Straights and Diagonals

I'm not sure whether this fulfills the brief of diagonal stitching on the crossovers, maybe it's simply some free expression.  I've also used needle weaving on this sample.  What I was trying to explore was the letter shapes in the word ENCODED (4:2:19).  These were sharp and angular and definitely diagonal, but without crossing the empty squares it wasn't possible to recreate them.  Only the fine needle weaving seemed to achieve those shapes successfully.

In preparation for this piece I tried out some fine needle weaving on a small 8 x 8 grid (not posted).  The letter shapes were achieved by snaking the fine thread across the intersections and the effect seemed insignificant and not really what I was being asked to do.  So on a walk by the sea my mind played with scale: this sample nearly becoming rug sized!  It is in fact 25 x 20 cm.  Though I was able to use a thicker range of threads on the larger piece of fabric the letter shape issue remained the same.  I do realise that these letters are only a vehicle for the stitching and don't have to be literally letters, but I would like to achieve some sense of these shapes. Hopefully though I've managed to make stitch marks that are rhythmic, even if they are not the shapes I would like to achieve.

Colour balance was another thing I tried to work on and double wrapping some bands of drawn threads helped soften some of the colours and integrate the scheme more.

So what do I especially like?  That the sample is like a mended net and the way the tufted threads stick out randomly.  Also the way thick clumps of withdrawn threads are wrapped round those remaining.

Finally, having commented about photographing grids against a white background, I've taken an image of this "net" against the wax resist work I did in Chapter 2 (4:2:29).  I do like this idea of layering with small glimpses of what lies beneath showing through holes in the top layer.

4:6:11

4:6:12