Laura is an over-achiever!!!

On Laura's blog, she posted a picture of an exact copy of the piece I posted with my last "tutorial" session. For those of you who need more detailed instructions, I'm going to lay out how you make the larger diamonds.

Okay. Begin like the Klosters - set of 5 satin stitches, pivot, Kloster. Now we come to a point where we have to change how we pivot, so that you can make a larger shape. With your needle in the 5th down-hole (or inside corner), push the point of the needle through the top of the exact same stitch, on the outside corner. This becomes the top of your first satin stitch in your next Kloster. From now on, you will alternate which corner is shared between Klosters. If this explanation doesn't make sense, pleasepleaseplease let me know! It isn't difficult to do, but it's hard to explain it without showing you!

Okay, now for more of the bullet-points :)

• Once you know how to do these pivots, you can recreate most basic Hardanger designs just by counting the number of Kloster blocks.
• When counting Klosters, I personally like to omit the "points" of the diamonds. I count the blocks between the points. It makes it easier for me to keep track of where I am.
• Laura has already been bitten by the inspiration bug, I can tell! In general, when you are designng Hardanger projects, a Kloster diamond has an even number of Klosters between points. It makes it easier when you want to go back and do cut work, trust me. It will give you the lacier effect.
• This may not be necessary to say to you guys, but you never know how people think or plan their stitching: It's important to remember to pivot your stitches and stitch your Klosters as a group. Do not ever "carry" you thread in Hardanger. You need to keep the back neat and tidy, and you don't want to have excess thread behind your diamonds that you might clip - it would unravel your whole project. So if you have a row of Klosters to do, either do whole diamonds and slip your needle behind the stitches to get to a shared corner; or stitch the tops one direction and the bottoms back the other way (my personal choice).

Okay! I love to see the pictures of what you guys are doing. Again, let me know if something doesn't make sense. Next up - cutting! Yikes!