Getting back to the Parterre
We last saw the Parterre in December, when I’d found a very pretty stitch (Squared Daisies) which was very trying to work, because it involved a lot of stitches going into the same hole.
As I was up to my eyes in exasperation with Amarna and William Marshall at the time, I set the parterre to one side so as to have fewer moments of fury and despair. Now that Amarna is in a totally different stage of effort and William is on the home straight, I’m returning to it, with a quieter mind and greater regularity of effort.
With the very cheering result that you see here. In no time, so it seemed, I’d finished the two panels in small squared daisies, and moved on to infilling them with Diamond Rhodes Stitch. You’ll see that the Daisies are worked in two different shades of red, not quite regularly alternating. The thread is a single strand of Paterna.
For the Diamond Rhodes Stitch, I decided to use a single colour. It’s two strands of Appleton Crewel wool, which is about the weight of the single strand Paterna, and it’s allowed me to soften the colour slightly by using two different shades in the needle.
And then I moved on to the Super Large Squared Daisies, and, as it turned out, some repeated doing and undoing on one particular one, because I had misplaced the central hole.
Howl and Growl!
And do you know what is really infuriating?
It only went wrong in this particular case. All the others were fine.
I didn’t know the name “Diamond Rhodes Stitch” for what I call “diagonal double cross” – a very useful stitch. Your name sounds less criminal! I do a lot of blending close shades in the needle. It gives that tiny touch of life to stitches. Your Parterre must be pleasantly relaxing.
You mix and match your project in a good way so there is as little stress as possible. I agree with you – it is challenging to work all the stitches into just one hole in the centre.
Beautiful colours!
Your finished daisies with their green infill look lovely – I want to run my fingers over them!
Ah but there’s the beauty of the stiletto, which stretches a hole without splitting the fibres. Annoying though! I really like the combination of stitches and colours, it looks very effective.
I love the pattern the daisies have created and the Diamond Rhodes is the perfect infill.
I can so relate to the feelings of frustration with a work that isn’t going well, especially when you’re fighting that feeling on more than one front. I had a spell of it myself yesterday whilst weaving and took today off from it! One trial at a time I think…
I hadn’t thought of using my stiletto like this. Thanks for the tip.