Setting the traps

The little Lobsterman nutcracker is finished, and I accomplished my goals!

One of those goals, as you may recall, was to try out a thread new to me. Sometime ago, at a visit to my LNS, the owner excitedly handed me a card of Petite Frosty Rays to try out. He'd been using it on a Cooper Oaks beach scene, and decided it produced the perfect look of wet sand. Being well-stocked with my lighthouse canvases, he thought I might find some use for it.

Petite Frosty Rays, upon closer inspection, was a lot like Flair, which I used eons ago with some success. Stitching with these threads--a nylon/rayon sheath that encases a fine metallic filament--is a lot like stitching with Barbie-doll pantyhose. The metallic filament part turned me off from using it on a lighthouse model, as I like to aim for more realism when stitching those canvases. But in a fantasy piece such as the Lobsterman, I decided a little bit of glitz wouldn't go amiss--and free thread is free thread!

The card specifically states to use short lengths and stitch taut, and as far as thread length is concerned, Rainbow Gallery isn't kidding! The area of sand was too small to use my "sand and snow stitch" from a previous posting, so I worked it in a horizontal diagonal cashmere. Does my sand look "wet"? I think so. Will I run out and buy another card anytime soon? Probably not. I used almost the entire card (six yards) for this small area--not terribly economical.

Once the sand was in place, I used DMC #3 perle cotton to stitch the boots--each side three rows of gobelin stitch over three threads, with the toes in a satin stitch. Then it was time to stitch the traps themselves, and those little devils gave me fits!

On a doodle canvas, I tried seven different combinations of threads to achieve the color of wood weathered by salt water and air as well as the texture of wood. I finally settled on a curious marriage of one strand of DMC #5 perle cotton #414 (gray) and one strand of a tan Impressions. The outside of the traps were worked in a modified gobelin stitch; two plies of DMC cotton floss in long stitches produced the netting, against a background of floss stitched in basketweave.

I'm happy with the way this replacement model worked out--different from the original on 18-count canvas in both stitches and threads, but I'm now more familiar with what does and doesn't work on 13-count canvas!

Catch of the day

Slowly but surely, I'm getting to the bottom of the Lobsterman nutcracker canvas!

After finishing the stitching of his slicker with the Silk & Ivory "Big Canary," I added the closures using Kreinik #16 medium braid #002V. This thread has been in my stash for ages, dating back to the days before Kreinik kindly introduced its #12 tapestry braid for those of us for whom #8 fine braid was too thin and #16 medium braid was too fat for 18-count canvas.

I then "went fishing" for a thread for the lobster itself. I needed something to provide contrast to the Silk & Ivory as well as the perle cotton of the life preserver AND was the right shade of red. (No need to remind the kiddies that lobsters in their fresh-from-the-water state are actually an ugly greenish-black and don't achieve the characteristic "lobster red" until they've emerged from a boiling water bath!) I decided on good old DMC cotton floss #817, working each segment of the lobster in a satin stitch. I've had a fair amount of experience dissecting these crustaceans, so I'm familiar with where all the joints are!

I'm on the home stretch now, and should be able to wrap this little fellow up for the finisher in a day or two!

Heading skyward

My next decisions in stitching this little Lobsterman nutcracker were choice of thread and stitch for the sky background. Keeping in mind one of my goals was to experiment with familiar threads in a different way, I decided to try Vineyard Silk on 13-count canvas. I've used it on 18-count canvas, with beautiful results, and had been told it worked equally well on the larger mesh.

I had originally picked out a skein of Vineyard Silk Tone-on-Tone in the pretty blue shade of "Atlantic." It was a good thing I tried it on doodle canvas first: it wasn't exactly the vibrant shade of blue I was looking for and the variation in color, from an almost baby-blue to indigo, would definitely not work here. It's a lovely thread, but not for this canvas, so I put it aside but look forward to finding a use for it down the road.

I did have a skein of Vineyard Silk Classic "Jewel" in my stash, which was almost a perfect match to the painted background. I stitched this in a basketweave, so as not to compete with the "Big Canary" Nobuko stitch of the slicker--I want the Lobsterman himself front and center! This experiment, too, was a great success: the thread covered perfectly on the 13-count canvas and was as much fun to use as it has been on the smaller mesh. It's nice to come across a thread which provides great "bang-for-the-buck," in that it can be used in a number of different applications.

With the background completed, I pulled some DMC #3 perle cotton for the life preserver, working it in a diagonal mosaic stitch. It provided a good contrast in texture to the Silk & Ivory used for the slicker.

I'll finish stitching the slicker and add the lobster next!

Up close and personal

I have three goals for this project: (1) to try familiar threads in a different way; (2) to try at least one new thread; and (3) to pull all threads from my stash. That being said....

When I work on a canvas that features the face of a person, I like to do the face first--that way I have someone looking at me and cheering me on as I progress. This little guy wasn't designed as a sinister Ancient Mariner--he's the quintessential dead-pan Downeasterner. Stitching faces on 13-count canvas in the past, I used DMC #3 perle cotton. Okay, but a little rough around the edges. So I decided to try DMC cotton floss, using 8 plies, for the face in basketweave except for the nose and cheeks in a satin stitch. My first experiment succeeded.

Before I could stitch the moustache and beard, I needed to pick a thread and stitch for the fellow's slicker. Piece of cake: in my stash was an unopened skein of Silk & Ivory "Big Canary " (think Big Bird from Sesame Street). Silk & Ivory works beautifully on 13-count canvas, even in a Nobuko stitch, which I decided to use for the main part of the slicker.

When I'd stitched enough of the slicker around the face, I then needed to choose a thread and stitch for the beard and moustache. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: No 50/50 silk/wool blends are created equal. Silk & Ivory is a 50/50 blend, but so, too, is Felicity's Garden--about half the thickness of S & I and heathery in appearance. So I combined one strand of Felicity's Garden "Granite" (a dark gray) and one strand of "Baby Squirrel" (a lighter, brownish gray) to stitch his forelock, eyebrows and moustache. The beard was stitched with the same combination of threads in an upright gobelin stitch--twice, going down through the same holes, to give it more prominence. I could have used Silk & Ivory for these areas also, but the lighter-weight Felicity's Garden gives them a finer, hair-like appearance.

Next up: choosing a thread for the sky!

A little experimenting

Many of you may know that I stitch models for each of my designs. In fact, I don't paint a master for a new design until I've stitched it, just in case the design itself needed a little tweaking.

A couple of years ago, the model for my Lobsterman nutcracker stand-up "went missing" during a trunk show--the only time this calamity has befallen me. Now that I have a new brick-and-mortar shop carrying my canvases in Maine--The Stitching Mantis in Cape Elizabeth (www.thestitchingmantis.com)--I decided it was high time to stitch a replacement model for the shop to display.

The first model was the 18-count canvas version, and I do dislike stitching the same thing twice, even if it is my own creation! So the new model will be a 13-count canvas example, which will give me an opportunity to experiment a little with new threads and stitches. Stay tuned!