Background:

Last summer, after a back injury prevented me from bending over my bobbin lace pillow, I tried Hardanger lace, sometimes called Hardanger embroidery. Since Hardanger, like tatting and knitting, can be worked in the hands, without the need for leaning over a table or pillow, I could work on it comfortably. Using Janice Love’s book Hardanger: Basics and Beyond, I taught myself the basic Hardanger techniques of kloster blocks, blanket stitches, eyelets, cutting, and wrapped and woven bars.

Challenge:

Since this year’s challenge was to try a new stitch, I decided to learn the Hardanger Dove’s Eye. The Dove’s Eye is a lacy filling used in the empty squares formed by kloster blocks and wrapped or woven bars. To work the stitch, you wrap or weave three and ½ sides of the square, and then loop the thread around the square through the center of the kloster blocks or bars. When back where you started, you finish wrapping or weaving the final bar.

Samples:

I made my first sample using wide weave 18-count aida cloth, with threads of a contrasting color (#5 perle coton for kloster blocks and #8 perle coton for the decorative stitches), so that I could more easily see what I was doing.  You can see how the #5 thread was not quite thick enough for the kloster blocks to be totally solid on this larger weave.

I then made a sample of the same design on a more traditional 24-count linen, with the same size threads in the same color as the fabric. This is how the Dove’s Eye would typically look as part of a larger Hardanger design.

This was a fun challenge. I am pleased with the result and will definitely incorporate the Dove’s Eye in any Hardanger project I design in the future.