True to my predictions, it has been a long time between posts lately. I've had the holidays to deal with, of course, plus the busy season at work, plus two other big life changes, which I will tell you about when they're a little further along. My stitching time has been very limited, but I have made some progress and completed another section of the cords — this time, using multiple transitions and metal thread.
I was still working on the right side of the fan, progressing to the cord just behind the tassel cord but in front of the largest cord segment. For this particular cord, I wanted to do two transitions, one from dark silk to light silk and one from light silk to metal thread.
The first transition from the dark teal silk thread to the light teal was reasonably successful and looked pretty, but I didn't like the transition from the light teal silk to the iridescent green metal thread at all. You can see both transitions below:
The first transition between the silk threads is kind of cool. I really like the effect of the blended colors. But that second transition to the metal thread was just way too abrupt.
For both transitions, I had followed the pattern I did before (illustrated in my post on Single Central Braided Cords), which looked something like this:
- Four diagonal stitches: AAAA
- Four perpendicular cross-stitches: AAAB
- Four diagonal stitches: AABB
- Four perpendicular cross-stitches: ABBB
- Four diagonal stitches: BBBB
I did that pattern twice for each transition. It was successful for the two silks but not for the silk and metal because, in that transition, I was blending materials of very different thicknesses.
The first time I did the pattern with the silk and metal, A was 4-->1T teal silk and B was 3 1/2 strands of silk and one strand of metal thread twisted together. The second time, B became my new A, and the new B was two strands of metal thread, half-hitched on the needle. But it just didn't feel natural, so I took out the entire transition and started over.
This time, I used the same blend of silk and metal threads for A and B, but I made the shift more subtle and gradual by repeating each step twice. Here's the pattern I followed for the first part of the transition from all silk to the silk and metal blend:
- Four perpendicular cross-stitches: AAAA
- Four diagonal stitches: AAAB
- Four perpendicular cross-stitches: AAAB
- Four diagonal stitches: AABB
- Four perpendicular cross-stitches: AABB
- Four diagonal stitches: ABBB
- Four perpendicular cross-stitches: ABBB
- Four diagonal stitches: BBBB
For the second repetition of the pattern, where A was the silk and metal blend and B was all metal, I did the same thing as above, but I repeated the last blended step (ABBB) four times (or two complete sets of diagonal and cross-stiches) to really make the change feel more gradual:
- Four perpendicular cross-stitches: AAAA
- Four diagonal stitches: AAAB
- Four perpendicular cross-stitches: AAAB
- Four diagonal stitches: AABB
- Four perpendicular cross-stitches: AABB
- Four diagonal stitches: ABBB
- Four perpendicular cross-stitches: ABBB
- Four diagonal stitches: ABBB
- Four perpendicular cross-stitches: ABBB
- Four diagonal stitches: BBBB
It was much more successful this time:
See how much more natural it is? The silk is so much thicker that I think I just needed to take a little more time fading away from it. Here's a view from a littler farther away:
I think it looks a lot better. Still not flawless of course, but I was pretty happy with this overall.I have one more cord to stitch on this side before I can finish the grommet. And then I have to finish the largest cord on the left side of the fan, stitch the other tassel foundation, and finish off both tassels. But I'm excited to be almost two-thirds of the way through these cords.It will probably be another couple of weeks before I post again, as I have a lot going on right now. But hopefully all my big changes will turn out well and I'll have more time for stitching in the very near future.
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