used a seed bead for the eye since the french knot kept slipping through the hole.
The bookmark turned out so well that I decided to do a slightly bigger project. I snuck the iron downstairs (so my husband wouldn’t get his hopes up that I would be ironing his shirts), pressed a spare piece of linen fabric I had, and picked out a design. I had some trouble transferring the floral design, but I think it still worked out ok. (I used dressmaker’s carbon for this one, but I think I may go with a heat transfer pencil for my next project.) Even though the design was done in one color in the book, I wanted to play around with a couple of different colors- green leaves, blue flowers, and pink French knots for the flower centers.
Overall I’m really enjoying this foray into embroidery. I’ve already spent a good 2 hrs looking at embroidery ideas on Pinterest. Plus, embroidery meets my main criteria for fun crafting – that I can do it while lying in bed and watching tv 🙂 Have you tried embroidery before? What have you made? Do you use it to embellish your knit or crochet?
