Day 11: The dreaded Elizabethan Plaited Braid Stitch

At home today I'd have been taking Niamh to JEMS. I hope she had a good time.

We began our day working the gold work on the pea. This was the warm up to the main task of the day - Elizabethan plaited braid stitch. The pea proved quite difficult. I actually cut my first attempt  out - a rare thing for me. The problem, I decided, was that the linen ( woven to Phillipa's specifications on original Elizabethan looms using flax uncontaminated by pollution or chemicals) was very soft, and pulling hard to shape the goldwork stitches pulled threads on the linen.

My second attempt was passable, but by no means perfect.

In the afternoon, most retreaters went to the Shakespeare Trust for a lecture on Corsets and Codpieces. All agreed it was very interesting - and fun. Both garments, it seems, were designed primarily as fashion accessories rather than protection and changed shape to fit with fashion aesthetics.

I stayed behind to work on my plaited braid stitch. I found it much easier than the earlier needlelace. The instructions in Kate Barlow's booklet were very clear and helpful.

My braid is not even and I acquired a twist in it at one point but I am pleased with it. I got the stitch right. As I progressed I discovered it lo.oked better a little larger than the design lines so it varies a bit.

My ort pot filled up



I worked on it pretty much until dinner at 7. I finished one plaited braid loop and all the blackwork. I have two leaves to outline in silk stem stitch and the rest is plaited braid. I'm pretty confident I can now finish it before I leave Stratford on 18 March.

I'm thinking  of turning it into a pouch to hold my gold work tools.

This evening's meal was leisurely and relaxed. We are all a bit tired and most people thinking of their homeward travel. It was again a lovely meal. I couldn't resist a photo of my desert - a rhubarb icecream and sorbet. The biscuit-like thing on the icecream is a wafer-thin slice of candied rhubarb .

Tomorrow is a bit of a free choice.  I'm hoping to spend half a day on a Phillipa project and perhaps progress Nicola's beyond the beads and sequins. It could, however, go somewhere else altogether.