Detatched Chain

No - not this:


I meant this sort of "detached chain":
and

- the embroidery stitch called detatched chain (aka floating chain, lazy daisy) - that is what week 3 of the "Take a Stitch Tuesday" challenge is.
(btw- that link goes to her "weekly round up" - so you can go look at what everyone else has been doing this week ;-)

I have stitched some detached chain on the bit of felt that I was fiddling with.
... and I have started/finished some other stuff on there too:



... it's getting a bit crowded on there now!
That photo (and all the others) should be a link to the full sized one - so if you want a closer look just click on it.

The 2 little photos under the bit of rusty chain are a bunch of flowers/whatever, and the "thingy" that I mentioned in a previous post.

The bunch of flowers/whatever is done with detached chain with a very long anchor stitch forming the stems (which are gathered together with a stitch to make them into a bunch), with 3 more chains that are meant to look like flowers/whatever that have fallen from the bunch.
... they also look like rice grains - which is what I used detatched chain stitches for, on my "International Year of Rice" quilt ... it had blue rice plants on it, and white detatched chains scattered all over the bare areas that didn't have any other quilting/etc ... I needed to put something there to quilt those areas so I came up with the idea of doing white rice grains :-)
(I will have to remember to put a photo/etc of that quilt on here sometime - feel free to remind me if I forget ;-)

The other thingy (the flower thingy in the other little photo under the rusty chain) is still not finished ... I was half thinking of leaving it unfinished (because it looked interesting like that), but then I thought that maybe it would look a bit odd if/when I did the other end of the worm (the one that starts on the other side of it), so I have been doing the rest of the stitching (that was the last thing I worked on today ... I had to stop because it was time to go outside and see if the sky was clear enough to see the comet, and it was - so therefore it was time to get ready to go and take some comet photos ... I think I actuallymanaged to get at least a couple of reasonable photos of the comet, and the moon, and some stars, and a sunset ... but some of them need to be fiddled with, in my image editing software, because they came out too dark/etc, or need cropping or whatever) - some of those photos will probably be in my next blog post ;-)

I finished the snake ... the end of his tounge and his yellow eyes are detached chain.
This photo shows the head of the snake, the bit of his body where it crosses over itself, and another detached chain thingy:



between the snake head and the fish tail, there was just enough room to squeeze in a circle of detatched chains ... I am still trying to decide what it actually looks like (seed pod? cross section of some kind of sea creature or fruit? some funny spring washer thingy I have some of in the garage? ... whatever it is - I like it)

Here is that ear of grain that I purposely didn't talk about last time:



not that there is really much to say ... I started at the top (which is pointing to the right in this photo - I forgot to rotate it before I uploaded it ;-) and worked the seeds in detatched chain with a long anchoring stitch ... then made them point up more and more as I went down ... then I did some straight stitch and stem stitch to make the stem/leaves.

I came up with another plant idea too ... sort of by accident:



I decided to see what I could come up with, by working some detatched chain over that wonky herringbone star - I did the first detached chain with a long anchor stitch pointing out, and then decided to see what it looked like if I did another one joined on to it and pointing in - and came up with bullrushes! (I might have to work some of those, with leaves/etc so they look like they are actually growing somewhere, on my black block)
Before I did the bullrushes on that star, I did that yellow "Forgot me knot" that is next to it ... and I didn't actually forget my knot on the forget me not ... I just have not done it yet ... the original plan was to do a black knot, and some more petals (probably in black), and see what it ended up as ... but then the star/bullrushes thing kind of grew into the space ... but I did make one of the rushes shorter to leave room for one of the 4 more petals I had planned to put there)

There are also a couple of other bits on the felt ... an unfinished looking thing on the top left hand corner - that probably IS finished ... unless I add to it with yellow thread or something, and on the bottom there is some black and yellow blanket stitch (with a couple of detached chains worked in as I went) that I have not finished yet ... I think I was having fun just stitching wherever it ended up going ... I had seen stuff a bit like that on some of the other blogs (the ones belonging to other people doing this "Take a Stitch Tuesday" thing) and it looked like fun ... it IS fun ... I am not sure what I am actually going to do with that felt block ... but that does not matter - why should I HAVE to DO anything with it? (although I probably will think of something to do with it anyway, knowing me ;-)

Actually - I will put a photo of that unfinished looking thingy here:



there is no point clicking on this one to get a bigger version because this is as big as it gets - I just cropped it from the photo of the whole felt block - I put it here so you know what thingy I am talking about
;-)
... so what was i going to say about it? - I just thought that anyone who is mad enough to be actually reading all this stuff might be interested in how I did this one - the inside circle was done last - it is my poor wonky effort of a blanket stitch "wheel" ... but it is the outside circle that was interesting - I worked around the circle doing the blanket stitch and the detatched chain (where I used it) all in one go - so the needle went in to the fabric for the blanket stitch, then out to do the detached chain, then back in to do the anchor stitch which was also threaded under the loop to become the blanket stitch ... if that makes any sense.
(and where there are 2 detached chain loops nested together, I made both loops and then did the anchor stitch)


I have not done much more on my black block (which is something where I do know what I am going to do with it ... provided I don't change my mind or file it away for "later"), but I did put these 2 things on it:



I have "pinned" 2 different bits of the block together with a needle, because those 2 things are not actually next to each other)
One is another blanket stitch fish skeleton (the backbone and ribs are blanket stitch, the head and tail are detatched chain/whatever else it turns into when you leave a really big gap ... fly stitch I think ;-)
and the other one is a detatched chain "forget me knot" (a "forget me not" with detatched chain petals and a French knot middle ;-)

(hmmm - I like that name I just called the block ... my "black block" ;-) ... maybe that will have to be it's name? ... actually - I think I will call it my "Black Blog Block" :-)
... I could be really silly and call it my "big black box blog block" ... because it is going on the lid of a box ... and I could use the box as somewhere to keep any other blog blocks that I make ... so the box would be my big black blog block box ...

... I think I had better stop before I turn into a Dr Seuss clone or something!

but first ...

;-)

Here is something I finished crocheting a week or 3 ago:



no - I didn't drop my brain on the floor!
... it is a "hyperbolic crochet" moebius strip thingy ... I was talking about that sort of thing a while back ... here it is - it was the first URL in this post ... I did this with some weird bumpy pale green yarn, and it sort of looks like a bit of dried up lichen or something ...

For those who think I should be crocheting something more useful (hi Mum? ;-) I also recently finished this:



I think I was given most of that thick crochet cotton (I think it was Boadacea's leftovers) and I liked the feel of it, and the colours - so I decided to make something with it ... so I now have a nice soft cotton beanie hat ;-)
... actually ... today was a bit cooler than it has been lately, and tonight it has even got cold (even cool feels cold after it has been hot) ... so I am wearing the beanie right now (I put it on to take a photo of myself wearing it - the photo looked awful - but the beanie was nice and warm so I left it on my head ;-)

Btw - this is what happened sometime last night, while I was TRYING to actually USE the computer mouse:



yes - Spook SAT on it

(and my hand ;-)

I think she was trying to tell me it was bed time ...

... tonight Diesel (the dog) is doing that - but he is doing it his way - he is lying on the floor beside me, sound alseep!

then again ... maybe he was not sound asleep? - his eyes opened when I rattled the packet of wasabi cashews (strangely enough he loves them, so I was going to put one beside his nose and see if he ate it before or after he woke up ;-)

... so I gave him one anyway, and he ate it without even sitting up! ...

talking about sleeping animals ... this "animal" needs some sleep too!

goodnight ...