
My Kasumi Koi kit design is finished! Although the actual kit itself is only half written so you'll have to bear with me whilst I finish that part. The photos don't quite do the colours justice, I am very much missing my big camera whilst it's out of action thanks to a vindictive cat-shove off the desk, my phone just doesn't give the same quality or colour. And it also doesn't do close up images very well at all.
This is another BIG kit, made up in a 20cm hoop, purely because of the scale of the koi fish pattern. I experimented with using a 15cm hoop but you would potentially only get one or two of the fish in at that size - thinking about the different strips of pattern everyone will get. With a 20cm hoop, and a much bigger strip, you are more likely to get three or four fish which seems a better number.
It's quite a relaxed hoop, I feel like it's quite tranquil - there aren't lots of textural bits and bobs really, no large trimmings, just gentle, soothing colours.
That isn't to say that it's not exciting, with lots of different techniques and types of thread. I've experimented with different kinds of thread in this one so it uses the usual Anchor stranded, as well as DMC Eco Vita thread (slightly more woolly and raw looking), DMC metallic stranded thread, DMC variegated stranded thread, and also used two different metallic crochet yarns as trimmed edges to help add to the sparkly, wateriness, so the thread cards should look pretty exciting!
This kit also features (for the first time in a kit), the workshop favourite - drizzle stitch! How I am going to write up the instructions for that one I have no idea. Once I've figured out my diagram, I think I'll write up a full photo tutorial for it to go with my other tutorials on my website (
here if you're interested) so that there is a back up with further, step by step guidance.
These drizzle stitches will be placed in different positions at the bottom of the hoop, depending on where the gaps in your fish and lily pads are - and you can do as many, or as little, as you like (thread dependent obviously).
There are a few little plays with colour in other layers; the top layer is seed stitch but in groups of two different colours to add some interest, the second layer down follows lines in the print exactly, but with two colours so it brings out a diamond shape which is nice in that one.
The third layer follows the print, and you don't fill in all of this with stitches. There are bigger white and blue flowers which you add detached chain stitches too, then smaller ones which you fill in with satin stitch (four colours in total- white and three shades of blue to match the print). Metallic thread in gold makes tiny french knot centres in the flowers, and leaves are picked up with a single strand down the centre of each.
The fourth layer uses the variegated thread which goes from blue to green in very similar shades found in the fabrics so it works really nicely to add a bit of interest here. It's used to make rows of running stitch across the layer, then perpendicular whip stitch over the running stitches. I ummed and aahed over this layer, trying to decide if I liked it or not, and I'm fairly sure I do - it's grown on me. Perhaps if I were to do it again I wouldn't make the french knot border so uniform, but scatter knots down and make the line a little less straight.
The fifth layer uses simple straight stitches to follow lines in the pattern and give a kind of waterfall feel so I've added french knots in here too for froth and bubbles. There are kind of little flashes and dots within the print so they are mostly following those - with some artistic license to fill in any areas that are slightly gappy.
One of the metallic crochet yarns has been twisted in with light blue stranded cotton threads to edge this layer and the second, slightly darker crochet yarn has been twisted with other colours for the edging of the bottom layer to bring an element of shading.
The waterfall effect fades into the pond, where all of the fun and focus is. Some of the lily pads are already printed with metallic gold so I've gone over those lines with stranded metallic thread, and worked a stem stitched around any that also have a metallic border line to. The darker lily pads have a slightly darker area within the print which is what I have followed with my stitches. They lent themselves to a mix of fly stitches and straight stitches but are fairly clear so you should be fine to stitch those.
More metallic thread has been used on larger dots within the print, covered in a french knot, and in the centre of little leafy shapes.
The water lillies themselves are detached chain stitches following the outlines of the petals. The fish have their spots filled in with satin stitch, and then they've been outlined with whipped back stitch using a single strand, just to bring out the shaping and details, and french knot eyes (one strand, one twist). I've left the gold on those because it would have been too complicated - similarly with the dragonflies in the print, but there's nothing stopping those making up the kit themselves to go for it and cover everything with stitch!
So, the full stitch run down for this piece is; whipped back stitch, seed stitch, french knots, stem stitch, detached chain stitch, satin stitch, running stitch, perpendicular whip stitch, straight stitch, couching, fly stitch and drizzle stitch.