Skills Expansion: Embroidery and Shading

I'm pretty psyched for this embroidery class I've signed up for.
It's with Follow the White Bunny. Check out her shop, she has some amazing stuff!

The class is on using shading in embroidery. Beginning on the 18th, it's a 4-week online course that will teach you to understand how shading works, the basic shading techniques, and how to choose and use colours and shades effectively. And you get to learn through this fantastic bird and flower pattern. Isn't it gorgeous?

I'm most excited about the possibilities this holds for both transfer to knitting (embroidery on knitting with yarn = exciting!) as well as embellishment on my sewn garments.

Wanna join? It's going to be so much fun!

Owl Embroidery

Last Christmas a friend of mine gave me this adorable owl embroidery kit from Kiriki Press.

I finally cracked in to it this summer after I caught the embroidery bug from the totally cute patterns over at Red Letter Day Stitches.

I've made some progress since the days of long sunshine and occasionally oppressive heat, but the owl sits still on my desk, waiting.

I'd never devoted any real time to embroidery before this year. So really, my friend was expressing great confidence in me by purchasing an embroidery kit that's "level 3" as in, the most difficult offered by this particular company.

I sort of ignored that rating level and just jumped on in. And really, embroidery isn't all that difficult! Don't be intimidated! There's plenty of fantastic stitch dictionaries and techniques demonstrated online. I've been referring to this one pretty heavily since I've begun.

There are a number of stitches I've had to practice a few times, and go to a variety of sources to get a better understanding of (french knots!! Tricky but soooo pretty!).
But with patience and a modicum of research, I've found that embroidery is a great brain-resetting sort of activity when I need a break from knitting.

I have a Pinterest board with a variety of needlecrafts pinned to it. Search around for the embroidery, but beware: there's plenty there to distract you from knitting! My current favourite embroidery project is this one, and I reaaaally want to start it now! If only I had some neon embroidery floss...

Beer Embroidery Complete! On to more Crafting!

I have an embroidery FO for ya!

Raise a Glass!

This was a very fun project.
I'm getting pretty keen on embroidery; it's colourful, soothing, compact, and a great way for me to use the scads of embroidery floss remaining from my childhood. 

What with the wonderfully large amount of foam-replicating French knots on this piece, I now feel I'm a near-expert-French-knotter.  I did have some issues at first, though, which were based entirely on my misreading instructions. I couldn't understand why my knots would keep unraveling. The source of the problem was when I wrapped the floss around the needle; I mistakenly had the needle pointing downwards. All those wee wraps just slipped off instead of knotting as they should.
Easy solution! Just make sure to point that needle up!

Looking forward to the next Red Letter Day Stitches pattern!

Beer Beer Beer Beer

Beer: embroidery style!

You may recall my love affair with a certain stitched Tom Turkey last year.
Well, the Red Letter Day Stitches ladies are at it again with cool embroidery patterns that make me drop my knitting needles and pick up my sewing ones.

It's called Raise a Glass! and it's in honour of St. Patrick's Day. I'm not much of a fan of that holiday myself, but lord knows I'm a fan of beer. And this adorable pattern!

I'm not an experienced embroiderer by any means; if you're hesitant at all to try this needle art because you fear it may be too difficult, let me tell you, no worries! The RLDS patterns I've seen and worked with are a nice way to ease yourself into embroidery. You have a small enough project that it's not overwhelming, and techniques that are easy to grasp and resources to help you along the way should you need it.

If you're interested in joinging the SAL (stitch-along!), pop on to the Facebook group here. It starts today, and you can win yourself a 2014 All-Inclusive subscription to Red Letter Day Stitches! I'll be there; can't wait to practice those French knots!

And speaking of winning...
Would you like to win a copy of Raise a Glass! ?
Just leave a comment on this post letting me know your favourite beer. The winner will be drawn on March 5. Good luck everyone!

ps: my favourite is Boneshaker IPA. That sweet, sweet nectar shakes my bones but good!