TAST 2016 – Stitch 27 – Bonnet Stitch

I’m continuing on with my catching up of TAST stitches, and have now completed  bonnet stitch. Nearly caught up! This is not a stitch I have heard of before, so this is proving to be a useful activity already!

I struggled a little more with this stitch than I have with the others so far in this year’s TAST challenge. At first I attempted to stitch in a circle as Sharon had said this was effective, which it was in her sample! I however did not get far before I decided it all needed to come out and that I should start again!

Sharon recommended stitching this stitch in a twisted thread, like a perle. She recommended a perle 8, but since I seem to only have perle 5 in my stash, that is what I used! It does look a little thick next to the other stitches, but not to worry! It’s all part of the journey of learning and exploration! Having not stitched this in a standard standard cotton, I can’t give any insight into the advantages of using a thread with a twist I’m afraid.

One of the trickiest things I found with this stitch was that it is worked from right to left, which seems backwards to my poor English brain, but I can’t see how it would work if stitched from left to right! Just the way this stitch is I guess.

Once I was out of circle mode, I got into the swing of the stitch quite easily, as I did working from right to left! Each of my rows were quite short, but I added the additional challenge in of trying to ‘link’ them up as they joined at a point on my design.

Overall I was quite happy with the end result, and once I understood each step in the completion of this stitch, I moved through it quite quickly. And I really like the twisted look of the stitch! It makes quite a lovely decorative stitch, and would make a lovely border. I imagine you could get quite creative with this stitch, varying the lengths of each stitch, and the distance between them, to achieve some beautiful effects.

The important part – what did I learn?! I’m not sure if you can see in the photos properly, however in the first row of stitches I completed (the one on the left), I didn’t quite get the tension of the stitches correct. It seemed the step of threading back under the straight stitch needs to be at a reasonably tight tension. If not, the stitch looks messy. I think you also need a bit of ‘room’ to complete the stitch successfully, so you aren’t crowding in the stitches too much. I think this might have contributed to why my first attempt at the circle failed – it was too small!

It was a great stitch, and I loved learning it – thanks Sharon! If you worked this stitch, how did you find it? I’d love to know your thoughts!