Phase 2: Lattice with Knots, Part 1

It's been a while! Unfortunately, sometimes I get sick and everything else has to take a back seat. This last week, I've been dealing with myriad issues from ear infections to migraines, so I haven't had a chance to do much embroidery or blogging. But the last few days have been a bit better, so I finally have the time, energy, and mental acuity to tell you about it.

Two weekends ago, I had my second phase 2 JE lesson with Mary Alice. She went over techniques for a couple of segments on my fan, which should give me plenty to work on until my next lesson in three weeks. First, I started working on the far left segment of my fan, which is supposed to have a lattice pattern filled with Japanese knots. The first step in creating the lattice was to lay horizontal stitches across the segment. I did this with a single strand of very dark purple flat silk:

After discussing it with Mary Alice, I decided to lay the stitches horizontal to the top edge of the fan, as we thought it would look tidier that way. And once again, I used my handy 3mm measuring template to figure out where to place the lines:

It looks like the last few stitches were a little off the lines, but that's just the weird angle at which I took the photo. From straight above, they were dead on. Here are all those horizontal lines completed:

They're pretty damn even, though I say it myself. 😉 Next, I had to place vertical lines at right angles to the horizontal lines, again using a single strand of the same flat silk:

Full disclosure: I wasn't happy with the placement of the vertical lines the first time, so I took them out and redid them. The photo above is the redo. I carefully placed the lines so that there would be squares all the way down to the tip of the segment. The reason for this is that each square will eventually be filled with a Japanese knot, and I wanted the knots to fill the whole segment.

The last step for the lattice was to couch down all the corners to secure them in place. I used half a strand of the same flat silk and just gently twisted it on the needle, which is what Mary Alice recommended:

In some places, I accidentally got the needle too close to the corner and the holding stitch pulled the thread so that the squares weren't quite square. But honestly, I think they look pretty good, and once I do 200 knots to fill them all in, I don't think any slight discrepancies will be obvious to anyone.

Here's the whole fan up to this point:

I'm pretty pleased with the evenness of the lattice, despite its flaws. I think once I get the knots done, this segment will look kind of cool, but I confess, I'm not looking forward to doing that many knots. Originally I was going to do the knots in the same color as the lattice, but I think that will be too boring. Instead, I've decided to use a slightly lighter shade of purple in the same family, blended with my dark purple metallic thread. I'm hoping that combination will give a bit of depth and sheen to this segment.