A bit of Redwork

Each day My hand is able to do just a little bit more.  It is so easy to overdo it and there so many ways that I can overdo it. 

I am trying to prep for Christmas, and get a few gifts ready before I do the kids things.  That is going to be lots of fun but after that, it is going to be all about the baking.  I plan to do a lot of baking this year.  Maybe.  You know how that goes.  Intent is the smallest part of a thing.

I did knit yesterday.  I did the first row of lace patterning and it went so well.  I took a break and started putzing with a little something else.  I did the hems on these towels for my kids families a few weeks ago, and have been slowly working on the embroidery work I wanted to do on them. 

First birdie is done.  There will be another birdie facing this one, and between them, there will be balloons rising up.

I am doing these towels all in red thread, an embroidery variation called redwork, which more typically looks like this  and adorned quilts and housewares like dresser scarves and antimaccasars.  It is a colourwork technique that has a lot of impact and remains interesting to work.

It's sort of like how black and white photography still has a lot of impact.  Taking all the colour out makes something else, something different stand out.  My problem here that resulted in my choice of going with one colour, was that how on earth would I choose colours to work together without turning things into a scattered mess.  There is a bit of a tale I want to tell here, a tale if you will, of this family.  I didn't want it to be about how grandma made the birds wings yellow or blue or anything.  I want one cohesive story to read from a dish towel.

The need to make this simple thing something more than a pattern to follow comes from reading all those embroidery books I have been reading lately.  Others may have approached their hand work as an art form, but I don't think I ever did.  I am sure I am not changing this to an art form, not like Karen Ruane or some of the seriously talented  media artists I have been exposed to, through her pages.  It's more a personal expression of something I know well, that is known intimately by me. 

It is completely possible that I have gone over the edge.  But what else could you expect when I haven't done any real knitting for weeks.