Bi-Coloured Scales Design Variations

 

I mean to post at least twice monthly but it has already been more than a month since my last post.  Time flies indeed.

I talked about the monotonous work when making bi-coloured scales design thimbles in my last post and the magic solution is colour variation.  It does not necessarily mean to encourage you to buy new thread in different colours but the colour placement on the designs.

Here is one example.  When you got to the half point of the section when stitching the bi-coloured scales, just switch the colours for one round. 

Then switch back to the original colours and keep going until finished.  It's just one round of stiches but it makes a big difference as shown below.

Or you switch the colours altogether from the halfway point.  Your thimble will look completely different from the bi-coloured scales, as you see below.

Perhaps you may want to try stripes.  Add two stitches in the colour for the second stitching path when stiching the last part of the first path and your thimble will look like this.

Or stripes in both paths and it looks rather different.

From here the design called Blue Wave (Seikaiha, in Japanese) but it's one of the variations of bi-coloured scales.  It's actually bi-coloured scales with stripes.

As before you can make stripes in both stitching paths and ...

Until now I chose the different colours for two stitching paths but if you choose a single colour for both, it looks like this...

I am thinking to assemble a new kit to sell at my Etsy Shop, so that the people who are new to thimble making can still working on the thimbles after "Your First Thimble Kit".  It will be a kit with a few of the finished thimble bases with two round of stitches done, a needle, and threads.  What do you think of the idea?

In any case, please keep counting the number of the stitches in one section and try to make the same number of stitches every time you make thimbles.  It will help you to explore new designs.  The stripes designs above require the exact number of the stitches to make even stripes, though uneven stripes are fun, too.  However, there are designs which have to be exact and I will show them in my next post, hopefully soon. 

This design is called bi-coloured scales, the most basic of the thimbles.  Here are the step by step diagrams to show you how the design is formed as you stitch:

This is the first stitching path of the first row.  You just stich from the top side to bottom and then go up to top again.  The above diagram only has six sections so that it becomes easy for me to draw but it can be eight or ten, or even more, depending on the size of the ring base you use as long as it is even number.

Here, you have stitched the second stitching path of the first row in light blue, in the same way you did the first stitching path.  The light blue thread lies on top of the green thread of the first stitching path.

Then this is for the second row.  You can see the crossing points are forming as you go.

 

The second rows are done.  By the way, the thimble base included in Your First Japanese Silk Thimble Making Kit has two rows of stitches done and you are going to start stitching from the third rows shown below.

This is the third row, both paths are done, and you can see the vertical line forming at the crossing points.

One quarter of the sections are filled with stiches and...

Now a half of the each sections is done.  You can see the forming design.

All the sections are filled with stitches and you have your bi-coloured scale thimble in your hand.

If this is your very first thimble and maybe you are not very happy with the thimble you have just made but it's true that practice makes perfect where thimble making is concerned, or practice makes nicer ones, I should say.  The more you make, the nicer, neater, and more beautiful ones your thimbles become.

I also recommend to use the same materials; the lining fabric, paper for the base,  and marking paper, on the same tube as a mould so that your thimbles are always the same size.  Why?  So that you can count the number of the stiches in one section.  Why should you need to know the number of the stitches in one section?  Because it becomes easier for you when you work with the new designs.

The problem of keeping making bi-coloured thimbles is it's monotonous, though the design is simply beautiful.  My answer to that particular problem is colour variation and I do not mean to encourage you to purchase new threads in different colours, though it would be more fun for you to have a stash of threads.  What I mean is colour placement and I will explain it in my next post.  

Thimble Design Diagram Finally Completed

 

Finally I finished the design diagram I have been working on.  This is the diagram of the thimble I posted early last month.  The thimble itself is on the book I checked out from the library and following the instruction I was able to finish it relatively easily.  However, drawing the design diagram was a completely different story.

I am not good at digital things.  I wanted to try some fancy drawing software but I ended up with good old Paint.  I drew the diamond grid pattern and filled each cells with colours.  It was a tedious work and took very long to finish but what it took me so long was for me to understand the design itself.

I made the thimble so I should have understood how to stitch to form the design but I did not.  It was a very good experience for me to fully understand the design.

As you enlarge the above diagram, you can see how the stitching threads travel and which travels on (or beneath) which threads.  Most of the design diagram on the books, if not all, are just rectangle divided by vertical and  diagonal lines and colour-blocked.  You cannot see how the threads layer each other.

I am now working on the step by step diagrams.  Actually I made copies of the image while working and hopefully I could finish them up sooner so that you could stitch the thimble, too.

Lastly, it's the same image but I will show you the finished thimble here again.  I am sorry but I placed it upside down in the photo and you may have a little difficulty to compare it with the design diagram to understand how to stitch.

 

Your First Japanese Silk Thimble Making Kit

 I have just posted 5 of “Your First Japanese Silk Thimble Making Kit” at my Etsy shop.

https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/MaMercerie/tools/listings?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

Due to the decreased international flights because of Corvid-19, please contact me BEFORE placing your order so that I could double the postal service situation from Japan to your country.  

Thank you.

Time flies...

 

I have finished this thimble more than a week ago but has not got around to post it here.  The major reason was I wanted post it with a design interpretation and have still been working on a design diagram. I don’t think it would be ready anytime soon, so this post is just a photo of the finished thimble, only.