Beginning Blackwork - Starting the Collar

[ragnvaeig]

Comments

[florentinescot]

That's just gorgeous! I can't wait to see when it's finished! Which Holbein portrait is it from? thirteen_letter certainly has good taste doesn't he!

[ragnvaeig]

He certainly does, though as mentioned above it's rather ambitious for a girl who's never done blackwork/scarletwork before. I keep thinking that I might have started with something simpler, but this is a real challenge, and I seem to be living up to it. Hm. Upon thinking, that may have been the point.

It's from Holbein's portrait of Mrs. Pemberton from 1540. I have the pattern transcribed onto a grid for simplicity's sake.

[florentinescot]

Details, details. I find that jumping in with both feet is the best way for me to go! rolls eyes. It also leads to some really interesting outcomes!

Yeah. That portrait. I just couldn't figure out where I'd seen it before. I think most folks chart like that before they stitch.

[ragnvaeig]

I find that sink-or-swim is a good way for me to learn languages, and I'm muddling through this piece well enough, I think. I did end up redoing that second cross last night, and I'm much happier. My little OCD monkeybrain was protesting that my counting was off and that it wasn't, holy of holies, symmetrical.

[florentinescot]

nods. Sink-or-swim works for me in a great many things. I'm too deluded to know that I shouldn't do it that way! *giggle*

OCD? Me? No. Never. Do you know why I've finished a PhD in Botany? I wanted to identify my photographs ..... nope. not OCD. Not at all. uh-uh. must be somebody else you're thinking of .....