TAST Cretan Stitch

I am trying to finish my Phase II Japanese Embroidery so that I can start to prep my Phase II before March. I have devoted every minute of stitching time I can to it. As a consequence, TAST has taken a back seat recently but I take it most places with me and whenever I have 5 minutes, I do a little stitching. One result of TAST that has pleased me greatly is that I have done some stitching every day since this challenge began, even if it is only a few minutes. I hope to keep that up.

Chevron Stitch is another new stitch for me. In some ways, I found myself freer with this stitch than the ones that I already knew. I think that may be because I have no preconceived ideas of what can be done with the stitch. Usually I don’t look at what SharonB or anyone else is doing with the stitch until I have at least started my own piece so that I try to explore the stitch in my own way. As chevron was knew to me, I glanced at Sharon’s sample to get some impression of how the stitch looked and then when to her Stitch Dictionary to find out how to do it!

Working on 18 count canvas, I used DMC perle cotton 5. My initial impression of the stitch was that it had a lot of potential for making patterns, so that is what I decided to explore. I worked four rows of Chevrons stacked back to back. I then worked a row of Chevron and a row of Half Chevron over the first two rows and mirrored this on rows three and four.

Below that I worked four rows of Chevron one on top of the other and mirrored these four rows below them. I liked the squares Sharon had created in her sample and gave them a go. The first ones were very large and looked rather empty so I filled each with two more squares. I wove the needle under of over the existing stitches so the squares look interlocked.

I liked the effect of filling the shape with more stitches so experimented some with that idea. The small pink ones are just one square inside another; for the larger pale pink ones, I rotated the filling squares by 45 degrees each time.

I liked the Half Chevron that I had used on rows two and three, so wanted to explore this some more. First I worked the green row pointing up. Again, they were very large and crying out for something more, so I worked the two rows in pink and cream between the original stitches. I liked this effect and worked another row of overlapping Half Chevron, arranged slightly differently.

In the space between these two patterns I worked a row of what I would call ‘Closed Chevron’ in yellow, through which I wove a row of green Chevron. I just had a small space left at the bottom in which I wanted to experiment with making the stitches cross each other in a single row. It taxed my brain working it out, especially how to start the row, but I eventually got there. I call this ‘Crossed Chevron’.

Great stitch, I enjoyed using it and have some ideas of how I’d like to use it in a design.

Sharon, this is a super challenge, it really has me thinking and stitching.

Happy Stitching