by Guest Blogger Mary Doig
This design was inspired by Dr. Krista Ritchie, the wonderful bonus daughter that fate brought to me (the term stepdaughter always sounded too wicked stepmother-ish).
I am working on a multi-year plan to make each member of my family their own Christmas stocking, of their own design/vision. Krista wanted a seabed still life – including a skinny starfish, sea grass, sand dollars and urchins. She envisioned a dark blue background with little dots of plankton that would also resemble stars. And although she was very clear with her directions and even provided me with sketched templates, I struggled with the actual design. Christine came to my rescue – it was like magic seeing her draw exactly what I (and hopefully Krista!) wanted.
Colour planning was fun. The starfish was red, for a Christmas feel. Other than 3 value swatches in red and blue for the starfish and background respectively, 6 value swatches were used. Blue green to yellow transitional for the sea grass, purple to orange transitional for the scallop shell, light brown for the sand dollar, blue to orange reverse transitional for the mussel shells, although colours from the other swatches were used in the mussels to mimic iridescence. To add another bit of red, because the red was all alone in the starfish, the spines of the urchin were made red, and some of the orange to purple transitional was used for the urchin shell. Originally I thought I’d use recycled greys and browns from my stash for the rocks, but since there were so many unused swatches with the dyeing I had done, it seemed a good opportunity to have neutral colours that matched the rest of the colours by using the mid values of these swatches.
I bought some dark blue yarn with a silver sparkle to make the stars/plankton with, but wasn’t happy. It was too fat. When I told Christine of my plan to add hooked beading to the central lines in the starfish, she thought ****sparkle**** (you know she’s a huge fan of sparkly things)…and had the idea of real beading for accents. Not only is Christine a hooker, she is an accomplished jewelry maker, so she had a huge selection of beads to choose from.
Then that gave me the idea to place a pearl in the scallop shell, using a loose pearl from a broken string of my mother’s. My mom loved Krista very much and was also a big fan of sparkle, so I thought it would be extra special to add this as a little gift from her that Krista would have every
Christmas. Christine suggested 4 mm Aurora Borealis Swarovski Crystals for the plankton. All the beading embellishments were added after the hooking was completed and pressed.
Hooking was done in a three cut. Fine shading in a three isn’t my first love, but I thought that it would help show off the shells better than a primitive cut would. I followed a lesson learned from Jane Halliwell Green via her pictorial class (and books) – anchor objects by starting dark at the bottom and moving to light at the top. This technique also helps to define objects against one another as your eye moves up the piece.
The top of the stocking was hooked with natural soft curly mohair, doubled up, from the Fleece Artist. Years ago I purchased a skein from Christine, and it has lasted forever!
Finishing: Stay tuned for tomorrow's blog by Mary Doig
I am working on a multi-year plan to make each member of my family their own Christmas stocking, of their own design/vision. Krista wanted a seabed still life – including a skinny starfish, sea grass, sand dollars and urchins. She envisioned a dark blue background with little dots of plankton that would also resemble stars. And although she was very clear with her directions and even provided me with sketched templates, I struggled with the actual design. Christine came to my rescue – it was like magic seeing her draw exactly what I (and hopefully Krista!) wanted.
Colour planning was fun. The starfish was red, for a Christmas feel. Other than 3 value swatches in red and blue for the starfish and background respectively, 6 value swatches were used. Blue green to yellow transitional for the sea grass, purple to orange transitional for the scallop shell, light brown for the sand dollar, blue to orange reverse transitional for the mussel shells, although colours from the other swatches were used in the mussels to mimic iridescence. To add another bit of red, because the red was all alone in the starfish, the spines of the urchin were made red, and some of the orange to purple transitional was used for the urchin shell. Originally I thought I’d use recycled greys and browns from my stash for the rocks, but since there were so many unused swatches with the dyeing I had done, it seemed a good opportunity to have neutral colours that matched the rest of the colours by using the mid values of these swatches.
I bought some dark blue yarn with a silver sparkle to make the stars/plankton with, but wasn’t happy. It was too fat. When I told Christine of my plan to add hooked beading to the central lines in the starfish, she thought ****sparkle**** (you know she’s a huge fan of sparkly things)…and had the idea of real beading for accents. Not only is Christine a hooker, she is an accomplished jewelry maker, so she had a huge selection of beads to choose from.
Then that gave me the idea to place a pearl in the scallop shell, using a loose pearl from a broken string of my mother’s. My mom loved Krista very much and was also a big fan of sparkle, so I thought it would be extra special to add this as a little gift from her that Krista would have every
Christmas. Christine suggested 4 mm Aurora Borealis Swarovski Crystals for the plankton. All the beading embellishments were added after the hooking was completed and pressed.
Hooking was done in a three cut. Fine shading in a three isn’t my first love, but I thought that it would help show off the shells better than a primitive cut would. I followed a lesson learned from Jane Halliwell Green via her pictorial class (and books) – anchor objects by starting dark at the bottom and moving to light at the top. This technique also helps to define objects against one another as your eye moves up the piece.
The top of the stocking was hooked with natural soft curly mohair, doubled up, from the Fleece Artist. Years ago I purchased a skein from Christine, and it has lasted forever!
Finishing: Stay tuned for tomorrow's blog by Mary Doig
 The design! |  Transferring the design to red dot at the hook-in. |
 Colour planning with swatches. |  Beginnings! |
 Ruby says,"I think I would like this stocking for me so Santa can bring some treats. I've been an awfully good girl this year!" This pattern is available on Mary Doig's page of this website. |  A picture after the bling was sewn on. Crystals for the plankton, a pearl for the shell, and red/orange crystals down the center ridge of each the starfish leg. |
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