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I've been at my parents house for the past few nights - I've been working in a Primary School here in Doncaster, helping with a project some architects are working on to re-develop the play ground. Its a whole lotta fun!

Coming home during the Comm Tech brief is a real treat because my mum is a real embroidery buff and she lets me do a lot of experimenting.
I wanted to stay away from Cross Stitch, which I have previously been working on, the style is really quite restrictive because of the weave of the 'banding'. I picked a few books about other styles;



The Complete Needlework Course had a 'Stitch Glossary' at the back - Very useful.



The Encyclopedia of Stitchcraft had similar sorts of examples;



I learnt from the book 'The New World of CREWEL' that 'Crewel' is indeed the name of the style of embroidery I'm looking to do. It basically means 'Freestyle' embroidery.



This is great, by Kaffe Fassett. Its done using wool and similar style banding to that used in embroidery, but its made from plastic.



The front cover of 'The Needleworkers Dictionary' shows an alphabet done in a Crewel style.



I've been having a go at making my own type using the methods in the books;




(I use greetings words just for an example of something to write.)



My first attempts were free hand, but the 'Crewel' book comes with some iron on designs, which highlighted the point I could draw my design on beforehand, for precision.



I haven't gotten round to using a sewing machine yet on this trip - but I plan to.

I'd also love to have a go at carving - my father's past-time; (how did I end up so cool with such nerds for parents!?)