TAST week 7: Detached chain stitch

English name: detached chain stitch, lazy daisy, daisy stitch
Swedish name: öglestygn, enstaka kedjestygn, bellisstygn

Today there'll be double TAST posts as I didn't post in week 7.

Chain stitch, detached and "regular", is a stitch I've tried before and which I'm not all that fond of. I do like it, it's really not that I hate it or anything, but it comes with a big but. I really like the look of detached chain stitch and admire lots of embroideries made by others using this stitch. But I don't use it that often myself and the main reason probably is that I keep pulling the stitches too hard, making them lose that pretty petal-shaped curve. It's the same reason I only crochet once in a while and don't like writing too much by hand. I pull, push and press too hard. Maybe I'll learn some day.

For the "doodle page" above I did a few rather basic variations. My aim was to make something other than flowers, which the stitch so often is used for. There's a butterfly and a dragonfly for instance. But in the end I had to do a few flowers too. It really is hard to tell, but the long-stemmed tulip have anundsjö stitch leaves. Wanted to try that stitch and doubt it will appear in the TAST challenge.

I also incorporated some buttons -- and learned that it's easier to add chain stitches if you stitch the button to the foundation first (like in the white button) rather than try to do nice, even and "open" stitches with the button moving around like the red one did. I also stitched one button with "reverse engineered" fly stitches (grey, left corner).

This is the result of my Aurica sampler. I've tried different lengths etc for different effects. Just playing with the yarn, seeing what I could come up with. I am planning on taking what I learn from these doodles and make e.g. a flower, dragonfly  or something. I was focusing on making petals here, but when I showed the pic on Flickr (and later here on the blog in the Aurica sampler part 1 post) I got comments from people seeing all sorts of things in my embroidery doodles. Fun!

Here are a few detached chain stitches with beads that I stitched on the bracelet made for Erin's Challenge of Color. I stitched the beads first and then added the daisy stitches around them.

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What is TAST?

Take a Stitch Tuesday is a weekly embroidery challenge throughout the year by Sharon of Pin Tangle. You can read more about it here (or by clicking the TAST badge to the right).


To see what others have done in this stitch, check out the comments in this post on Pin Tangle. Be sure not to miss Sharon's lovely stitch variations in the actual post.