We started a new project this week at “In the stitch zone“. Liz had seen a project in “Stitch” magazine a while back, and had suggested Kogin / pattern darning when Alex had asked for ideas of things we would like to do. Alex had done several samples, including the one below, and found a selection of patterns for us to try.

I chose to work on a beige Aida fabric using a “go to” dark green perlé, thinking that it will go on my embellished jacket (when I finish it!). I had my usual problems with counted work of any sort and following a pattern. I started with trailing the thread from one row down to the next, which made it a bit loopy, and this is only a section of the motif.

I started with a slightly different pattern, but couldn’t work out the spacing between motifs, which wasn’t helped by not knowing how many would fit across my fabric. (I’m thinking cutting it off along the fold line.) After several attempts and making silly mistakes, I decided to start in the centre of the fabric with what is the bottom row below, and working from the middle out to the left, having left enough thread to work from the centre to the right.

I started a new length of thread for each row, working from the middle out to the left, then the middle out to the right. My thoughts were first that if I made a mistake I could correct it more easily and not have to undo it all, and then by leaving the threads I can meander them across the jacket when I get that far!

I have begun to work a little faster now the pattern is beginning to develop. The motif mirror images from the bottom row. One of the lovely things about it is that the back has the negative image of the pattern, which is something to experiment and play with. We’ve got two more weeks on the project, but lots of possibilities for developing it further.