Bokhara Coat Man

The last of the four Men of Skiros in this first block for my chair is wearing a long coat. I have used Bokhara stitch for the coat, to give it texture and also because it is a faster stitch for such a large space. I used Bokhara on his boots as well - seemed more sturdy for boots!

The rest of this man is in darning stitch, as the designer intended.

I got so carried away with the long runs of couching that I forgot to leave space for his belt - so stitched it over the top.



Now I have the four men finished for this centre panel of the chair, I have only four small motifs to do and I can think about stitching the panel on to the chair cover.

I am away for the next ten days holidaying on Kangaroo Island with family. The hoop is too large to take, so the rest will need to wait. I have plenty of stitching to do, but may not have Internet access to post.

Men of Skyros: Lattice Man

I am very happy so far with my Bokhara and Darning Men of Skyros, but thought I'd try a lattice on the pantaloons of the third of the men.

It was relatively easy to put in the first row of threads. I put the lines two threads apart - easier to see than the single thread of the original mending stitch. The even-weave linen helped.

Similarly, there is plenty of guidance to place the horizontal row.

Couching down the thread intersections, is however, a bit trickier. Here I have only couched down the top tips and the lower left - but developed a bit of a curve in the latter. By working two threads apart for the original rows, I gave myself a bit of a challenge in couching in small spaces.




From a distance, he looks as if he is wearing gingham, or checks. It will be quite a hard-wearing stitch, and worth the experiment, but it isn't a stitch I am going to use again on this project now I have the darning stitch under control.

I have applied the darning stitch to the rest of Lattice Man - with my magnifiers I can work a proper running stitch!

We had a couple of sunny Winter days while I was working on him. I took my hoop into the sunny extension and worked in the natural light. Jim took a photo.

Here's Lattice Man finished, and, below, the three men so far.

Men of Skyros: Bokhara Man

Although I managed to conquer the darning stitch for the Men of Skyros, using my magnifier, I continued on Bokhara Man, and am pretty happy with him.

Bokhara stitch is very pleasurable to work with. It takes care (so is not an in-front-of-TV affair) but is not a strain on my eyes and keeps me interested. It works on the big areas but also on the smaller ones, like the flower and shoes.

I set the embroidery direction so lines are vertical were he standing up straight with arms by his side, so embroidered his arms and back foot horizontally and the rest vertically.

While I have experimented with at least one other stitch, and will use the intended darning stitch as my mainstay, I am sufficiently pleased with Bokhara at the moment to think I will use it in other places in this project.

More gloves and a hat.

Brigid asked if I could make her some gloves to wear in the mornings - fingerless so she work her iPod. I was pretty happy to oblige. I like knitting gloves and I like using up wool in my stash! She chose an apricot 8 ply wool which knitted up really nicely and easily.

I used a pattern from Patons C.16 Gloves and Socks which I've had for about as long as I can remember.

I had plenty of wool, so decided to make a hat that I had been wanting to try from 101 Designer One Skein Wonders. It was also great to knit and pretty quick.














These are a hit: a great match for her favourite jumper and no hindrance in being active.

Men of Skyros: Original Darning Man

With a bit more confidence and my clip-on magnifiers I have returned to the first Skyros man I began. This time progress has been more to my liking.

With the magnifiers I can see well enough to work the darning  as a running, rather than a stabbing stitch while the work is still in the large floor-standing hoop. This makes it much easier to get a base line to work from. Rows can then simply follow the 3x1 darning pattern of the original row - much faster and more satisfactory.

The new work is denser and more even than the original.

The work isn't fast,but it is not painstakingly slow either, and, more importantly, it is enjoyable!

I have dubbed this figure 'Original Darning Man' in recognition of the darning or running stitch, and his place figure on which I began the project. I have, in fact, experimented with a couple of other stitches, and have Bokhara Man and Lattice Man on the go as well. More on them soon.

I am very grateful for the encouragement and tips from fellow stitchers and bloggers. Lyn's blog on magnifiers is helpful. I wrote about my clip-on magnifier when stitching the Toy Chest Etui and should, in hindsight, have been ready to use it when I started my Skyros men.

I bought my magnifiers in Australia from the Fox Collection.

The magnifiers make a big difference in getting a good base line to begin the running stitch. From there, with the magnifier, I can see to (1) move over by one thread and (2) move down one thread in each stitch. There is much less counting when you can clearly see the thread and stitch length you are following!

So Original Darning Man is finished and I am very satisfied. I am also pleased with some of my stitch variations and will incorporate them - but I am satisfied that I can restore running, or darning, stitch to its place as the main stitch for this project.

Men of Skyros- Stitching begins

After all the setting up, I have been working on the Skyros Men the embroidery. The piece is intended to be stitched in a darning, or running stitch, over three threads, under one, off-set on each row by one thread to produce a tweed effect. The first pair of pantaloons took me about 12-14 hours stitching.

It isn't as even as I would like, and although I have found working at the frame very relaxing and comfortable, and I understand the importance of running stitch in Skyros work, I am concerned that I will not be able to sustain counted thread work for this whole project on the 32 thread count linen. The level of accuracy it requires and the difficulty I have seeing well enough to count  over such large spaces for sustained periods, will, I fear, cause me to give up well before I finish. I need to be able to work the stitches as true running stitches, rather than stabbing stitches if I am to work such large areas.

I decided, therefore,  to experiment with changing the stitch as well as experimenting with magnification. I'm thinking I might work a series of different stitches - including chain stitch and Bokhara. I really like this piece, so I hope I can find an adaptation that will work for me.


I began my adaptation by trying Bokhara stitch on the pantaloons of the next figure. I tried to keep the couching stitches running diagonally, as the counted running stitches are intended to run.



I am much happier with this outcome in terms of result-for-time-taken to produce it. This I can manage, so now will look for other stitch variations - maybe try a different stitch for each man? I am also going to try using the magnifiers that clip to my glasses.

Felted Bag

I bought some Murano wool recently from Bendigo Woollen Mills, with the intention of trying out a bag pattern from the book, Felted Bags by Alice Underwood and Sue Parker .

The bag I wanted to try was the one on the cover, but I was keen to try knitting the handles, rather than using bamboo handles.

Murano is suitable for felting, and I was attracted to the variegation. I used CK27.

I hadn't expected it to be so even in its striping - but it did prove useful in measuring the length!

I knitted it on circular needles - very easy, but it developed a decided skew to the right as I knitted - maybe influenced by Australian politics at the time of knitting.


I used directions for knitting handles on another bag in the same book but had some difficulty positioning them even though I had four markers in place level with the four corners of the base.

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I began felting by hand - our hot water service doesn't heat above 50C - but soon decided to try the washing machine and add a couple of jugs of boiling water. This worked quite well. One cycle in the machine reduced the size by one third - and produced a fair bit of dark blue water!





It took a couple of days to dry fully in our current winter weather. I finished it off on the second day over a garden broom - perfect fit for the base, which was the last bit to dry, and easy to move with the sun.



Although I was able to correct some of the skew that developed as I knitted, it isn't entirely gone, resulting in the handles being not properly aligned. I could cut these and reattach with a button finish.

It has been an interesting experiment, and the bag will be useful for shopping so for the moment I will live with it as is.

I have a couple more balls of Murano to try smaller bags, so will try to apply what I've learnt on this one.