TAST week 10: Running stitch

English name: Running stitch, darning stitch, (if long, often temporary: basting stitch)

Swedish name: Förstygn, tråckelstygn (= basting stitch), stoppstygn (darning)

Well, I haven't done very much this week. And I will be doing and posting the week 9 stitch sometime in the near future. And I'm behind on seeing what others have done for the TAST challenges for weeks as well as on my bead soup blog hopping (still half the list to go!). But I have a few things to show this week.


First out is the pièce de résistance (yes, I had to google the spelling) -- the stitched silk cord. For the first time I dared use my fancy silk embroidery thread! Like all my more expensive supplies I was saving it for "a special project" (read: never using it), but now that I got the idea to embroider on my silk cords, it felt like silk thread was the only way to go. So I took out a skein of  hand dyed 12-strand silk yarn from Stef Francis -- see pic below -- and began stitching the length of the cord, which I had previously dyed with tea. All in all, I added three rows of stitches. Each stitch is begun at the same end and using two filaments from the variegated floss so the colours are the same in each row.

For a while I considered adding a few more rows, filling the space between the existing rows, but I like it this way too. And, yes, I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to stitch with such long lengths of floss as the thread wears easily, but I felt it was the best way to ensure the colours lined up the way I wanted.

I've of cause also done a few stitches with the Aurica yarn, which I showed already in the first part of the sampler (here).  The long stitches probably can't be called running stitch. They are twisted, inspired by a technique I found on Di van Niekirk's blog, called twisted straight stitch. I've also stitched a few running stitches with Aurica on tulle:

(Below the Aurica is some bouclé yarn stitched on the same coarse tulle.)


And that's all I've done. Instead I treat you to some easy pattern darning sample I did last autumn. Which means I once again subject you to that horrible red aida... The pattern are stitched in one colour: using multiple colours would've enhanced the patterns more. Also, the chevron pattern would probably have been more visible if it was smaller in size. Now it's a bit like standing too close to a pointillist painting.

The last example isn't pattern darning. I just did a few offset rows of running stitches and then "connected the dots" with back stitches so a brick-like pattern began to emerge.

Seeing how I like whipped, threaded and interlaced stitches you would perhaps think I'd do something along that line, but I didn't get that far this week. I do have a sample somewhere, comparing whipped back stitch with whipped running stitch, but I just can't find it. And most of my other old samples use back stitch rather than darning stitch as a base. This goes for the threaded sample below too, though it looks a bit like running stitch so I added it anyway...

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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.