I’d love to know what you think of the video, and if there are videos of other things that [...]]]> With a lot of experimentation, I have now finished and uploaded my video for how to knit the Mountmellick embroidery fringe. The method that is shown is method 2 from Mountmellick Embroidery: Inspired by Nature.

I’d love to know what you think of the video, and if there are videos of other things that you’d be interested in seeing.

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…!)

The fabric that we have used for the Mountmellick embroidery stitch along is the gorgeous high-quality 100% cotton satin jean fabric. It comes slightly off-white. At the completion of the embroidery, we boil it to finish whitening off the fabric. It is only a subtle difference, but it definitely does make [...]]]> Boiling Mountmellick embroidery?! Why?

The fabric that we have used for the Mountmellick embroidery stitch along is the gorgeous high-quality 100% cotton satin jean fabric. It comes slightly off-white. At the completion of the embroidery, we boil it to finish whitening off the fabric. It is only a subtle difference, but it definitely does make a difference.

The boiling is done at the completion of the embroidery as I believe that if you do it before, the fabric can become too hard to get the needle through. I can’t say I’ve ever tried boiling before embroidering though – I’m just happy to go along with what others have told me, as far as that is concerned! I do boil before sewing on the knitted fringe though, as I don’t want it to all get tangled. However, as this is what would be done with old Mountmellick embroidery to get them back to white, there is no reason why it can’t be done. I just prefer to save myself the hassle of untangling!

To boil the embroidery you will need a largish pot for the stove, pure soap flakes, a stove, a spoon for stirring, and the embroidery. You can see from this photo that the white of the stitching is more white than the fabric, which has a more yellowish hue. This is what we are endeavouring to get rid of.

Put the embroidery in the pot and cover it with a good amount of water. Add a slurp of soap flakes – yes, very exact that, isn’t it? Enough to make it soapy, but not so many that there are bubbles everywhere! In the photo you can see the flakes of soap floating around. There are more than that, they’re just down the bottom and under the fabric. There’s no need to try to make them dissolve by stirring lots, as they’ll dissolve of their own accord in the warming water.

Turn the stove on, and bring the water to the boil. I usually leave the lid on, set the oven timer for about 10mins (unless you have a large quantity of water that will take much longer to boil) and go away and do something else. When the timer goes off, I come back and check it, and give it a swish. Usually its not quite boiling yet, so I just hang around, making sure it all stays in the water and doesn’t float up out of the water too much. There’s no need for constant stirring as the fabric is 100% cotton and therefore won’t melt even if it touches the bottom of the pan.

When the water is boiled, carefully empty the water into the sink. (Its hot, so be careful, ok?! I accept NO responsibility for burns and scalds. Sorry!)

Refill the pot with water. Set it to boil again. The water will probably cloud up again, from the soap residue that is still in the fabric. When it boils again, empty the water, and refill again.

Keep boiling and refilling, until the water no longer clouds up with soap. Empty the water and rinse the embroidery. Hang out to dry, then press from the back.

For the amount of soap that I used, and the quantity of water, I had to boil mine four times to get it to clear. You may need more or less times depending on the quantities you use.

You can see a subtle difference in the two fabric colours here. The embroidered one is slightly whiter than the other one, so you can see that boiling does make a difference.

If your Mountmellick embroidery ever becomes less than white, it can always be boiled white again, using the same process. Do NOT boil the embroidery if your fabric is not 100% cotton though, as you will risk it melting or warping in the heat.

I thought that it might be useful to explain how I end my buttonhole [...]]]> I made it my aim to finish the buttonhole stitching on the Mountmellick embroidery stitch along cushion yesterday, and I did! It was a bit of a squeeze to get it finished before our evening’s activities, but it is now done.

I thought that it might be useful to explain how I end my buttonhole i.e. how I finish when the end stitching meets up again with the beginning stitching. I like it to have a seamless join, and this takes a bit of nifty (but not difficult) stitching to achieve.
I stitched right up to the beginning of the stitching, leaving space for just one more stitch.

Without entering the fabric, I slid my needle under the little sticking out tail of the very first buttonhole, from the rolled edge side.

I then inserted my needle in the other end of the space, level with the ends of all the previous stitches.

I took the needle and thread through to the back, so that the stitch has the same tension as all the others. Then I fastened the thread end in the back of the stitching. Voila! A seamless join!

Apologies for the quality of the photo, but here is the completed embroidery. Yay! (It really is nice to have that finally done!)

To complete the project, we still have more to do, so don’t tune out just yet!

If you haven’t been to visit us on Facebook yet, please do. The Vetty Creations fan page is begging for your attention! Join up [...]]]> I’m still going on the buttonhole edging for my Mountmellick stitch along lily cushion (what a mouthful that is!). I’m about 3/4 of the way around, so its coming along slowly.

If you haven’t been to visit us on Facebook yet, please do. The Vetty Creations fan page is begging for your attention! Join up to become a fan of Vetty Creations, and our updates will show up on your wall. And while you’re there, why not invite your friends to become a Vetty Creations Facebook fan too? Then they can join in the fun also!

On our Facebook page you’ll see a new tab (though if you’ve never visited our Facebook page before, how would you know it was new?!) called “Shop”. I’m very pleased with myself because I managed to figure out how to add a small selection of Vetty Creations products to the page so that you can purchase them while there on Facebook. But of course, the full selection is still available on the Vetty Creations website, which you can get to just by clicking on the “Shop” tab at the top of this blog page.

Hopefully today I might finish the buttonholing… Well, I can live in hope!

SJ had said that she was making good progress on her stitch along embroidery, but she wasn’t happy with her buttonhole stitch. Without being able to see her buttonholing, there was [...]]]> Today I want to focus on a small discussion that one of our stitch along participants and I have had over the last week.

SJ had said that she was making good progress on her stitch along embroidery, but she wasn’t happy with her buttonhole stitch. Without being able to see her buttonholing, there was one big thing I could suggest: try stitching in the opposite direction.

You may have noticed what a difference this has made to my buttonhole stitching during this stitch along. When I was working on the petals of the main flower, I tried stitching one direction first, which I wasn’t happy with, and then tried the other direction, which looked much better.

And as it turns out, I’m working the buttonhole stitch around the edge of my cushion is in the opposite direction to what I used on the petals. But this time it looks ok!

So, what do I mean by stitching in the opposite direction? I have observed over many years of teaching, that many people work their buttonhole differently. (And this is not just explained by the question of left or right-handed.) Some work with their stitching going from left to right, and others with it right to left. Some work with their needle inserted towards them, some with it going away from them. Some work with their stitching travelling up to down, others down to up. Some have their needle inserted right to left, and others have it left to right.

With the right process of stitching, all of these can produce buttonhole stitch, but the look of the stitch may differ, because of thread twist.

Let’s look at an example:
Here’s my buttonhole stitching around the edge of my cushion. I am working with my needle going in at the left and coming out at the right. My stitching travels upwards.
To stitch in the opposite direction, I could keep my needle going in left and coming out right, but having my stitching travelling downwards (shown above).
Alternatively, I could keep my stitching going upwards, but have my needle going in at the right and out at the left (shown above). This would also mean that I am stitching in the opposite direction to what I first suggested.

If you prefer having your needle coming towards or away from you (rather than left to right or right to left) turn the work 90 degrees.
These two produce the same result as each other.
These two produce the same result as each other.

Because I am using S twist thread, my method described earlier and shown in the photo produces a buttonhole stitch where the rolled edge melts into the other stitching a little.

Going the opposite direction produces stitching where the rolled edge is very pronounced (shown left). Each of these are buttonhole stitch, but just with a different effect because of stitching direction and thread twist.

If you’re not understanding this, please get out your needle and thread and try it. You MAY find stitching in the opposite direction than what you are used to, to be a little difficult. It may seem a little backwards! But please try it, and see how it affects the look of the stitch.

Back to SJ’s buttonhole stitch. The next day she triumphantly commented to say that changing her stitch direction had made an enormous difference, and where before she had been struggling with keeping her stitches close together, the change of direction had fixed all that. Wonderful result!

I hope yours is progressing well too, wherever you are up to in the project. Anyone want to share how [...]]]> I’m still pushing along (or given our recent – still resultless – federal election here in Australia, perhaps the phrase to use would be “moving forward”) with the buttonhole edge around the Mountmellick embroidery cushion.

I hope yours is progressing well too, wherever you are up to in the project. Anyone want to share how you’re going? Have you posted pics on your blog or on a Flickr account, or something similar?

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.

The big news of the day is that there is an Ethiopian restaurant in Sydney!

The African Village Cafe and Restaurant 359 [...]]]> Firstly I just want to show you that I have not made much progress on my buttonhole edge around my Mountmellick embroidery stitch along cushion – but at least I have made some!

The big news of the day is that there is an Ethiopian restaurant in Sydney!

The African Village Cafe and Restaurant
359 Chapel Road, Bankstown NSW
Tel: 9790 2696

A friend of my sister’s grew up in Ethiopia, and we have been discussing Ethiopian food. Her parents told her of an Ethiopian restaurant in Bankstown (the one I mentioned recently, which we had assumed must have closed as the phone number didn’t work.) She provided me with all the details, including a different phone number (the one listed above). I rang it, and seeing they answered, I made a spur of the moment booking for last night!

After doing so, I realised that my friend Belinda would probably love to join us, so invited her and her family along too. So off we all trotted to Bankstown last night. We arrived and it certainly looked like an Ethiopian restaurant, not just an African restaurant as the name implied. The owner told us that it definitely is an Ethiopian restaurant, but she called it The African Village because she thought that “African” would have more appeal.

We decided to have a combination platter, so that we could choose from 5 different dishes for all of us. We set about deciding which ones from the menu we would like. BUT, we didn’t realise that despite the menu saying “your choice of 5 different dishes”, it didn’t really mean that… The lady brought out her own selection of 5 dishes. Fortunately they were all very nice!

Later, we saw a couple come in to get takeaway. They sat down with one of only two (or so it seemed) menus, and proceeded to choose what they would have. Before long, out came the owner with two takeaway containers of food for them. They didn’t get to choose either! It was quite comical!

There were some other customers there who were Ethiopian, who when they realised that we had been to Ethiopia, and that our elder daughter could speak a small amount of Amharic, wanted very much to speak to her in Amharic. She was a little shy though (and I think felt a bit rusty with the language!).

The food was delicious and very reasonably priced. I can’t tell you what we had, because I’m not really sure! There was a mildly spiced split pea dish, a vegetable dish, a spinach dish, a spicy wat (stew) with lamb, and a very mild mince dish. All were very yum, though some of us are not keen on spinach at the best of times… The kids found the spicy ones too spicy, but we adults found they did great things for the sinuses (too much information?!). Belinda’s kids learned that my injera which they had at multicultural day, is nothing like real injera! The restaurant’s injera is even made partly with tef, which the owner imports from Ethiopia.

Ethiopian dishes are usually served in mounds on the large injera pancakes. You rip a bit of the injera off the edge – with your right hand – and fold it over some of the wat/stew/vegies to scoop up the food into your mouth. Then you rip a new bit of injera off and do it again. It can be a bit messy, but you do end up with the smell of the spices on your fingers afterwards, which is quite pleasant! You don’t use any cutlery because the injera is your cutlery (but you can always ask for some if you need it).

After the meal, there was Ethiopian coffee. I don’t drink tea or coffee, but I did have a sip of this coffee. To my completely uninitiated palate, it just tasted burnt, but to those who know and appreciate coffee, apparently it was really good. (What would I know?)

If you’re in Sydney, you can now sample the delights of Ethiopian food at The African Village Cafe and Restaurant. While you may not get the chance to choose your dishes, the food will be authentic and yum!

I have started stitching. I wasn’t sure whether to stitch clockwise or anticlockwise, (with [...]]]> Today I traced the buttonhole cushion edge and the edge of the cushion pattern itself onto my fabric (you will have done this at the beginning). It matched up pretty well with my stitched bits, so I was pleased about that!

I have started stitching. I wasn’t sure whether to stitch clockwise or anticlockwise, (with the rolled edge on the right – or the bottom as shown here – as I am left-handed) but remembered that I usually stitch edges anticlockwise. Thinking about it, this is stitching my buttonhole in the opposite direction than I used for the petals right at the beginning. But this time it seems to work ok. I think the moral of the story is to stitch your buttonhole in whatever direction looks best at the time!

The thing that I think people often find difficult is knowing how to handle the scallop corners. It gets very narrow and there’s this sharp angle, all in the one place. So how does one make sure that its going to be ok, and for the sake of the people doing the runner (who will have to cut right to the edge of the buttonhole stitching) that the fabric will be held well enough not to fray?

This is how I have stitched it. As I’m doing the cushion, I won’t be cutting to this edge – I will have a seam just outside it instead.

If I was doing the runner, the scallops go the other way, being convex instead of concave – meaning that the rolled edge is on the outside point of the scallop, and the inside curve of the scallop. So apart from the fact that the buttonhole rolled edge would be on the other side of the stitching, I’d stitch it similarly for the runner: with stitches close together, angling them so that they are approximately perpendicular to the curve of the scallop, and keeping them as close together as possible at the point, without being ridiculous.

If you are doing the runner, please remember that the buttonhole rolled edge needs to be at the outside edge of the runner. You will be cutting to the edge of this buttonhole stitching at the end.

If you’re doing the cushion, the buttonhole rolled edge still needs to be at the outside edge, but you won’t be cutting to the edge of it. We’ll be doing a nifty seam outside it instead, and just sewing the fringe to the edge of the buttonholing to make it look like its a scalloped edge, but it won’t be. All will be revealed in good time if this makes no sense to you yet!

There’s a lot of buttonholing to be done in this edging, so please excuse me if I don’t have it finished by tomorrow! Oh, and I just remembered that I forgot to buy a zip and a cushion insert at the shops today. Oh well, next time I go to the shops I’ll try to remember!

Later edit: If you are visiting here on the recommendation of Sharon B from PinTangle, welcome! While you’re here, why not sign up to receive White Threads in your inbox each day? At the top of the right-hand column, there’s a little envelope symbol and the words “subscribe by email”. Click on either, and you’ll be given directions for signing up.

If you want to join in our stitch along, its certainly not too late. All the posts are still there, and you can work through at your own pace. I’ll answer any questions you ask. All the information you need to join in our Mountmellick stitch along can be found here.