Ghiordes Knot

I've been moving slowly forward with work on my Tiger Moth piece - so many other things pulling at me for attention!  Summer's set in and the days are warm with cool nights.  I love this time of year!  I'm done with flower planting - I had to put an end to the "just one more" plant to tuck into this corner mode I'd gotten into.  The herb garden is in, little c's pool is filled each morning for an afternoon swim, the forest has needed exploring and the coast beckoned.....

Our house seems to be an oasis for moths!  I found two of this one today - haven't figured out what it is yet, but it's lovely.

I have the body of my Tiger Moth finished and learned a new stitch in doing it.  The fuzziness of the Ghiordes Knot (or Turkey Stitch) is perfect for my little guy.  I experimented with several yarns and found that the regular old 6-strand cotton embroidery floss worked the best for getting a nice fluffiness.

Here's how I worked it:

1.  Bring your thread from the front to the back, holding onto the end about 1/2 inch.

 
2.  Bring your needle back up next to where you went down.

3.  Take your needle back down next to where you came up, holding onto about 1/2 inch loop.

4.  Bring the needle back up on the left side of your loop.

5.  And take it back down to the right side of the loop.

6.  Bring the needle back up next to the loop.

7.  Continue in this way across.  Here's my first row done.

8.  Continue in the same way for the second row, placing the second row right under the first.

9.  Cut all the loops open.

 

10.  Trim and separate all the strands of floss, fluffing them up.

And for other views on how to do this stitch, Sharon Boggon's directions are here and Mary Corbet's video here.

Happy Creating!  Deborah