So I've been tooling along, talking about blackwork and sharing my patterns, thinking everything is hunky dory. Suddenly it hits me. I never explained what blackwork was. Yeah, there are a thousand sites that tell the story of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII, and Holbein. And yeah, there are some really great tutorials out there with wonderful diagrams. Why should I reinvent the wheel?
I'm not, really. I'm just consolidating information, making it easier for you when you come to visit. And besides, I have these nifty pictures I took and they shouldn't just take up space on my hard drive.
So here it is. The Basics of Blackwork.
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Work the stitch in passes, or journeys.
On the first journey, work the even-numbered stitches: 1,3, 5 etc. |
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| On the return journey, work the 'in between' odd-numbered stitches: 6,4,2 etc. |
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| You will end up where you started. |
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| Side trips are worked as their own little journey. |
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| Work the element in one direction, turn around... |
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| ...and join back to the main path |
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Voila! In the traditional sense, blackwork looks the same on the back as it does on the front,
though modern blackwork may or may not hold to that tradition. |
Wonderful post, Jeanne. This is the most clear and concise tutorial I've ever seen :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Aurelia. I'm glad you like it. :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat post - I am sharing about it over at Craft Gossip on Sept. 5 - http://cross-stitch.craftgossip.com/
ReplyDeleteLovely, concise tutorial... but you've got your odd and even numbers mixed up. :)
ReplyDelete