Winter Hare in the Rosehips

A new finish in a flurry of snow .°.°.°.°.°

poised in a moment, has someone spotted me?

 I don't have the pattern ready for this finish yet as I did tend to go a bit 'off piste' when I was stitching the snowflakes and branches and what not.  It's a design with a lot of organic shapes, which means the odd stitch added, missed out, or in the 'wrong' place doesn't really change the overall finish, which is relaxing.  Added to that, the body of the hare, if you like to outline first, can be filled in without much regard to the paper pattern - another win for TV stitching! 

I've used my new go to thread for fluffy snow flakes again, the skinny spaghetti that is Coton a Broder by DMC size number 30, this time in shade B5200 (the blueish brightest white).  It works on this background which is Zweigart 32 count Belfast linen in colour Pearl Grey, which I'm loving.  The cool elegant tone of the linen contrast delicately with the warmer nutty browns of the hare.

A bit of embroidery has snuck in of course, the big snowflake is a mix of cross stitches and, well, I don't know the word exactly, 'counted thread work' would cover it I think.

I toyed with the idea of adding red beads for the berries, but decided to keep that thought for another design and just went with the rich tones of DMC 3777 dotted here and there.  I raided my stash for the eye bead, as it needed something with a bit more impact that my usual tiny (the tiny-est) seed bead... opting for something larger in a metallic old gold hue.  The eye is key I find, it just brings life.

ever alert, ready to run

Soon the pattern will appear in the shop, before the Long Night Moon on December 6th.

May goodstitching be upon you!

Healthy Winter Pursuits!

A new set of little designs, for ornamentation of your festive abodes' come this winter...

soon they will be hanging on the tree!

I've chosen a nice winter grey background with the fine evenweave linen that is Zweigart 32 count Belfast Linen in 'Smokey Pearl'.  There was an extremely elegant shade in a lighter grey called 'Pearl Grey', but I chose the former to keep the white thread nice n 'poppy'.  Pearl Grey has of course gone into the stash to be reconsidered for another time.

As I was stitching these up, I felt the single strand of DMC Blanc floss for snow wasn't quite giving me the look I was after, it appeared a bit, well, underwhelming.  After some experimentation, I discovered what I was looking for in a thread called 'Coton a Broder' or 'Broder Special' (Art 107), a thread more commonly used for whitework I believe.

It is described by DMC as being 'soft and gentle to the touch', 'does not kink, knot or fluff' and is made of 4 non-divisible strands.  All in all a lovely thread to use which creates nice plump stitches while maintaining the defined cross using one thread alone gives.  It comes in 6 different sizes, I experimented and found size No. 30 was ideal for use with 32 count linen in shade BLANC.  The other white shade size 30 comes in is B5200 which is a brighter, blue-er white, something to keep for another project down the line.

(A side note, when I search for 'Broder Special' on the DMC USA site, it does not appear to be listed, a bit strange as it is available, also here.  If you change your country to UK, the details are there if you are looking for more information.)

My second thread 'discovery' was Kreinik's Metallic Blending Filament.  A very light, thin and soft little wisp of a thing, which gave a lovely sparkle to these projects and was pleasant to use.  The Kreinik site has a whole page dedicated to it's uses and care, it seems to have multiple uses for crafting, I liked it a lot.

So, I discovered a few new things during the course of these stitches, it's always great to expand one's knowledge in the sewing world.  I've been thinking a lot about embroidery of late, y'know - those other stitches that aren't all crosses ;-) -  I might just have to give it a try...