Woven Diamond Stitch

Here’s another one of those interesting interlaced stitches from this book on the Internet Archive, Mordvalaisten Pukuja kuoseja, a book of old Mordvin costumes, embroidery patterns and stitches. This one is very similar to the Woven Circle Stitch from my first post about the book. It’s worked in much the same way, but the 8 points are spaced in a diamond shape. (I don’t know what the proper name for the stitch is, so I’ve called it Woven Diamond Stitch – does anyone know the proper name?)

This is the working chart. It’s easier than it looks – the only things to remember are to make sure that the needle always comes up outside of the previous stitch, and to slip the needle under the first stitch when making the last stitch, so as to keep the ‘unders and overs’ correct. Keep your tension fairly loose, so that the fabric doesn’t pucker.

At the top of the page is a simple border pattern made by working three rows of the stitch and then making a second layer over the top: one row of stitches with their outer points in the central spaces of the first layer. You can see the process more clearly than I can describe it!

The sample uses Anchor Pearl Cotton #8 in a variegated green (1353), coral (329) and pink (66) on 25-count cotton/linen fabric.This stitch is quite quick to work, and most of the thread is on the front of the fabric – here’s a picture of the back of the border.

I’ve shown you just one idea here: you can have many happy hours experimenting with other arrangements of the units. Woven Diamonds work well in combination with other counted stitches, too, so the scope is endless. (I’m wondering what could be done with them on gingham fabric.) I’ll leave you with a look at my scruffy try-out cloths – there’s a lot more from the same book to explore yet….

 

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