Sometimes, a little something is missing. The good news is that little something is nothing more than a dash of Alternating Skip Tent.
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Something was missing as I stitched more of the original plan for the background. I also felt the pink, while the right choice, didn’t pop enough. Alternating Skip Tent to the rescue! was simply too much white. Filling every diamond was too much, but every other diamond was just right. The stitched sample uses Treenway Shinju (black lines), pink Silk Lame 18 (yellow lines), and white size 8 Kreinik (turquoise lines).
Other ideas for the diamond filling are horizontal or vertical rows of tent stitches with an empty row in between. I also suspect if I used a different color thread for the black lines, there may have been no need to add the filler. Clearly, there is a surprising amount of room to play with this stitch.
I hope you have the perfect spot for it. Have fun playing with it. I hope you enjoy it!
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As you are auditioning stitches (from any stitch source), count the number of canvas threads on the diagram that match your mesh size. And there you have what an inch of the stitch will look like. Evaluate that against the area where you plan to use the stitch and make your final decision. If you start integrating this step into your stitch selection process, you may be surprised at how many stitches you think are large are much smaller than you realize.
By (sometimes) including this step in my own process, I find I am now integrating much longer stitches than I ever thought I would. I used to think a stitch six rows long was super big. I have very much changed my tune, which has helped me expand my creativity, especially for large-space stitches.
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I hope you have the perfect spot for this stitch! Please enjoy! Have a wonderful #whimsicalwednesday!
A Note about Diagrams
I use color in diagrams to make them as clear as possible. The primary function of different colored lines is to illustrate a stitch sequence. For example, the layering of colors demonstrates you add them in that order. They can also provide ideas on integrating additional threads (one line for each color). Or, you can use the same thread for all color lines. That's where I encourage you to use your imagination for the space you are stitching!