Tenar’s cave

Now here is the herringbone filling from Elizabeths blog as promised. Sorry to all those I’m making fall asleep from boredom with this. It is so simple but took me much more time to figure out than more difficult stitches, and now I want to share the fun.

First, do a row of herringbone stitch as shown.
Start the next row 2 threads below the first one, working in the opposite direction.

At the top, the stitches of the second row are placed under the stitches of the first row.

Start the third and all following rows 2 threads under the previous one. Remeber to always work to and fro, and try to find comfortable working positions by turning the fabric between rows.

Here you see a few finished rows, and some more in pearl cotton 3 which gives better coverage on this fabric.

A closeup of the nicer section.

So I saw a herring bone stitch variant used as filling stitch at Quieter Moments. Elizabeth had provided instructions, but I found them rather vague and struggled a bit.

First thing do a row of herringbone stitch. Start the second row right under the first one, leaving only one thread space between them.

On the upper side of the fabric, you have little change but work the next herringbone stitch on top of the previous row.

Continue like this, always making sure you work the stitch over all existing threads from previous stitches. Four rows done, the last one requires some care to really work over all existing stitches. Make sure you always work to and fro to get that braiding effect, turn the fabric as needed to find a comfortable working position for every row.

After four rows, I was at a loss. I found that I have no change but start a new packet of stacked stitches. For that, start the next row 2 threads under the pevious one and work the stitches at the top under the previous row. Complete the “packet” of four rows like the previous one.

Two rows of the combined stitches finished.

The whole sampler from a distance, to show the overall effect.

What do you say? This doesn’t quite look like Elizabeths’s work? Yeah right, it happened as the title states. They say lazy vacations reduce the IQ, I seem to be a good example for this LOL.

Don’t worry, I have figured out how to do the real stitch by now. I will post detailed instructions on that soon, although it really is so easy that I made a fool of myself already.