The Big Witch

This witch is the star attraction—she’s just a bit creepy because she seems to be the only one who is not quite human.

Her dress was stitched in the Mosaic stitch using 3 colors of Burmilana. The original painted canvas has touches of blue here and there. Rather than try to stitch those areas exactly, I blended a blue and brown tweed Burmilana with a brown Burmilana and alternated it with Mosaic squares of just the brown color. I used a darker brown Burmilana for the dark folds of the dress. For the patches, I appliquéd felt over the canvas.

Her socks gave me a chance to try the Diagonal Knitting Stitch. I like having her wear her fancy boots with rough wool socks

The witch’s hat was great fun—I loved watching the plaid unfold. Using 2 shades of Splendor, I stitched the plaid stitch over 3 for the brim and over 2 for the top. The hat was painted with pretty serious shading, and I think life is too short for complicated shading!

The broom was stitched in random long and short using Alpaca 18 and Rainbow’s flax thread. I used a larger needle than usual for 18 mesh to keep the canvas from distorting.

The staff is a very cool stitch called Raised Stem Stitch Band. It involves looping Grandeur over a horizontal framework of threads from top to bottom. Each vertical woven row is pushed tightly to the side to allow the staff to have a higher profile. This is diagrammed on page 58 of Even More Stitches for Effect.