A Little Bit About Hardanger

Several of you asked me how Hardanger is done, so without writing a complete book I will briefly tell you.

As shown yesterday, I start with a blank piece of even weave material. Don't make the mistake of using Aida cloth that is made for cross stitching. It is even weave, but it is also interwoven so pulling threads out is next to impossible.

I start with the outermost part of the inner pattern. In the doily above, it is the top of the hearts. Most pattern instructions tell you to start with this part because once you get that right, the rest is much easier to line up. It usually takes me several false starts to get it counted out right.

Once I get that part finished, I usually do the blanket stitch around the outside and then the rest of the pattern. The open spaces you see are after everything else is stitched. 4 threads between each pair of bars are cut and removed. That leaves bare threads that are wrapped with a smaller size thread. You can see the final results in the top picture. Sorry but I don't have any pictures of the bare threads at the moment.

This doily is a relatively easy one. Only 4 stitches are used in the entire thing, blanket, bar, satin and the wrap. The one I pictured yesterday is much more involved. That is why it has taken me so long to get where I am with it. Each one of the medallions took me approximately 2 hours to stitch. There's almost 24 hours in work right there!

There are books on the market with Hardanger designs. If you decide to try it, be sure to find one that has beginner instructions in it. Many of the books I have give only a picture and a graph with very few directions. You have to know what the graph means and how to do the stitches first.

I'm off to make some Valentine jewelry today. The hearts I order JUST arrived yesterday. I'm cutting it close.