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ive been embroidering for nearly half my life and it still blows my mind how cheap it is as a hobby tbh. it can be as expensive as you want to make it, sure. I've definitely invested in nicer tools when I had the finances to do so. But relatively compared to other hobbies it's kinda nuts that a splurge on materials is like. 9 bucks for a pack of some of the fanciest needles you can buy. Silk thread for 6 dollars. The industry gold standard thread is the stuff already available at every single craft store in the USA. If you follow exacting patterns that require a lot of color changes it can add up, but those are often projects that require weeks or months of work. Let's say you had 50 color changes and the project uses most of each skein. That's months of hobby-ing right there, for about 50 dollars plus the cost of base materials which is under 10 dollars.

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what is your LEAST favorite stitch?

I don't like counted work at fucking all. So: the cross stitch.

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Knitting as a magic proficiency. It’s gonna be a thing. 

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so I learned embroidery recently

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just finished my bead embroidery project 🪩 🐦

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Another cross stitch finish 💪 the fabric is more blue in person, I can't seem to get a good pic where it's not washed out

Pattern by happylittlemouse on Etsy ^-^ can't wait to frame it

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Pegi Nicol MacLeod (Canadian, 1904 - 1949): Pair of Hands Knitting with Red Wool, Pair of Hands Knitting with Green Wool (1942) (via National Gallery of Canada)

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Collection

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Teeth of the Valley

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At the risk of sounding fucking pretentious we have got to stop building a barrier between 'arts' and 'crafts'

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my favorite thing ever is when an artist will post the most gorgeous beautiful jaw-dropping breathtaking pussy-soaking art known to humankind and they’ll caption it “just some doodles :3”

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“Oz Leggings” (1978) 🌈 Knitted fantasy with smiling sun, emerald city, and those iconic red shoes

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Needlework must have been an absolute boon throughout human history to anyone experiencing social anxiety or general awkwardness around others—it's like the more socially acceptable mode of pulling out a phone or book in the middle of an interaction that allows for the person to continue conversing if they wish without needing to worry about maintaining eye-contact or worrying about what they're bodies are doing because they have a singular point of focus to keep their eyes and hands busy with.

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How do you make your stitches in your embroidered writing so smooth? I have tried to do it before and I always get little gaps

Practice. Figuring out the right knack of how much to overlap stitches and keeping an even tension. It took me the longest time to understand stem stitch so I avoided it for years due to how bad it looked though. Before that I relied on backstitch and split stitch.

I like thinking of lettering and linework as being comparable to inking lines in traditional art. It's its own skill and while there's overlap with other skills it just takes a steady hand and a lot of practice at it specifically.

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Lotr headcanon, having lots of patches on your clothes is fashionable in the Shire. The more patches, the cooler you are. Especially if it's a lot of different fabrics. It's common to trade patches with friends and family, and it's usually treated with high sentimental value. It's like carrying a piece of someone with you.

While the hobbits are on the quest, their clothes get holes and such. This leads Sam and Frodo to nab small things from the other members of the fellowship, like handkerchiefs or anything too worn for use, to use as patches. Merry and Pippin aren't so courteous, and cut pieces from the fellowship's clothes while they sleep.

Of course, the hobbits exchange patches amongst themselves while traveling, and they never go anywhere without a needle and some thread. Sam is the best at sewing. Pippin is not allowed around needles.

Boromir notices this, thinks it's adorable, and leaves things out purposely for the hobbits to use. Eventually, he asks about it, and they convince him to do the patches, too.

Aragorn also notices and thinks it's adorable, but doesn't bring it up to them. He's secretly flattered to find pieces of his rag on Frodo's pants. He asks Boromir about it instead.

Legolas doesn't notice. His clothes are elven-made, and the scissors refuse to cut it.

Gimli notices the random holes in his clothes, and the things going missing, but doesn't realize it's the hobbits. He brings it up to Legolas, who immediately convinces Gimli that he's crazy and it's all in his head.

Gandalf notices, obviously, and he doesn't mind until Pippin tries to cut his cloak while hes asleep. He proceeds to wake up and yell at him until dawn.

After Boromir dies, Aragorn takes his cloak, and sews pieces onto his clothes. These are the only patches he has.

Bilbo has a set of clothes with patches from the dwarves, from his own adventure. He told them about the tradition, and they all gave him pieces of fabric to use. He can still recount which patch belonged to who.

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Oh hey, do you know what time it is? It is highly specific resource time!

Today we have the Royal School of Needlework Stitch Bank! There are HUNDREDS of stitch types in the RSN Stitch Bank.

And more added regularly, let’s look at a recent addition

I picked the first one in the 25 recently added Elizabethan stitches, the Elizabethan French Stitch

The stitch bank provides written and photo tutorials as well as a video option to learn to do it yourself. There are examples of the stitch in use, resources, references, everything but a needle and thread!

rsnstitchbank.org