Loveday: Crewelwork Acorns and Wasp

There are three little acorns on the left side of the image and buzzing merrily nearby is a wasp. These are the next parts of the design I worked in the Loveday crewelwork piece. I have a special fondness for acorns since my first crewelwork piece for the RSN Certificate, where part of my original design included acorns. They are perfect for crewelwork since they can be stitched using a multitude of different stitches, each combination producing a different acorn.My first acorns were embroidered with laid work nuts and French knot caps. These acorns are embroidered with laid work caps and Bayeux stitch  nuts. The first step for laid work is always to embroider a smooth ground of satin stitch. The second step is to "lay" long stitches over the satin stitch in the direction (or directions if there are two threads crossing) you require. The third step is to couch the laid stitches.It's important to keep the laid stitches equal distance apart so the resulting grid is even. You can either do this by eye or use a small strip of paper that you've measured to the correct width that you lay down next to one laid thread as you put in the second laid thread. In a large area, I always use this trick to make sure my stitches don't go at an angle and I find, as I'm almost finished, that I have to take them out.Nicola has chosen four colors for the acorns, using a light and a dark rust or a light and a dark green in combination. My favourite touch are the single gold spangles at the bottom of each acorn! A bit of bling always looks good! The tiny wasp buzzes merrily away and is safely made of wool thread, so he won't sting me!This Loveday tree is coming to life, full of birds and other little creatures, just the the real tree on which the design is based!