Historical Sampler – Cascade House Lame Silk Thread and the French Knot Shaded Strawberry

Paula asked in a comment in my last post what the stitchability of the Cascade House Lame Silk thread was like.

I commented that it was pushing it to use on 32 count linen (it’s thick), and also that it had a sort of ‘woolly’ character about it.

You can see the ‘wolliness’ in this photo of the back of the work in the cut ends at the back of a blossom :-

(For comparison, there’s the polyester thread in yellow next to it)

I’ve finished the strawberry in two colours, with French Knots over the top. I thought it was interesting because the Knots of the alternate colour encroach on the other colour’s part of the strawberry.

I did the sepals in teal YLI – that will match in with one of the trefoils, and is what is shown in the original image.

I did them in satin stitch – as per the original. I think Vandyke stitch would have been neater.

I tried doing the stitch vertically, but couldn’t get the shapes looking pointy within the space I had – so I went horizontal instead.

Looking at the outline, it looks like it was outlined in a *single* line of passing thread.

So – in spite of the rule that double lines of passing thread were used, I wonder if just single threads were used in the case of small objects? (Ok, the evidence is before my eyes, but I’ve never read of it)

I wasn’t brave enough to outline my sepals – the satin stitches were only over 2 or 3 threads of linen, and the Super Pearl Purl I used would have overpowered them, as well as being enormously fiddly.