Saturday, January 27, 2007

Take a Stitch Tuesday - Open Cretan Stitch

I've never come across this stitch before and have concluded that it's not one of my favourites. I found it confusing and was constantly having to check I was doing it right. But still, the purpose of TAST is to explore stitches so that I did!

I did a few small samples for my journal and after fiddling around with the stitch I decided to do a piece where cretan stitch was used largely as a couching stitch and I also wanted to try using a variety of threads and yarns. I've been inspired lately by people who have just stitched randomly, letting the stitch just go with the flow, so I thought I'd try that too.


The fabric I used reminded me a bit of ripples in water, so I was trying to stitch what was to look like branches across the water. I found some interesting yarn in the cupboard which has blobs of coloured fluff every few centimetres, so I thought I'd couch it. I don't entirely like the result actually, as I feel the cretan stitch is a bit spiky looking. Anyway, it is another stitch in my learning experience and my stitched piece is entirely different to what I've made for the previous 3 weeks, and that's good - forcing myself to try new things.


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dy thanks for the comment but no I dont think I am very good at paintng on fabric! Love what you did with the cretan stitch, to me looks like brittle stars, odd underwater stars that we used to find when diving. Gave me a few ideas. I am thinking of jazzing up my little samples but not yet, no time, they will eventually be a fabric book.

Gail said...

I like what you did with your stitches, very creative.

Fel said...

It may be annoying to stitch, but the results do look quite pretty! :)

Carina said...

I love the Open Cretan stitch and I think these are really lovely! And I like the idea of putting samples in your journal. I'm inspired now!

Beth M said...

I love what you did with the cretan stitch. I wasn't able to get past doing the cretan stitch in a straight line. Your other TAST pieces are nice also. I like seeing your journal entries with these.
Thanks for the comment you left on my blog(Meandering Threads) about my detatched chain piece.

Barbara Cheeseman said...

If you can do random applique you can do random anything! And these couched lines support that! The irregular spikiness is a very nice effect and combined with the yarn you chose is a technique well worth remembering.
Barbara