Knotted Stitches

It's been ages since I stitched a Dropcloth sampler - I think since I finished the Gingerbread Houses in January. Creator Rebecca Ringquist @dropcloth has a couple of new things out that I'm excited about; but also, the other day, she offered up a free sampler from her Stitch of the Month Embroidery Subscription, Knotted Stitches. Even though I don't have the subscription, I expressed my interest thinking it would be another fun sampler to stitch!

Well lucky me, Rebecca sent one to me straightaway, and I started right in stitching. I'm an old hand at French knots and the coral stitch, but the other knots were all new to me, so that was great. The French knots with tails and four-legged knots were no problem after looking up tutorials. But that bullion knot really tested my ability, and my patience, as there were so many of them!! I had previously done them on another sampler, but this time they really stumped me. After lots of practice and several different video tutorials, I found a method that worked well for me. Can't say I was sad, though, when the last one was done! For the border, I also wanted to try a knot stitch, and learned the double-knot stitch, or Palestrina, from Poongodi's Channel. Pretty sure I'll be using that stitch again. 

So Knotted Stitches was an unexpected treat. I stitched it with a double-thickness of Aurifil 12wt, basically because I love it. The sheen and silky-smoothness stitch so beautifully, even though the result is finer than using perle cotton or floss. At any rate, I thoroughly enjoyed that stitching, and luckily have a couple more samplers ready to go.