Thursday, April 24, 2008

Mini-Stocking for a cat

This was an experiment with my simple "laces and trims" to see if I could build a little mini stocking with just a few elements in the way of threads and beads. Starting with my basic mini-stocking outline, the red flowers were stitched with Kreinik metallic ribbon (the petals are Caron Rachelette - a tubular nylon with a glittering cord through it) Then to make the heel and toe - nothing more than ric-rac with Kreinik metallic ribbon. It lies so nice and flat! It's amazing how the same fiber can look so different according to the stitches used and the way the light hits them. I used ONLY the YLI ribbon floss in white for the body and cuff, and the heel and toe are the same, except in the shimmer blend. The stitch for heel and toe is Nobuko, at the suggestion of my friend Pat (see her beautiful stumpwork project in progress here.) I was wrestling with both color and stitch, and not happy with my choices. Sometimes it takes a practiced eye - and one that isn't tired of looking at the project to come up with just the right thing. I turned the canvas so that the direction of the slanted stitches lies in the right way for interest. The stripes in the body are nothing more than Kreinik metallic braid with a bead inserted in the little "jewel" space. As for the name - I had to figure out something, and decided on the name of my baby son's current lady friend - but with hesitation, and then realized that it is also the name of one of my favorite dear, departed cats - we have a lot of those on the Christmas tree. A fitting memorial. Now on to something more colorful. (If the human Angie is here for Christmas, we won't tell her about the cat.)

3 comments:

NCPat said...

This turned out great! I really like the how it all turned out! Nice job!

g said...

very pretty...

xoxoxo
g

allie aller said...

This is so classy...so much experience has gone into making a little stocking so rich. Really beautiful.