This week we’ll stitch the large orange pumpkin in the bottom center. Because the adjacent pumpkins are dark, I picked lighter and brighter threads for this area better to balance the colors. I used Weeks floss in 2226 Carrot and Straw Silk in Arrowhead. Although these are both hand-dyed threads, the Weeks is almost siolid.
The area is stitched in Akita Damask, below.
Random Interactions
When you are using an overdyed thread and want to use a more solid thread with it, be careful of your color choice if the areas will be adjacent and in the same stitch. When these circumstances occur, you solid color will should be easily distonguishable from all the colors in the overdye. Often just choosing a color from a slightly different color family does the trick.
This should be done when you the two thread to be easily distinguishable.
But what if you don’t? The pick a color that is a fairly close or exact match to one of the colors in the overdye. You see the result in this pumpkin. Because the colors are close, although there is a difference in texture, many areas where the colors match look almost solid. Where the colors are different, those areas look smaller. It’s hard to predict where this will happen unless you stitch very carefully. As a result, for me at least, it’s a pleasing, random effect.
About Janet M Perry
Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family
Is there a filling stitch to the Akita Damask? I noticed some of the stitches on the pumpkin were raised, is that due to the thread not laying flat or the type of thread.
It’s the type of thread, no filling stitches or padding was used.
Keep stitching,
Janet