I contacted the wonderful woman who created the original drawing, and made sure she'd be okay with my working it up as an embroidery. Caryn was very gracious and said I could. The look on Pam's face when she saw it was priceless and I'll never forget it. I am so glad that she likes it. I thought long and hard on the colors - and I think I captured her favorites, having taken inspiration from her newest tattoo.
To work this little beauty up I copied the design onto some cream KonaCotton I have been working with. I just use a light pencil line, as it rinses out as soon as I spray with a bit of water before I iron the finished project. I then colored in the shadowed areas with 3 shades of purple Prang colored pencils. They are great, smooth colored pencils - never failed me. Because I knew I was going to frame it, I didn't look for something more permanent. The colors set in fine when I sprayed with water afterward. I did a simple backstitch around with a varigated green/blue shiney floss. It was fabulous to work with. Finally, I sprayed it and starched it, stuck it to a needlwork framing board and framed it up. I gave up trying to get it straight (hey, it was 1am!), and made him fly... good idea, I think!
I loved the design, and want to work up another (perhaps for the creator!). It's a true celtic knot - one strand throughout. It was pretty thearaputic for me to work up because I traced along the yarn from one point all the way through until I came back to the start. I tried to match the varigation on each side of the yarn as well.
Guest blogger tomorrow!