As I've hinted at before, I've become more interested in embroidery lately. Which might be another way to say that I've become more interested in crafts that I can do in front of the television. On my trip to Nova Scotia I took my hoop, some thread and a needle thinking I'd get in practice during the 5.5 hour ferry ride, but I realized I only knew about two stiches (not to mention the seasickness that came and went) so that was kind of a bust. To learn more, I took these two books out from the library. Anchor Complete Embroidery Course is from 1998 and is pretty traditional, but a good resource for learning the basic stitches. Colorful Stichery has some beautiful and inspiring projects and is much more modern and in line with my aesthetic. Then I saw these gorgeous French Knot pillows at the Purl Bee and knew I had to learn how to do that.
Here are two kick-ass resources for learning embroidery:
Primrose Design's Stitch School. Bless her for putting up instructions and step-by-step photos of so many stitches! Her whole blog is great - you'll see all the Stitch School posts listed on the right-hand side.
NeedleNThread's Video Library. If you, like me, have a hard time figuring things out by looking at photos - go here! They've posted videos showing a whole caboodle of stitches. I promise you'll be less intimidated by french knots once you've watched the video.
It's raining today (again, but no tornado this time) and I'd like nothing more than to hunker down on the couch and start practicing, but I'm off to New Haven this weekend to help my sister move. Excuse me while I fluff my halo...
I have been thinking of trying some embroidery too. knitting just doesn't work for me so I thought that embroidery would work as a winter evening diversion!
Posted by: Randi | August 13, 2007 at 11:27 PM