To work an arraiolos rug, you'll use three primary stitches:
- long-legged cross-stitch (used in Steps 1, 5, 6, 7, 8)
- mitre stitch (used in Steps 1, 5, and 7)
- travelling stitch (used in Steps 2 and 3)
Long-Legged Cross-stitch
The long-legged cross-stitch is used for filling patterns and background in both the border and the field. The long-legged cross-stitch is the easiest of the three stitches and consists of an "forward two back one" pattern as shown below.
(images and videos coming soon)
Since pattern and background fill are worked from bottom of the area to the top, you'll need to know how to finish a row, when to threadle under and when to work around, and how to move up a row. See the videos below for additional instruction.
(videos coming soon)
Miter Stitch
The miter stitch is used for rounding corners for border fill. The border patterns are worked bottom to top and is rotated 90 degrees so that each side works into the field. The field patterns, in contrast, is worked top to bottom, but is rotated only 180 degrees, as shown in the diagram below. (diagram coming soon!)
The thing that makes a miter stitch tricky is that you likely only have to do a couple of dozen miter stitches on your entire rug. See the videos and images below for additional instruction on how to complete a miter stitch.
(videos and images coming soon)
Travelling Stitch
The travelling stitch is used for outlining patterns in both the border and the field. I'm convinced that figuring out how to stitch a pattern with the travelling stitch is akin to playing sudoku: it's a brain-twister. Until you get the hang of visually the needle changes, I recommend making photocopies of the pattern and practice sewing the pattern onto paper or onto a spare scrap of jute until you're comfortable. Then notate your directions on one of the photocopies of the pattern for future reference. There's more than one right way to work a pattern; the important thing is that you work each instance of a repeating pattern the same way.
(videos and images coming soon)
