Grape Hyacinths, 2

First Try
First Try

Having completed all the greenery and removed the satin stitch flowers, I had to put new flowers in. Naturally, that didn’t happen first time, either!

This was my first attempt at the individual flowers on the grape hyacinth flower heads – twisted chain stitches using several different coloured strands of stranded cotton.

I wanted to try something raised, to contrast with the flatness of the stems and leaves, but this, slightly full, version of twisted chain hasn’t really worked. It looks far too heavy for a spring flower!

Second Try
Second Try

Out it came, and I tried again.

And for my second try, I may have invented another stitch. Again!

This is Fly Stitch topped with Twisted Chain Stitch. What I wanted to achieve was the slight sense of a ruffled skirt at the bottom of the individual bells, and this certainly works well enough for me to keep going, using this stitch, at least until I have a better idea!

Second Try Enhanced
Second Try Enhanced

All that admitted, I felt I’d ended up with too great a space between the stitches, and of course, I don’t want to try to fit more in, in case I lose the ruffles (as it were!). So I have filled in the gaps with single detached chain stitches.

Of course, I may yet come back and do somethign entirely different. but I decided at this point to leave this in place and continue my experiments!

The next SlowTV Stitchery is now live. Episode 36 tackles the difficulties of the canvas, Reynard the Fox provides a distraction, and there is some tackling of quandaries by changing tack..

6 Comments

  1. Sue Jones says:

    There’s nothing like inventing a new composite stitch to give you a sense of Contributing to the Craft. The fly and twist stitch looks interesting. Tiny grape hyacinths work so very well in french knots, I had never considered what stitches would suit the frilled blobs of larger ones, other than falling back on needle-painting.

  2. Wow, you have made another beautiful stitch. I love it! What will you call it? You MUST give it a name, you know!
    I think they work well for the grape hyacinths, especially when you mix in Lazy Daisy Stitch.

  3. Lady Fi says:

    What a great new stitch!

  4. Jen Mullen says:

    Experimenting is mentally engaging while your fingers work the magic. 🙂

  5. Sheryl says:

    These thread colours are very pretty together and I love how you experiment until you are happy with the results.

  6. Carolyn Foley says:

    New composite stitches are sometimes surprising, sometimes disappointing but always interesting.