Stella’s Birds – Bitey Bird

I decided that all the birds would have the variegated thread in them, and that it would be used to outline the body as a starting point. In the case of Bitey Bird, I used a single thread (“Watercolours” is separable into three plies, each of them just like a pearl cotton in behaviour) and started with Mountmellick Thorn Stitch. I did a second row to give Bitey a bib (as it were), and while it looks a little stiff as I concentrate on it, it will probably settle nicely when the whole panel is done.

The rest of Bitey was worked during the MathsJam Gathering, and I took no more photos of work in progress, so cue me desperately trying to remember what I did….

So here we go.. Hungarian Braided Chain for the bird’s head and back – see how it’s not such a thirsty stitch as the Mountmellick Thorn, so the colour changes spread out more? Vandyke stitch to separate the feathers, Cretan Stitch for the crest, Coral stitch in various other places.

I had specific areas I planned to make strongly raised, particularly the leading edges of the wings, so in this case I used Buttonhole Stitch, padded with chain stitch. I do love that redundant but highly ornamental spiral!

I finished Bitey – to a first approximation! – ten minutes before the formal part of the MathsJam Gathering ended, knowing, however, that various changes would be needed once I had the whole thing before me.

Not much changed, in the end – the beak darker, and outlined rather than solid, and the legs darker too. And now he looks nicely ornamental and joyfully voracious. Just as he should!