Nuts about Needlepoint » mini-sock

Kreinik’s New Naturals

Janet Perry — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:13:50 +0000

This Petei mini-sock uses Kreinik's naturals metallics throughout.

Kreinik’s line of “naturals” in metallics came back recently, with a smaller number of colors that have been changed slightly.

I used the extensively in this Petei mini-sock from my stash. They are used for all the metallics.

Only one color, 4006 Rose Hip was retained from the original series. As you can see it’s a soft pink, that’s still very metallic. If the other pinks in the Kreinik line are too bright or to modern for your stitching, look to this shade — it’s great.

The other colors are muted neutrals.

On the mini-sock, the darker brown/gold is 4202 Susky Meadow, kind of a dark Hot Chocolate color that will mix well with either gold or silver. The lighter color is 4203 Cattail, a slightly greenish gold. It’s a real chameleon color, looking green, gold, or brown depending on the context. It should be4 considered for many applications.

I didn’t use 4204 Storm Cloud (gunmetal), 4205 Ironwood (sliver), 4201 Sugar Cane (light green) in this piece.

You can read about them all on Kreinik’s site.

Tomorrow I’ll look at Empress Elite from The Pure Palette, and Thursday at Duchess Silk from Gloriana both of which were also used here.

New Canvases from Kathy Schenkel and Melissa Shirley

Janet Perry — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:38:06 +0000

I am always so happy at TNNA to go to Kathy Schenkel’s and Melissa Shirley’s booths. They are always full to bursting with great new ideas and canvases I just drool over.

I love Kathy’s bone-shaped ornaments for dogs and this year she has a delightful new set. These are “Things Dogs Do,” all done in a clever, easy-to-stitch style.

She also has mini-socks and ornament rounds for a number of different colleges and universities that aren’t just the usual logo style, often they have iconic buildings or other symbols of the campus.

She also has new dog and people tote bags and new North Woods designs. There are two new Christmas series, a nativity and a stars of Christmas, people associated with Christmas in stars.

A very clever idea is her animal alphabet, available both as a panel and as individual letters. The animals are creatively posed in and around the letters. An unusual ornament series would be to do a name or initials this way.

As always Melissa Shirley has tons of new stuff, so I’ll only hit the highlights.

If you like her pears, but have been wishing for designs that were less geometric, you’ll love her new series that has a different fruit in each pear. With gold backgrounds and fruits and blossoms vining up each shape, they are both elegant and timeless. There are 10 in the series.

She has expanded the selection of her popular crackers with a Thanksgiving series, a new Halloween series that features some of her vintage Halloween characters, pink or gold Christmas crackers, and a set of Christmas toy crackers. There is also a new series of candy canes, mostly stripes, in a modern palette of red, white, green, and light green.

Her newest series is 3-D needlepoint cupcakes. Each design is in two parts, a top and the sides. There are designs for Christmas and Valentine’s.

If you have been collecting Christmas canvases in particular colors, there are conical CHristmas trees in fabric-like patterns in both green and gold. Her acorns have been very popular and a set of Christmas acorns has been added. Her banners have been expanded with a series of pumpkins for Halloween.

There is lots of new stuff from her licensed designers. My favorite of these was Debbie Mumm’s “Trick or Treaters,” a haunted house background with twelve Halloween figures. Three of these are animals,a cat, a raccoon, and some mice, dressed up for Halloween.

There are lots more new canvases including some great seashore and insect pillow designs, and lots of new Christmas stockings. THere’s plenty to love and stitch here.

Painted Canvases at TNNA – Part 1

Janet Perry — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:32:28 +0000

As always there plenty to love at TNNA. Besides the trends I talked about on Wednesday, two other types of needlepoint are becoming more popular.

I was particularly excited by all the creative bookmarks I saw. Whimsy and grace had over 30 in all styles. Each of these came with a coordinating tassel. A new designer, Shivering Sheep had several delightful ones with Southwestern themes. Another designer, MAP Designs, had a whole bunch of canvases of Koeshi dolls, a type of Japanese doll. These dolls have round heads and straight bodies (no arms or legs). MAP’s Koeshis included dogs, cats. people and a bride and groom. They could be finished flat to be bookmarks or be done as stand-ups or easel-backed pieces.

Another type of needlepoint that’s becoming more popular is 3-D needlepoint, something that takes us beyond the pillow or ornament. Little Shoppe, a pioneer in 3-D needlepoint has made a new series of 3-D candles. There are two pieces, a top, shaped like a donut, and a rectangular side. Finished the rectangle becomes a pillar candle, while the round covers the top. In the hole place an LED tea light. There are seasonal and non-seasonal designs and many come with coordinating pillows.

Over at Sundance, Barbara Elmore has taken 3-D to a whimsical level with her sculptural pumpkin and Christmas Tree. They are constructed of stitched bands and are ekegant and unusual.

The showpiece of dede’s new canvases is her topiary tree, a tall skinny cone stitched entirely in shades of green. On it your place stitched butterflies, also 3-D withe their wings partially folded.

There were so many other delightful pieces, it will be hard to describe them all in these two posts. Rebecca Wood has stockings and ornaments featuring reindeer. Reindeer games shows the reindeer at play. Ruldoplh is featured in both a stocking and whole series of round ornaments that have him hiding out in various places. She also has a stunning smaller nativity and twoseries of monthly cakes. The three-layer cakes are banners and a series of smaller babycakes is two lay versions of the same designs.

Painted Pony has added some new destination angels and rounds including Vatican City and the Galapagos Islands. There are also some delightful charm angels, including a geisha and queen of hearts. She has also brought out a series of seven monthly themed dress forms. These have exquisite detail and are more complex in their painting than the angels and rounds.

A delightful series at Shivering Sheep is their custom critters collection. A clever scene illustrating phrases such as, wildebeest wanders willy-nilly, is able to be personalized with the name and phrase painted in pink or blue or to match Sherwin-Williams paints.

Sharon G has done some of her triptyches as single canvases. They are stunning large canvases. A new geometric of hers called Graphic Wave was stitched so beautifully and I’m excited that Sharon will make her stitch guide for this available. My favorite of hers was her Owl & Pussycat, one of my favorite children’s poems. It’s the best I’ve ever seen.

Waterweave had lots of lovely hearts, with many in blue, white, and yellow. They also had a great sheep that looks deceptively simple until you stitch it all in big wooly French Knots. Then it sings.

City Needlepoint (makers of the great City Silk thread) had a wonderful series of Chinese Zodiac designs. Each had the animal in black in Chinese cut-out style, and had the character for the animal behind it in a rich dark red. They also had many simple designs in 4″ square size that would be great beginners canvases.

More tomorrow and Sunday (new distributors on Sunday as well).

Free Christmas Ornament Patterns on this Site

Janet Perry — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 14:56:56 +0000

Merry Christmas!

I love CHristmas ornaments and stitch them all the time. Some of that love has been reflected in the projects I’ve done for this site.

In case you are like me and want to start a new stitching project (although I’m most likely cooking not stitching), you might want to make one of these delightful little projects.

Besides these stand-alone projects, check out last year’s Learn-a-Stitch Mini-sock series, and the many Twinchy posts, there are lots more ornament ideas there.

Harvest PotPourri – LAS Mini-sock

Janet Perry — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:33:32 +0000

Whenever I see this mini-sock it makes me think of the brilliant yellow color of the Gingko trees in autumn. The Watercolours shade I used is Woodland and I emphasized the yellow.

Other threads used include: Grandeur, Very Velvet, Holographic Fyrewerks, Panache, and Sprinkes.

I used yet another outline (I wish I had kept it), but you can use either of the ones we have used before (here and here).

Area 1: This area is stitched in Triple Rice. It’s a large Rice STitch, made in Holographic Fryewerks, that is crossed three times, in kind of a Scotch using Very Velvet. Using two highly contrasting threads for this stitch really highlights its construction.

Area 2: This area is stitched in a simple laidwork pattern, Taggert. This kind of stitch really highlights a lovely thread. Begin by making long stitches the length of the area in every hole. Once this is done you are ready to make the diagonal stitches (I used Grandeur) that cross the area. Make one in every eighth hole in both diagonal directions. Once this is done make an Upright Cross at each intersection to tie everything down.

Please note that the diagram does not how the laid stitches (first step) for clarity.

Area 3: This area has a stitch we’ve used before, Jacquard, but here the structure is highlighted by using two threads. I love this stitch because of it’s texture.

Area 4: The straight stitch in this area is Tamalpais. It has rounded shapes separated by connected diamonds. It’s a fast and easy stitch to do.

Area 5: This stitch, Salinia, is a kind of check, although it doesn’t look like it. Begin by making a pattern of Smyrna Crosses in a check.

Once you have completed them, put five straight stitches in the open areas (two of these stitches will be in the same holes as the open sides of the crosses.

But, here’s the kicker, switch the direction of these stitches in every row, vertical in one row, horizontal in the next.

I hope you have enjoyed this series. I’m going to be doing another LAS series, this time of stars starting in the Spring of 2012. Sometime early next year this series will be available as an ebook.

LAS Mini-Sock – Potpourri III

Janet Perry — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 13:57:44 +0000

I made this mini-sock because I just love the shade of Watercolours used here, Blue Spruce. I like that combination of icy teal and pink, although this skein didn’t have much pink in it.

Click image to go to full-size template

You’ll notice that the patches on this mini-sock are different than the ones we have been using. There are six here, so use this outline (click for the full-size template). If you want to use the other outline, just leave out one of the patches.

Patch 1 – Double Straight Cross

This popular Cross Stitch gets lots of texture from using two very different threads: rayon and Very Velvet. Although both crosses are exactly the same, the different weights of the threads makes it look almost as if the rayon crosses are a grid over the bulkier velvet. It’s a neat effect.

Patch 2 – Flemish Bond

This straight stitch consists of different patterns in alternating rows. Every other row consists of groups of three Horizontal Gobelins over three threads. The other row consists of pairs of alternating horizontal
and Vertical Gobelins of different lengths. The horizontal stitches are over two threads while the vertical stitches are over three threads. It creates a complex pattern.

Although you can make this stitch by making all the horizontal stitches in one pass, followed by all the vertical stitches, I make it one row at a time.

Patch 3 – Linenfold

This stitch gets its name from a type of carved paneling popular in Tudor England. It’s alternating columns of Diagonal and Horizontal Gobelin. Although I have seen versions of this stitch with columns of many different widths, usually one column, using Horizontal Gobelin is significantly wider than the other column.

I always think of the wide columns as the linen and the narrow columns as the folds. Here it is stitched using Needlepoint, Inc. silk.

Patch 4 – Pavement Stitch

This stitch is a combination of Mosaic, Cashmere, and Scorch stitches. I stitched it in three threads but it is equally lovely in one or two. Its name comes from the way it looks like fancy stamped pavement. The stitches are reversed in the mini-sock and are done in Kreinik metallic, rayon, and Very Velvet.

Patch 5 Arrowhead Scotch

In this Scotch Stitch variation a line of Tent Stitches along two edges is done in a different thread, so that the main part of the Scotch looks like an arrow. I think the effect is more pronounced in some threads than others. Here, it’s just a nice pattern, stitched in Watercolours and Kreinik.

Patch 6 – Loire

This stitch is a variation of Double Parisian Stitch. Instead of alternating blocks of two long stitches and two short stitches. It alternates blocks sizes as well. This creates alternating rows of two long and one short, or one long and two short. The Frosty Rays used here kind of mutes the stitch pattern.

New Free Pattern on About.com

Janet Perry — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 14:02:33 +0000

Originally posted 2009-11-25 07:08:21. Republished by Blog Post PromoterI’m excited about this designer profile on About.com. You will be too when you see the fun mini-sock pattern based on a popular quilt block that’s part of it. Related posts: Needlepoint Quilt Block Gift Tags – New Free Pattern Quilts as a Source of Inspiration Sunburst Mosaic Ornament — Free Needlepoint Pattern Pine Trees Mini-Sock Pinwheel Quilt Block Pin Cushion – Free Project Related posts:

PotPourri I – Learn-a-Stitch Mini-sock

Janet Perry — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:53:06 +0000

For the next couple of months, the mini-socks are going to be a potpourri of stitches. The colors and threads in each sock are related, but the stitches are not.

click on picture for full-size outline

They also use a different outline, the Round Robin outline, pictured above.

This month’s mini-sock uses traditional Christmas colors of red and green and is designed around Caron’s Waterlilies in Holiday.

Patch 1 – Reverse Hesitation Stitch

Hesitation Stitch is a variation of Diagonal Scotch. In it, the smallest stitches are replaced with stitches in a different thread. It’s amazing how this little change really changes the look of the stitch. To me Hesitation Stitch always looks like oval-shaped diamonds, but Diagonal Scotch doesn’t look like either diamonds or ovals.

It’s a great stitch for almost any application.

Patch 2 – Triple Rice

This giant variation of Rice Stitch is so large that a Scotch Stitch (minus the smallest stitches) is used for the ties. Although it is a large stitch in a block, it doesn’t look big, just interestingly textured. The short stitches are always left out.

The left diagram shows the cross only; the right diagram shows the completed stitch.

It is also a fantastic stitch for a border, especially if you do the underlying cross in an attention-grabbing or flashy thread.

Patch 3 – Uneven Byzantine

Byzantine is one of my favorite stitches and I love to vary it. I’m particularly fond of variations where the steps are uneven. Depending on how different the number of stitches on each step are the look can be dramatic, subtle, or elegant. Here where the vertical step is four stitches and the horizontal is five, with a narrow Byzantine, I think the look is elegant and kind of Mid-Century Modern, looking like those broad shallow steps you find made out of flagstones in gardens.

Patch 4 – Framed Scotch

When you surround a stitch with Tent Stitches, that’s called framing. Box Stitches are among the most popular to frame. Here Scotch is framed in a metallic of a different color. Make the frame in a contrasting color or texture and the frame stands out. Make it in the same thread and it is a textural variation.

This stitch looks best in large areas, but I think it would make a really cool wide border.

Patch 5 – Giant Annapolis Brick

This Cashmere-Scotch variation is named for brickwork you see all over Annapolis, MD. In it bricks are laid so that the long and short sides alternate. It makes a neat pattern that almost looks like columns. Because the units in this variation are large, it works best in bigger areas.

“Destination” Needlepoint

Janet Perry — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:49:44 +0000

Sometimes I think it’s both a blessing and a curse to live in a “tourist trap.” The curse is that there are often crowds. The blessing is that it’s easy to find related needlepoint canvases. And I do. I have many San Francisco canvases and have stitched and given away many more.

As needlepointers we tend to stitch memories of where we have been. But finding related pieces can be difficult. Today I though I’d give you a round up of many companies that make destination-themed needlepoint pieces.

ABS Designs – Lighthouses from many locations throughout the US, missions of California series (8 currently), and architectural doorfronts from several locations, including 2 in Europe. I stitched the Little Red Lighthouse of theirs earlier this year and am about to start one of the Missions.

Danji – States & city names in embellished letters, series of landscape & architectural designs, including lighthouses, missions, and many unusual landscapes. A good bet for more obscure places. Some city and state round ornaments. “Christmas in . . .” series of round ornaments.

Denise deRusha – Needlepoint postcards of all 50 states, many cites, and some foreign countries.

Amanda Lawford – Squares, rectangles, rounds, and stockings of both specific cities and thematic “countries” like Russia or China. Find then under “odd ducks” on her website.

DJ Designs – complex SF and NYC stockings with squares based on same designs & ornaments with sections of them. These are not on his site.

In Good Company – mini-socks for all 50 states, many countries, some regions, and many cities. State abbreviation rounds, Also some Alaska-themed canvases and regional squares.

Julia’s Needleworks – Now distributor of Euro (other designers under JB Designs) and Peter Ashe. Euro did stockings, rounds, and hearts, mostly of SF landmarks.

Kathy Schenkel – destination rounds Including some colleges), Michigan series, and a series of five SF ornaments.

Needlepoint Broad – square canvases of several baseball stadiums and of fireworks in various cities. Postcard series of all 50 states. Some small ornaments of other landmarks. Very little shown on site.

needle blending creates a dramatic sky

Painted Pony Designs – Travel angels and rounds, the angels with charms, the rounds have similar designs but without charms. Many countries and cities some unusual ones.

The Princess & Me – Ornaments with stitch guides, different takes on many famous cities. Find them in the categories Around the USA, by country name or in best sellers. Not all canvases are listed in categories, nor are all links working. But all canvases are listed by number.

Ruth Schmuff – Map canvases of several cities, usually with additional designs and a compass rose. World map in two canvases.

Shelly Trubey – Grand Tour rug of world landmarks, bell pulls of several cities, purses of cities as well.

Silver Needle Designs – Round ornaments of many cities, countries, and all 50 states with many unusual destinations. Some travel mini-socks. State ornaments and many others have map of place on them. Cape Cod Collection has town signs for area. Some location car ovals and an Adirondack collection.

Add your favorite sin the comments.

Picnic Basket – LAS Mini-sock

Janet Perry — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 14:09:20 +0000

Since it’s summer I thought it would be fun to celebrate with stitches that mimic either baskets or gingham, making for a picnic basket in needlepoint.

Both gingham stitches are done in three colors of Rainbow Gallery’s Pebbly Perle. The basket stitches are made in either Rainbow Linen or Olde Willow Stitchery Linen. The Olde Willow is no longer made.

Gingham is a fabric woven in alternating stripes of white and a color. The stripes occur in both the warp and the weft, so that solid blocks alternate with blocks that have both colors, making an intermediate shade. If you’ve stitched needlepoint plaids, you’ll realize that this makes gingham a simple plaid.

Baskets, and stitches representing them, have a distinctive woven look. You can enhance this by using two different threads or colors for the different parts of the weave. I did this for Double Linen in Patch 2.

Begin by tracing the outline onto your canvas. Then pick your threads and begin stitching. Click on the image for the full-size template.

Gingham Scotch

This stitch is done in three related colors of one thread, Mandarin Floss in this case. Scotch Stitches of any size can be used to make a gingham pattern. In this case the Scotch Stitches are done over four threads.

Begin by making every other Scotch using the medium shade. Once this is done the empty spaces alternate between white and the darker color. Stitch all the white units first, then the colored ones.

Double Linen

Double Linen is a pretty small woven stitch that’s great for adding texture and that makes a lovely background. It’s made of alternating blocks of two stitches over three threads.

The uneven coverage of this stitch comes largely from the linen thread used. Rainbow Linen, used here, like almost all linen threads, is uneven in width. This gives areas stitched in linen a rustic look. I love it, many people don’t.

Patterned Threes

Patterned Threes expands Double Linen by using blocks of three stitches over four threads.

This block is stitched in Oriental Linen from The Thread Gatherer. It’s a two ply silk & linen blend. I don’t ply it down, but it should be possible. It would give good coverage for diagonal stitches in 13 and 14 mesh and nice thick coverage for straight stitches on 18 mesh. It’s probably too thick for diagonal stitches on 18 mesh.

Wide Woven Basket

Because all three of the basket stitches are made similarly, I decided to leave this one partially unstitched so that you could see how they are constructed. In this stitch there are five horizontal stitches and only two vertical stitches; the other two have equal numbers of both.

You make these stitches by making horizontal rows. It’s easiest if you either complete each block or make all the blocks in one direction first. This makes it easy to o the coverage properly.

This block was stitched using LOndonderry Linen.

Gingham Mosaic

This stitch is done in three related colors of one thread, Mandarin Floss in this case. Mosaic Stitches make a pretty small gingham.

Begin by making every other Mosaic using the medium shade. Once this is done the empty spaces alternate between white and the darker color. Stitch all the white units first, then the colored ones.