Well, I’ve done it. I’ve already shown you the diagram I had to work with. Here it is again:
I have really struggled with this stitch. Let me show you my practice cloth.
I started with number 1, just stitching lines inside a rectangle. It was a bumpy beginning, on the right side of the rectangle, but on the left side, I had gotten the stitch correctly. It formed the pattern/texture shown in Jane’s photograph. Next I tried using it to fill leaf shapes. Although I was making the stitches in the same way, at least, I thought I was, they didn’t produce the same appearance. By the way, I was using DMC cotton floss on a piece of old bed sheet, so the colors are not what will be used on the design. (I’m using up a lot of old DMC floss on this project.)
Frustrated, I kept trying, over and over. Finally, I thought, it’s easier for me to stitch this stitch from left to right. I’m just going to take the thread down into the fabric on the right and start the next row on the left, instead of stitching back under the previous row. Voila! It worked. Leaf number 6 looks the way knotted detached buttonhole stitch is supposed to look. Now here’s the back of the practice cloth.
You can see where I began to carry the thread across the back, and that’s where the rows began to look like the real stitch. In this shot you can plainly see that I was working on a piece of a worn sheet.
The next practice was done on my official practice cloth, with this result:
Worked with Needlepoint Silk on linen, it is still not good enough, but I think, I hope, I can do better on the design. Not keeping the tension uniform and adding and subtracting stitches to fit the shape has caused the holes.
While I was working all the rows from left to right, I vaguely recalled having read about that somewhere. At the bottom of the page, after she has shown a photograph of her knotted detached buttonhole leaf, Jane says this: “Technically this filling is executed with one row from left-to-right alternated with one row from right-to-left, as shown in the illustration. [the diagram above] On the model, [her photograph], all rows were executed from left-to-right only, requiring that the thread be carried across the back of the work. Also, the needle was taken through a chain link to begin and then end a row.”
Well!.
For any of you who want to learn this stitch, I highly recommend Tenar’s (pseudonym) tutorial, posted yesterday. Instead of taking the thread across the back of the fabric, she just turned the work upside down for the return row. Great photographs. Could have saved me grief, and will help me do the next knotted detached buttonhole leaf better. I get to do another one on my old bed-sheet practice cloth. Thanks, my friend.
Kudos!!!
You are so patient (and persistent!) JoWynn. It seems that so much handwork is learned through dogged trial and error. I’m glad you got this stitch licked.
oh! A step by step photo tutorial for knotted DBS! I’ve been avoiding it coz in all my searches I’ve only ever found that single diagram.
*happy Megan*
Pity about the timing – but you solved the problem yourself! You should be very proud!
I think all DBS stitches come down to ‘missed stiches and tension’. That’s the hard bit to master.
I knew you could do it!!!
thanks for the explanation and link.so funny as my trellis stitch try outs ended in this 🙂
neki desu