TAST Week 1

Happy New Year! And welcome everyone, to Take a Stitch Tuesday, or TAST week 1. I hope you are all energised and up for this year’s challenge. I know I am looking forward to seeing what everyone does this year, particularly with the design challenge.

Before we start I would love everyone to check out Why Wobbly stitches are OK particularly if you are a new hand to embroidery.

For those who are new to TAST or what I am going to call Basic TAST, the first 20 or so stitches are the foundation stitches of hand embroidery. If you are new to hand embroidery, it is a good idea to learn these 20 stitches and master the hand movements associated with them. This will give you the skill to pick up most other stitches in TAST or in any other embroidery challenge. These stitches are also the stitches you will encounter in most beginner projects.
So try to hang in there for at least the first 20 weeks. Hopefully, by the end of 20 weeks, you will be so addicted to stitching that not completing the rest of the stitches in TAST would feel like a huge lost opportunity in your life!

Beyond TAST is for those who have done TAST before, or are intermediate stitchers. My idea is to feature a stitch a week from some of the more interesting stitches or their varieties that currently reside in the stitch dictionary (see the menu bar above).

Like last year, there will be 48 stitches and 4 catchup/break weeks.

Anyway, that’s enough housework, let’s dive in and get started! Grab your embroidery stuff and here we go with Take a Stitch Tuesday Week One!

Take a Stitch Tuesday Week (TAST) 1 Basic TAST

Take a Stitch Tuesday (TAST) Week 1 Basic stitch is running stitch. At first glance, this stitch looks too simple for words. It is a really easy stitch – but it is also tremendously versatile. Visit the tutorial to see some of the techniques that use running stitch, alongside the instructions on how to work it.

Take a Stitch Tuesday Week 1 Beyond TAST

For those who are interested in Beyond TAST I would like you to explore Ainu Running Stitch. I think you will be surprised at the versatility of this stitch. You can work it traditionally or incorporate it into slow-stitch / boro-type pieces. I think you will enjoy it.

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Thread Twisties!

Experimenting with different threads can be expensive. You would normally have to buy a whole skein of each type of thread. My thread twisties are a combination of different threads to use in creative hand embroidery. These enable you to try out stitching with something other than stranded cotton. For the price of just a few skeins, you can experiment with a bundle of threads of luscious colours and many different textures.

These are creative embroiders threads. With them, I hope to encourage you to experiment. Each Twistie is a thread bundle containing silk, cotton, rayon and wool. Threads range from extra fine (the same thickness as 1 strand of embroidery floss) to chunky couchable textured yarns. All threads have a soft and manageable drape. Twisting them around a needle makes experimental hand embroidery an interesting journey rather than a battle.  Many are hand dyed by me. All are threads I use. You may find a similar thread twist but no two are identical.

You will find my thread twisties in the Pintangle shop here.

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