Embroidered Elizabethan Mittens - C1600 by Alliette Delecourt (Mka Irina Lubomirska)

Embroidered Elizabethan Mittens - c1600 By Alliette Delecourt (mka Irina Lubomirska)

Photo: Victoria and Albert Museum

Table of contents

Acknowledgements ...... 4 1. Project description ...... 4 The basis ...... 4 Reasons for selection of project ...... 5 2. Patterning the mittens and the cuff ...... 6 3. Design for mittens and embroidery ...... 7 The cuff embroidery design ...... 7 The hand part embroidery design ...... 8 4. Materials selection ...... 9 Ground fabrics ...... 9 Embroidery materials...... 10 Silk threads ...... 10 Goldwork materials ...... 10 5. Tools and set up ...... 11 6. Embroidery of the cuff ...... 12 Design transfer ...... 12 Preparatory steps ...... 12 Silk thread embroidery ...... 13 Outlining, padding stitches and shape problems ...... 13 Satin stitch and Long and short stitch ...... 14 Goldwork embroidery ...... 15 Padded goldwork ...... 15 Pass and turn technique ...... 16 The silver leaves - raised silver ...... 17 Elizabethan twist dovetailing ...... 17 Smooth purl work ...... 18 Pearl purl leaf spines and caterpillars ...... 18 7. Embroidery on the hand part ...... 19 Design transfer - the two methods ...... 19 Silk thread embroidery ...... 19 Gold thread embroidery ...... 20 The failed plate experiment ...... 21 Spangles ...... 22 8. Construction ...... 22 The mitten hand ...... 22 The cuff ...... 23 9. Lessons learned from project as a whole ...... 25 10. Further images ...... 25

3 Acknowledgements There are several people I need to thank in connection with this project:

First, His Majesty Gabriel for giving me the opportunity to undertake this project as one of His liverymen. This is not the sort of project that I would undertake in the ordinary course of things without a very special reason and I am very grateful to have been given the excuse to do it. I am also profoundly grateful for His kind words of support throughout.

Second, Her Majesty Constanzia for advice on transferring a pattern onto velvet (which saved significant amount of time) and teaching me a back exercise to remedy issues caused by doing a tad too much embroidery. I am especially grateful to Her Majesty for the kind words of support and encouragement throughout the project and for helping me put things in perspective when it became clear that the entire project will not be finished on time.

Third, my Laurel, Dame Miriam Galbraith for her help with and advice on design, materials, various other aspects of the project and her continuing encouragement and support throughout the project. I felt much more comfortable embarking on a project that was (let's be frank about it) beyond my level of skill, knowing that I would have her support and help whenever I needed it.

Fourth, I also owe thanks to Baroness River Haven, Mistress Contarina la Bianca, who first introduced me to goldwork (of which there was a lot in this project) during GNW 2008 and allowed me to browse her extensive collection of embroidery books, further igniting my interest and giving me “the bug” for embroidery. I am also grateful for her feedback on the project.

Fifth, thank you to all those wonderful people, too many to name, who have given me encouragement and positive feedback. It was appreciated, even when it was in the form of a statement that I’m insane.

Finally, although they probably will never read this, I owe thanks to the members of my family for putting up with me locking myself away and embroidering for hours at a time. I would not have been much fun to be around.

1. Project description The basis The project is an embroidered pair of mittens, based on (but not an exact reproduction of) an extant pair in the Victoria and Albert museum (V&A). The pair in the V&A is dated c1600 and is said to have been a gift from Queen Elizabeth I to one of her ladies of honour – Margaret Edgcumbe.1

As can be seen from the cover picture, the mittens are heavily embroidered in silk and metal threads on white silk (cuffs) and red velvet (hand portion).

1 http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O77423/pair-of-mittens/

4 The photos available from the V&A only show the upper side of the mittens. I searched the internet to find images of the inside part. Those images reveal that the embroidery on the cuff is essentially the same on the two parts of the cuff.

More interestingly, they also reveal that there is a slit in the palm of the mitten, presumably to allow the wearer to put her fingers through without removing the mitten. There is also a small embroidery on the palm side.

Reasons for selection of project I remember coming across a photo of the mittens on the V&A site while browsing and thinking that it is the most beautiful embroidery I have ever seen. That impression remained with me. Although I wanted to try my hand at embroidering something like that as a personal challenge, it seemed too insane a project to undertake. So when I had an excuse to do it, I thought it may be now or never.

2 Photo source: http://community.webshots.com/photo/fullsize/2853058310058906014hdKCpr

5 Furthermore, doing this embroidery would mean I would have to learn a large variety of embroidery techniques which I had previously not used or had very limited experience in. I had a very brief exposure to goldwork (having done one small sampler but in a slightly different method to that I ended up using in this project), and had not previously used satin stitch or long and short stitch, which comprised much of the embroidery, nor had I used purls or several forms of goldwork found on the mittens.

So this was a chance to learn a number of new embroidery techniques by my favourite method - jumping into the deep end.

2. Patterning the mittens and the cuff I developed the cutting pattern to fit my hand, relying on the patterning instructions on the Renaissance Tailor website 3 and modifying them for mittens rather than gloves, by basically combining all the fingers on each side into one shape. The thumb pattern was done as per the period design instruction on the Renaissance Tailor page. 4

The cuff pattern was based on the cuff shape for a fitted gown sleeve in Tudor Tailor, on page 69.

The pattern for the mitten and the cuff was then fine-tuned by making up the mitten and the cuff in craft felt and making adjustments as necessary.

Note the slit in the middle of the palm had to be added to be consistent with the original.

3 http://www.renaissancetailor.com/demos_gloves.htm 4 See http://www.renaissancetailor.com/images/glovepatterns_side_by_side.gif for comparison between period and modern pattern.

6 3. Design for mittens and embroidery While wishing to base my project on these mittens I made some variations to the design. There were several reasons for this.

Firstly, adhering strictly to the design would make the project just too big in terms of time required. I am very grateful to my Laurel for advising me to estimate the time required to complete the project by doing a sampler and creating my design accordingly. (Of course, having done that, I proceeded to massively under-estimate the time required anyway, but that is my own fault.)

Secondly, it was a matter of practicality. Maintaining the original proportions of the mittens and adjusting them to my hand size, the mittens would be some 40cm in length (which is pretty much the original size). The cuff of the mittens reaches just past the elbow joint. They are quite huge and would be too big to be worn or (as a more likely use) displayed by attaching to a belt.

I therefore decided to reduce the length of the cuff and eliminate some of the embroidery from it, while keeping the density of embroidery consistent with the Elizabethan aesthetics of high density of decoration. The embroidery on the upper part of the hand was kept as is, but I decided to not include the small embroidered design on the palm side of the hand for reasons of practicality and the fact that there would be quite enough decoration on the mitten anyway.

The cuff embroidery design The shape of the cuff was worked out first, as described above and a design developed on that shape. The outline of cuff design, developed with the help of Dame Miriam, is below:

As may be seen, six of the flowers at the top of the cuff have been kept mostly as they are in the original.

The flower in the middle is different. The reduction in the design meant that I would have to elminate a flower which appeared at the base of the cuff on the original and was one of my favourite parts of embroidery,

I really wanted to have a go at embroidering the beautiful, fine long and short stitch on the flower and so chose to put a modified version of that flower at the top of the cuff instead.

The remainder of the design is distilled from the remaining elements on the original cuff, with bits eliminated and others shrunk down to fit into the reduced size. The part of the cuff that is on the inner side of the hand (and thus less visible) has less dense embroidery (ie right of the middle on the illustration above.

The hand part embroidery design The design on the hand part of the mitten was essentially kept as is, except that I moved it up to put it closer to the middle of the hand, rather than at the bottom.

5 Photo source: http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2479591620058906014HpxQUG

8 4. Materials selection The V&A website describes the materials and techniques used as “Crimson velvet and white satin, embroidered with silver and silver-gilt thread, coloured silks, beads and spangles (sequins), in long and short and satin stitches, with couched work”. 6

I believe that this description omits some of the materials used, most notably purls – it is quite clear from the images that both pearl purl and smooth purl are used in the project. Further, I believe that what is described as “beads” are in fact small pieces of smooth purl cut up and sewn on as beads, as was commonly done.

Close up of gold pearl purl sewn down with green thread on red velvet.

(note also the marks on velvet where the spangles used to be).

Close up of silver smooth purl and purl “beads”

Ground fabrics The original mittens are made of white/ivory silk (cuffs) and dark red velvet (hand part). A side photograph of the mittens, obtained from the internet and referred to above shows that they are lined with a pink fabric, but the composition is unknown.

For the cuff part, I wanted to obtain a heavy, tightly woven silk twill, to avoid snagging and pulling while embroidering. I was not able to find any that looked and felt acceptable and instead I used the highest quality duchess silk satin that I could obtain (at Clegs in Melbourne).

6 http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O77423/pair-of-mittens/

9 Duchess satin is not a period weave, however, it had the appearance and qualities I needed and was readily obtainable (albeit expensive). The fabric was tightly woven, had a nice, slightly lustrous texture and did not snag or pull excessively.

Before embroidering, I backed the fabric with white linen for additional stability and embroidered through two layers.

For the hand part, silk velvet would have been used in the original. I could not obtain silk velvet and instead used a high quality German cotton/modal mixture velvet with 100% cotton pile. Cotton velvet would not have been used in period, but it does have the closest appearance and texture to the silk velvet that was used in period (modern silk velvet does not) and so I believe it was a reasonable substitute. Before embroidering, the velvet was also backed with white linen and embroidery was done through two layers.

For lining I used pink silk to match the colour of the lining seen in the pictures. The fabric used in the original is unknown, but silk would have been a likely choice.

I interlined the mittens on the hand and the cuff to put a layer of fabric between the back of embroidery (with its multitude of metallic threads) and the lining. I do not know whether the original mittens are interlined and, if so, with what. I interlined the top part of the mitten hand with cotton drill, as I did not have a heavy enough linen. The cuff was interlined with cotton canvass, as a substitute for linen canvass, to make it sufficiently rigid.

Embroidery materials The embroidery on the mittens comprises both silk thread embroidery and goldwork/metal thread work.

Silk threads I decided to use flat silk thread because flat silk would have been used in period . Flat, reeled filament silk was purchased by online order from Eterna Silks in the US.

I found the silks were reasonable to work with, although they do snag occasionally (good hand moisturisation is a must!) and there is some variation in quality between colours. For example, whites, blues and greens were a delight to work with, but the bright red colour frayed and tore easily and was much harder to work with.

Goldwork materials The goldwork materials comprised:

• gold and silver passing threads (sizes 4, 5 and 6) • silver smooth purl (sizes 8 and 9) • gold and silver pearl purl (size 1) • gold plate (ultimately was not used, see discussion of goldwork on the hand part for detail) • gold spangles #14 • gold elizabethan twist

10 All but the last item on the list were purchased by online order from Berlin Embroidery in Canada. All goldwork materials were "real metal" rather than synthetic substitutes because I wanted the materials to be as close to the authentic as I could obtain. Gold threads, purls and spangles were the 2% gold "admiralty standard", being the highest standard obtainable.

For elizabethan twist, I used a synthetic substitute, purchased locally. It was a matter of convenience and availability, combined with the fact that elizabethan twist does not feature prominently in the embroidery.

All goldwork material was couched or sewn down with Guttermann silk thread (white for silver, yellow for gold), except on the caterpillars (see below), where brown Eterna silk was used to couch down overstretched pearl purl.

For padded goldwork, felt and/or cotton floss were used for padding.

5. Tools and set up Small 15cm hoop was used when doing silk embroidery on the cuff. The hoop was wrapped in cotton tape for better grip and to prevent damage to the fabric.

Ideally, a slate frame should be used for satin stitch embroidery as it will give a better stretch/tension to the fabric. However, I wanted to be able to do work while travelling and opted for the more portable option.

A roller-frame on stand was used for the gold work part of the embroidery to provide both the suitable tension and leave both hands free for work.

Background fabric laced into the frame. Velvet was then stitched on top of the tensioned fabric and goldwork could commence. Instructions for lacing the frame can be found in Ruth Chamberlin’s Beginner’s Guide to Goldwork or Mary Brown’s Goldwork Embroidery – Designs and Projects .

I used size 12 needles for the silk thread embroidery as it enabled for finer work, although it did break regularly. Size 10 needle was used for couching in goldwork. A curved needle was used for securing ends of thread at the back of the fabric when the fabric was stretched on roller frame and a chenile needle was used for passing metal thread through fabric.

A tool that I had to make was a laying tool. When working with flat silk, it is important to ensure that the thread lies flat on the fabric. If there is a twist, the texture of embroidery changes and loses

11 some of its gloss. The easiest way to do this is to use a laying tool to untwist and lay down the thread. 7

A laying tool can just be a thick needle. I preferred to have a laying tool that could be worn on the thumb of the left hand while embroidering with the right.

Being unable to purchase one, I made a laying tool by getting a rubber thimble and putting a thick needle through it.

I passed the silk embroidery threads through Thread Heaven to prevent tangling, fraying and twisting. It is not 100% effective (I think flat silk will remain a pain no matter what you do), but works very well. The period option would have been wax, but Thread Heaven works much better and does not alter the authenticity of the finished item.

6. Embroidery of the cuff Design transfer Design was transferred onto fabric by printing it on regular paper, tracing it onto a sheet of tracing paper in an iron-on transfer pencil and ironing the design onto the silk. This is not a period transfer method, but it is (relatively) fast and easy and it was not the aim of the project to practice period tracing methods.

If using this method, note that a pink Birch transfer pencil will not come out if you wash it, so you must be sure you'll cover it with the embroidery. The Clover blue transfer pencil will come out if you wash it (or at least it will if you don't want it to come out!). It will also fade with time and may make lines difficult to see or invisible in a few months.

Preparatory steps The silk fabric was hemmed to avoid any fraying of the edges. It was then mounted on white linen to provide additional stability, to reduce the amount of bunching up under the tension of satin stitch and to protect the silk fabric generally.

Prior to commencing the silk embroidery, I did a few samplers to estimate the time and to actually practice the satin stitch and long and short stitch as I had never used them in embroidery. The samplers were of the larger flowers and done in cotton floss, over a cotton-backed silk.

They were done directly over the drawing of the design - I did not use any outlining or padding stitches in the samplers.

As it transpired, the samplers did not reveal all the issues that can arise in this sort of embroidery.

7 An example of instructions for use of a laying tool can be found here: http://www.needlework-tips-and- techniques.com/laying-tool.html

12 Silk thread embroidery Outlining, padding stitches and shape problems One method of doing satin stitch is to embroider the shape and then outline around the shape with split stitch or stem stitch. However, a close look at the silk embroidery on the original makes it clear that there is no subsequent outlining done. I therefore decided to not outline the shapes after completion of satin stitch.

For example, here you can see the ends of each of the satin stitches, giving a slightly jagged shape on zoom, but no outlining stitch.

Another method involves outlining the shape in split or stem stitch prior to doing the satin stitch and also doing padding stitches perpendicular to the direction of the satin stitch, which is then done over the padding stitches.

I also initially decided to not do this because I did not do it in samplers and they seemed to have worked fine. I quickly found that this was a mistake, particularly when embroidering round shapes. Without padding stitches round shapes do not stay round – they get squished into ellipses!

After experiencing this problem, I outlined (in split stitch) and padded all shapes where satin stitch or long and short stitch was done.

An example of outlining and padding stitches. How much padding stitch you need depends on the type of shape, tensioning and stitch length.

Some of the shapes in the photo required additional padding stitches later because I found that this density of padding was not enough to prevent the shape from warping.

One thing I learned was to use about twice as much padding stitch as you think is necessary. It gives much nicer, smoother and rounder shapes.

13 Satin stitch and Long and short stitch

For areas of flat/uniform colour, satin stitch was used. It basically covers an area with the same colour, without colour blending.

Satin stitch examples, no colour blending.

Satin stitch diagram. 8

Long and short stitch is a more complicated form of stitch, which was used on areas where blended colour was required or when the area to be covered in one colour is too large to do in one satin stitch.

Long and short stitch diagram. 9

Here are some examples of elements embroidered in this stitch. As you can se, it allows for beautiful, fine colour variations.

8 Diagram source: http://www.embroiderersguild.com/stitch/stitches/satin.html 9 Diagram source: http://www.berlinembroidery.com/goldworksamplerplate6.htm

14 Goldwork embroidery The mitten cuff features a lot of goldwork in a variety of media – Elizabethan twist, gilt threads (passing thread) and at least two types of purl.

Padded goldwork

Most of the goldwork seen on the original is padded to raise it above the ground fabric. I used felt (yellow for gold threads, white for silver threads) and cotton floss padding.

Cotton floss padding first applied in the middle of each gold leaf (and sewn down with perpendicular stitches)

Felt padding is then sewn down over the cotton floss padding, giving an extra lift to the centres of the leaves.

Where low, small area padding was required, only cotton floss padding was used, such as for the small silver leaves.

Pass and turn technique

One thing that puzzled me was the sharpness of the edges achieved in the goldwork seen in the original, as can be seen on the edges of the leaves in this image

I have previously only used a goldwork technique where, once the two threads are couched up to the edge, both threads are turned and couched in the opposite direction, thus filling the shape. However, that technique does not achieve sharp enough corners.

When I did a sampler of the goldwork using that technique, the result did not achieve the sharpness required, looking more like a bad dot matrix printout.

I then used the pass and turn technique, which gave adequately sharp corners. That technique involves passing one of the threads through the fabric and cutting it off and turning only one thread. A new thread is then passed up through the fabric next to the turned thread and two threads are couched. The technique is very well illustrated on page 52 of the Beginners Guide to Goldwork. The resulting edges are quite as sharp as in the original.

16 The silver leaves - raised silver

The small silver leaves on the embroidery were another mystery. Originally I thought they were done in a thin silver purl.

However, I could not find a purl fine enough to achieve the effect and, on closer examination, decided that they were done in gilt/passing thread using a technique which is described as “raised gold” in Beginner’s Guide to Goldwork (see page 68).

This technique involves laying threads over the surface, one at a time, holding them down only at the edges of the shape. It works only over small distances.

The resulting leaves bore a good resemblance to the original.

Elizabethan twist dovetailing

The Elizabethan twist work mostly involved basic couching to outline shapes or lines. One technique worth mentioning, however is dovetailing, because it can give a very nice effect at the ends of the line.

This is achieved by passing the couched threads through the fabric at different points, one slightly before the other, giving a nice effect, like a tailing off of a brush stroke.

17 Smooth purl work

Smooth purl was used cut up into beads and sewn all over the cuff and, in longer bits to decorate the pod, where it was sewn down over satin stitch. A doubled silk thread was used to sew down the purl.

As may be seen from the photo of the pod, I had some trouble making the purl stay exactly parallel and keeping uniform length. It is not easy to work with. If it is a millimeter too long, it bends or breaks, if it is too short, there’s a noticeable gap. A close look at the original suggests that the embroiderer(s) executing that work also had some trouble as the purl there is not completely even.

Pearl purl leaf spines and caterpillars

Silver pearl purl was used to outline the spines of the gold leaves, as it is used in the original.

It was stretched slightly and sewn down with white silk.

One difficulty I had when embroidering the first cuff was eliminating the gaps between the gold and the silver purl, because the backs of the leaves are not completely even, as can be seen in the picture.

On the second cuff, I sewed down the purl over the gold, eliminating this problem. However, the extra tension on the threads holding down the purl made the threads more visible.

The caterpillars were done in overstretched pearl purl, couched with coloured thread and then stitched around with split stitch. I couldn’t figure out what the original caterpillars were embroidered in (although I suspect it may have been silk purl, which would have just come into use).

The substitute of pearl purl, overstretched to expose the brown silk couching it down, created a very good and perfectly period effect.

7. Embroidery on the hand part The hand part of the mitten was embroidered mostly in goldwork, with very little satin stitch and the embroidery was done over velvet. The discussion below only looks at techniques where they differ from those used on the cuff.

Design transfer - the two methods With the first mitten I transferred the design onto the velvet but tracing it onto tissue paper, stitching the tissue paper onto the velvet using running stitch, removing the tissue paper, drawing over stitches with a white Clover marker and then removing the stitches. This process takes a long time and is very fiddly.

Her Majesty suggested a different method to me, for which I am very grateful as it is much faster. This involves drawing the design on the back of the velvet fabric with a marker (I got the design on the back by using carbon paper). This changes the pile of the velvet and makes the design visible on the “right” side. I could then draw over the changed pile with the white marker. The pile could be straightened again by just brushing it with my finger.

This method took less than a fifth of the time of the first method – highly recommended.

Silk thread embroidery To embroider over velvet I had to completely pad the area over which satin stitch was done (otherwise the stitches sink into the pile). There were two areas where padding was necessary. On the little berries, I did the padding with closely laid stitches in red silk, perpendicular to the direction of the satin stitch.

On the yellow satin stitch shapes, the padding was done in felt. Unfortunately, the felt padding tended to warp under the satin stitch, making it difficult to preserve the shape.

On the second mitten I somewhat remedied the problem by also doing running stitch along the felt to provide additional reinforcement.

Gold thread embroidery The couched work, purl work and raised gold embroidery were done using the same methods and the same sort of padding as on the cuff.

The main difference here was that the raised goldwork was done using coloured silk (green as in the original) using brick stitch. This required more precision in the placement and direction of stitches. I found that drawing lines at regular intervals (2.5mm) on the padding provided a useful guide for stitch placement.

The failed plate experiment I initially thought that the two shapes at the top of the silver pillar were done in plate. Subsequently, following the use of the “raised gold” technique, I began to suspect that these shapes were in fact executed in that technique. This suspicion was supported by the fact that plate was not listed as one of the materials on the museum website and that, according to Jane Lemon’s Metal Thread Embroidery , plate was rarely used in Britain.

Nevertheless, having purchased plate, I executed one shape in plate to assess the effect. The experiment made it even more clear that plate was not the material used and I subsequently re-did the shape in raised gold.

The effect of plate on the left of the image can be compared with raised gold on the right. Raised gold looks much more like the original.

21 Spangles The original mitten clearly had spangles, most of which have fallen off, leaving marks in the velvet. Small gold spangles (2.5mm) were sewn onto the velvet using a doubled yellow silk thread.

8. Construction Construction proved more complicated that anticipated, in part due to the fact that no piece of the mitten could be turned inside out because of stiff goldwork embroidery.

The mitten hand The first and second mitten hands were constructed differently. For the first mitten the edges of the mitten were whip-stitched on the outside, thumb was then put in and gold cord applied to seams

The slit in the middle of the palm was faced in the same velvet before applying gold cord to it as it was otherwise fraying excessively.

The mitten hand was lined in pink silk and the lining sewn in before attaching to the cuff. The lining was constructed as a duplicate of the mitten, put in and then attached to the mitten at a couple of points using a very long needle.

Not being able to turn the mitten inside out, this was a rather painful process. To make matters more problematic, I first sewed the hand together and then tried to sew in the thumb. Also, the slit edges were fraying excessively and the velvet facing that I tried to use did not stop the fraying adequately.

22 For the second mitten, I adopted a smarter process. I sewed in the thumb before constructing the rest of the mitten, bound the seams with pink silk to prevent fraying and applied the gold cord around the thumb.

I then sewed on silk facing around the slit, treated it with Fray Stoppa and only then cut the slit. It resulted in nice, clean lines with little fraying. (Fray Stoppa is not period, but glue is and it is essentially the same thing)

I then sewed in the lining and only then constructed the mitten hand and applied the gold cord. The process was still fiddly, but much more less painful than the first time.

The cuff The cuff was interlined with canvas. The top edges of the cuff were faced with a bias made from a matching white silk and it was then lined with pink silk.

Bias stitched on for facing

23 The faced edges of the cuff, before lining and application of gold cord.

The cuff was then lined and whip stitched onto the hand part. This was done while leaving the side seam open to enable the cuff to be turned the right side out following the attachment to the hand.

The side seam was then whip-stitched together on the outside. Gold cord was applied to hide that seam (as it is in the original). Gold cord was also applied to the seam between the mitten hand and the cuff.

Three rows of gold cord were applied to the outer edge of the cuff for decorative effect.

And so the mittens were finished.

24 9. Lessons learned from project as a whole In doing this project I learned a large number of embroidery techniques and worked with materials I had never used before. It has been a truly invaluable learning experience in a short timeframe. Had I not done this project, I don’t think I would have learned as much in 6 years, let alone 6 months.

I made more mistakes than I can recount in the embroidery, fixed some, learned from all of them. They may be recounted in a detailed account of the project I intend to do at some stage.

One important learning was that this sort of a project will take longer than you think and is probably best not done to a fairly tight timeframe.

I tried to estimate the time required from doing a couple of samplers and extrapolating to the project as a whole. My estimate was 300 to 400 hours to complete both mittens. In fact it took about 700 hours. Hoping to finish the project in the 6 month timeframe meant that I was embroidering for an average of about 3.5 hours a day. It's like having a part-time job and I still didn’t finish the second mitten in time!

I was warned by my Laurel that this project would be hard to do in the timeframe available and decided to do it anyway. While I am glad I did and it was a fantastic learning experience, I would not try to do something like that within a short timeframe again!

10. Further images Approximately 240 high resolution images from this project can be viewed here: https://plus.google.com/photos/115971779992503573182/albums/5425074957124044817?authke y=CJzR2OC3_omTeA

The images are copyright to me, please seek permission if you wish to use them.