For the traditional Mountmellick embroidery knitted fringe, we generally use four balls of knitting cotton together to provide a very full fringe. Rather than dividing a single ball into four, the student wondered if she could use two [...]]]> This is a technique that was discovered by one of my students up at Maitland recently.

For the traditional Mountmellick embroidery knitted fringe, we generally use four balls of knitting cotton together to provide a very full fringe. Rather than dividing a single ball into four, the student wondered if she could use two balls, and take the ends from the outside as well as the inside of the ball, thereby knitting with four strands.

So she got herself two balls, and went home that night to try it out. By squashing the balls and folding up the cardboard tube inside the balls, she was able to make it small enough to pull the tube out from the centre of the ball.

She was then able to successfully knit with the outside ends and the inside ends of the two balls, thereby easily using four strands. An ingenious method!

We have knitting cotton that is perfect for Mountmellick work, available from Vetty Creations’ online shop. It is completely matt, is not fluffy, and has a good twist. By purchasing two balls, you can try out this fabulous technique!

Each ball comes with two patterns for making the Mountmellick knitted fringe. Our book Mountmellick Embroidery: Inspired by Nature by Yvette Stanton and Prue Scott, also features a third method which is the most traditional method of producing the fringe (NB: only the edition with the cover shown has this third method – the first edition does not). It has step-by-step instructions, with words and diagrams for each step.

Thanks to Judy for working out this great technique!

I received some [...]]]> Over the past little while I’ve been preparing my stock and display ideas for the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair that I’ll be exhibiting at in June. I’ve been ordering in new stock (not necessarily new products, though there are some of them) so that I have a good amount on hand.

I received some new stock of the Mountmellick knitting cotton the other day and was pleased to find that it is now being manufactured in Australia again. It had gone off shore and I felt that the quality of presentation and packaging had dropped. I wouldn’t say that the quality of the knitting cotton itself had dropped, as it didn’t seem to me to work any less successfully. But it is great to know that we are back to nicely shaped balls of knitting cotton, on sensibly shaped cores!

I also plan to have my new Cosmo Seasons fob kits ready for the craft show. I have all the supplies now, and have settled on how the kits will be presented, but I now have to write up the instructions for each kit.

In the midst of all this, I’m still working on my book… Ah, the fun simply never ceases!

We’re going to talk about the knitted fringe that traditionally goes around the edge [...]]]> Finally, back to the Mountmellick embroidery stitch along today. I apologise for the very long delay in moving on to the next part of this. It has been weighing heavily on my mind, but I have had several projects with deadlines.

We’re going to talk about the knitted fringe that traditionally goes around the edge of all Mountmellick embroidery. For those of you who have our book Mountmellick Embroidery: Inspired by Nature the fringe we will be using is method 2. If you have one of our balls of knitting cotton, you will also find the pattern on its wrapper too.

To knit the fringe, you’ll need four balls of 4 ply knitting cotton, which we have available for purchase. If you are working on a small project, you can sometimes get away with one or two balls divided into 4 equal groups. The easiest way to divide a ball is to note that one ball weighs 50 grams net. If you want half of this in a ball, wind off 25grams worth (use your kitchen scales). This should give you a new ball of 25 grams, and the remainder of the original ball at about 25grams. If you want to divide one ball into 4, you’ll need about 12 grams in each part ball.

The knitting cotton that we supply has been specially chosen for its appearance. It is completely matt – it has no shine. It is reasonably finely twisted, and is not fluffy. There are lots of white knitting cottons out there, but this is the best one that we have found available to us. And so we are pleased to make it available to you!

We need four balls of knitting cotton because we knit with four strands all at once. This gives the fringe a much more full effect.

Knitting needles: You will need to use metal knitting needles. You can’t use bamboo or plastic as they will break. Cotton thread has pretty much no “give” – its not stretchy – and four strands of cotton used together will break plastic or bamboo needles. Ask me how I know…!

What size knitting needle? No 10, 11, or 12 (UK), No 2 or 3 (US), or 3.25, 3, or 2.75 mm (metric) knitting needles are usually used to knit the Mountmellick knitted fringe. Larger needle size will produce larger scale fringe, with relatively longer loops, while smaller needle size will produce a more compact result.

I spent yesterday experimenting with making a video of how to knit the fringe, so hopefully I’ll figure out how to upload it today or tomorrow. So get your supplies together, and get ready to knit! (The video does assume some prior knowledge of how to knit, so hopefully you can…!)

Because Mountmellick embroidery is a traditional style of embroidery, by studying historical examples, we can come to an understanding of what it [...]]]> Sometimes, people who have never seen Mountmellick embroidery before have some trouble understanding what makes Mountmellick embroidery distinctively its own style. I know I did, when I first started learning about it!

Because Mountmellick embroidery is a traditional style of embroidery, by studying historical examples, we can come to an understanding of what it really is. You can learn about what Mountmellick IS from the Mountmellick page on the Vetty Creations website and from our book Mountmellick Embroidery: Inspired by Nature. To be a little different, however, let’s talk a bit about what Mountmellick embroidery is not!

Mountmellick is not called Montmellick, Mt Mellick, Mt Melleck, Mountmellic, Montmellic, or any other variation other than Mountmellick embroidery. The name comes from the name of the town where the style of embroidery developed. It is in County Laois in Ireland. If you’re looking at a map of Ireland, find Dublin on the east coast, then head westward to about the middle of the country. Around there you will find the town of Mountmellick. Its not a large town by any means, and certainly not on the tourist route. So if its not on your map, that may be why.

Mountmellick embroidery is not coloured. When Sister Teresa Margaret McCarthy of the Presentation Convent in Mountmellick, Ireland – who is seen as the mother of Mountmellick embroidery’s revival – started investigating the embroidery, all she had were some line drawing patterns, with no indication of how they should be stitched. She assumed (as most of us probably would) that they would be worked in colour. When people heard of her interest and started bringing her examples from their linen cupboards, she learned that it is always whitework – white thread on white fabric. Its not even cream on cream, although an old piece before it is washed can look like that.

Mountmellick embroidery does not use shiny thread – the thread is completely matt. I’ll say it in another way: the thread has no shine. None. Nothing. Zip. Is that clear enough? That means that perle/pearl cotton is too shiny. Somewhat surprisingly, it also means that even coton a broder/broder cotton, is too shiny. So is cotton floche. Mountmellick thread has no shine.

Mountmellick embroidery does not use silk, wool, linen, rayon or any other type of thread other than cotton. In times past, thread manufacturers wanted to promote their products in different ways, sometimes even producing booklets about various styles of embroidery utilising their range of threads. Because of this you can find booklets on Mountmellick embroidery which specify silk threads. However, traditional Mountmellick embroidery only ever used cotton thread. This is because the town of Mountmellick was in a cotton growing area. Mountmellick was even known as the Manchester of Ireland, because of its strength in the cotton industry. They grew cotton, milled it and spun it locally, therefore its what was used for their local style of embroidery.

Mountmellick embroidery is not small and dainty. It does not have tiny, sweet, little flowers and plants. It is big and bold. The plants are lifesize or even larger. Taking a design and making it smaller (because, for example, it will fit better on your tablecloth or cushion) means its not really Mountmellick embroidery anymore.

Mountmellick embroidery does not have just any plants. The plants are those which grew in the hedgerows, along the River Owenass which flows through Mountmellick, and wild in the gardens of the town of Mountmellick. As time went on, just a few extras such as lilies were added to this, but they didn’t go overboard. You won’t find native Australian plants in Mountmellick embroidery! You won’t find camellias, hollyhocks, lupins, snapdragons, irises, carnations, marigolds… It doesn’t have mushrooms, gnomes, butterflies, bugs, caterpillars or fairies in amongst the flowers. Occasionally, though very rarely, you will find a small bird, shell or even a pineapple, but these are exceptions, rather than the rule.

Mountmellick embroidery is not worked on damask, linen, twill, poplin, calico or any other fabric other than cotton satin jean. The sheen on the satin jean fabric is meant to contrast with the lack of shine on the thread, creating an interesting juxtaposition.

Mountmellick embroidery is not candlewicking. Mountmellick embroidery uses a much larger range of stitches than candlewicking. The stitches are predominantly knotted and padded stitches, and while the candlewicking that we know these days has knots, they are colonial knots, which are not used in Mountmellick embroidery. Mountmellick embroidery is always floral, whereas candlewicking is not always floral.

Mountmellick embroidery does not use just any stitches. There is a range of stitches that are generally accepted as those used in Mountmellick. They are often knotted and padded stitches, providing texture to the embroidery. You will not find long and short stitch, colonial knots, trellis stitch, cross stitch or many others in Mountmellick embroidery. You cannot just choose any old stitch to use in your Mountmellick project. Mountmellick Embroidery: Inspired by Nature has clear step-by-step instructions for the stitches used in Mountmellick embroidery.

I could probably go on with more, as there are many more things that Mountmellick is not, but perhaps it might just head towards being ridiculous e.g. its not a bike, or a mountain…!

You will also need a cushion insert to stuff the cushion with. You [...]]]> If you’re doing the cushion, you’ll need a couple of extra bits to make it up. Firstly, you’ll need access to a sewing machine, unless you’re hard core and don’t mind doing it by hand(!). White machine sewing thread will be helpful.

You will also need a cushion insert to stuff the cushion with. You can make your own, or purchase one, as I did. Mine is 35cm square (14inches). Yes, this is bigger than the size of the cushion itself, but I like my cushions to be well stuffed, and I often find that by buying a larger size cushion insert, the cushion ends up looking much more plump.

You’ll need a 25cm (10inch) zip in white. I forgot to measure the opening before I purchased mine, and got myself a 30cm zip. This will end up being slightly too long, but I’ll just cut it down to the right size. There’ll be no problem with that.

For both the cushion and the runner, you will need a pair of metal knitting needles for knitting the fringe. You will need a pair of any of the following:
2.75, 3 or 3.25mm
UK size 12, 11 or 10
US size 2, 2-3 or 3
I use double pointed needles, simply because they are shorter than full-length needles. There’s no real need for this though. I just find it convenient. They MUST be metal. Plastic, bamboo or tortoiseshell will simply break. We will be knitting with 4 strands of cotton yarn – that means NO give in the yarn at all. If you’ve got any arthritic tendencies, chances are, the knitting process is not going to be fun for you. I’m very sorry about that.

cable plait stitch

Straight away my mind said “it needs to be satin stitch”. This is the classic way to work a leaf like this, with the wide outline worked in satin stitch. I would [...]]]> Back to the Mountmellick embroidery stitch along today, where we are moving on to the pair of leaves above the main lily flower.

Straight away my mind said “it needs to be satin stitch”. This is the classic way to work a leaf like this, with the wide outline worked in satin stitch. I would like to make it very smooth, so rather than padding (which you could also stitch smoothly over) I’ve decided to leave it unpadded so that it can be flat-smooth.

Now, with our buttonhole stitch around the edge of the petals of the main lily, we tried to stitch so that our stitches were perpendicular to the outlines. But as you’ll notice, these leaves have a little bit jutting into the leaf which is very angled. If we kept our stitches perpendicular to the edges of the outlines, we’d end up with a strangely stitched part for the little bit that juts in.

Instead, it makes sense to work on an angle, so that the satin stitches are worked along the angle of the jutting bit. And it also makes sense to start at that part of the outline so that we start with that angle as a guide.
I like to work coming up on the far side of my satin stitch, inserting my needle on the nearer side. I don’t know why, but I just feel that it gives me a better result. If you prefer to do the opposite, that’s fine with me!

So I’m starting off at the edge of the leaf, preparing to work a stitch that will lay down the edge of the bit that juts into the leaf.

You can also see my running stitch within the stitching area, that I am using to anchor my thread. I’ll stitch over the top of this as I work.
Now I insert the needle on the close side of the outline.
I’ve worked a few more stitches, continuing with the same or similar angle for the stitches.
At the corner I need to work a number of stitches, splaying out to fill the sharp corner at the leaf tip. At the inside edge of this corner the stitches are crammed in very tight, while at the outside edge they are very widely spaced.
Working down the other side of the leaf, I have turned the work so that I can still stitch from the far side to the near side.

As I stitched down this side, I was having trouble getting the angle right. You can see that I have taken out some of the stitches, and drawn in pencil guides to help me get my angle right. As long as these will be covered over (which they will be!), there is no shame in having extra guides to help you. Why make the job any harder than it needs to be, when it could be so much easier with a few little helps?!
Continuing further down the leaf, I have drawn more guides in because I found them so helpful.
After stitching down to the stem, I then stitched up the left-hand side of the leaf to meet the beginning of the stitching.

I’m actually not entirely happy with it. I don’t really like the angle of the stitches on the left side of the leaf, below the jutting bit. They don’t sit well. Maybe I’ll take them out, but maybe I’ll just leave it there, remembering the big picture, rather than the tiny details.

Something to take note of: As No 3 Mountmellick thread has 6 ply, it can become very obvious when the amount of twist changes from stitch to stitch. Try to keep the thread evenly twisted throughout the stitching. If this means that you have to manually retwist the thread before taking each stitch, then do it! If it means untwisting it a little, then do that! You are the mistress/master of the thread, so make it do what you want it to!