TAST Herringbone 3

At the risk of being boring, I am still not entirely finished with herringbone. Today I started to set up my bloglines. At the same time I was looking to see what others had done with herringbone. I must say that I am amazed at the variety and creativity generated by one stitch (and I have only done names A-F so far). Barbara Cheeseman of embroidery overlaps mentioned an article in the Stitch magazine and this evening I dug out my copy and took another look at the article. This prompted me to add a circle of herringbone chain stitch to the circle that I created last night and to add another circle embroidered in herringbone variation stitch. My final stab at herringbone on this sample was simply to couch a ribbon with a double row in contrasting colours. Finally, I added a couple of beads that I bought in Amsterdam recently.


I was pleased when Sharon chose herringbone for the first stitch on her Take a Stitch Tuesday Challenge . This is a stitch that I felt comfortable with, it was a nice way to ease into this challenge, I thought. So I started in my comfort zone: straight lines, counted and controlled stitches. My first few rows were neat, crisp and SAFE. No wonder I enjoyed working these samples. Then I thought I would attempt to move outside my comfort zone and add some curves. To my surprise, I enjoyed working the circles and the paisley motif even more than the straight lines. I found herringbone to be very flexible and manipulative. It flowed easily into the shapes I wanted to create and behaved impeccably. I thought that I knew this stitch, but through exploring it and looking at how others interpretated the stitch, I have learnt more about it. I guess that is the point of this challenge: expanding on our existing knowledge. Thanks, Sharon, for coming up with this challange and all the hard work that you have put into it.

Happy Stitching