I’m still cleaning up and organizing my needlepoint (fighting a never-ending battle against acquisition, clutter, and letting go). One pile had this experiment with skip tent basketweave and skip tent horizontal that I decided (for a little while) did not have to continue.
Then, I found another 3″ square already stitched. So, I decided to finish this one for a pair of coasters (not that they match). When these get worn, I won’t mind (as much) throwing them away.
I found the repeat of colors on a skein of Watercolours (Painted Desert 093). I made sure colors did not repeat when folded in half. Then, I cut the threads the same length. Each of the 4 areas was stitched differently as follows:
The upper left corner for 19 diagonal rows starting in the upper right corner of that square: Skip tent basketweave, reverse thread to fill in, then skip tent basketweave.
The upper left corner for the next 11 diagonal rows: Basketweave every other stitch up and back down, reverse thread, and repeat. Ok, I admit that I actually made a mistake following my own diagram and wasn’t ripping it out! I can see the middle is different from the two corners.
The upper left corner for the last 15 diagonal rows: Skip tent basketweave, reverse thread to fill in, then skip tent basketweave.
The upper right corner starting in the upper right corner: Skip tent horizontal, reverse thread to fill in, then skip tent horizontal.
The lower left corner starting in the upper right corner of that square: All basketweave.
The lower right corner starting in upper right corner of that square: Skip tent basketweave, reverse thread, then skip tent horizontal.
What did I learn besides what I already knew which was that the stitch path makes a visual impact on the color flow?
The skip tent basketweave may have had the least streaking if I stitched it correctly.
A horizontal effect can be obtained. That was a surprise, probably because I had never stitched skip tent horizontally before.
Basketweave created the most streaks, which are clearly diagonal.
Combining skip tent and skip horizontal resulted in some diagonal streaking and some clumping of colors.
Another overdyed thread probably would have yielded different results. And, where you cut the thread will also change the look.
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Melitastitches4fun's Blog 
[…] For Bill’s coaster (on the left), I folded over along the edges and tacked them into place with invisible thread. Details on how I stitched the 4 corners differently are at: https://melitastitches4fun.com/2024/03/02/manipulating-overdyed-threads/ […]
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