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#1yearofstitches [Week 4]

I still love sitting with this hoop every evening and I love this week's additions. Here is the hoop at the end of Week 4.



23rd January: Purple long stitches. Time was tight on Monday night, so this was a great little section to cill in with some long stitch.

24th January: Pink chain stitch. I just went for it and added a huge long swirl of chain stitch to create some spaces round the area I had been working on, which I can go back and infill, and all the way up to the centre of the hoop - I'm looking for my next focus stitch to go in the hook of that swirl!

25th January: Lavendar chain stitch - I'm loving chain stitch at the moment. I used it to circle the raised Spider Web and divide up the space created last week.

26th January: French knots in very pale pink. I infilled one of the spaces created by yesterday's purple chain stitch. I love the texture you get from tightly stitched French knots.

27th January: Palestrina stitch in green to frame the swirls: I've tried this stitch once before - it was only a small area and I was dubious. This was a much longer stretch of the stitch and once I'd worked out the ideal stitch length I was pleased with how it looked. Expect more of this in the future!

28th January: Hungarian braided chain in pale blue. This is a lovely stitch but making it close to an already existing row of stitches makes it harder!

29th January: I was naughty and gave in to temptation to do two lots of stitches: I started with a long line of lavendar chain stitch on top of the braided chain. and then carried on with a vertical line of raised chain stitch in peach and coral. This was a new stitch for me - you start with a ladder of peach long stitches which I found nice and easy. And then you weave through them with a second thread - coral. I found this difficult. I kept forgetting when I was going over and under, so after a few unpicked attempts, I sat on the sofa saying "over and under, under and over...over and under, under and over" and so long as I kept up the rhythm I was fine. My husband thought I was mad. But it's a pretty stitch.

#1yearofstitches #jenniesthreads1yearofstitches #handembroidery

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