This is a pretty rough scan (not a photo) because both the camera and Photoshop pick up the warp and weft of the linen and make squiggly lines of them, making the drawing very hard to see.

Microsoft Paint isn’t intelligent enough to do that.

I don’t know why those smudges have appeared.

This is the design drawn out in pen on the linen, as far as I’ve done it to date.

I’ve got 5 more flowers to design and then put in, and the strawberries at each end.

I drew each motif up in pencil first to get the placement of the elements within the scrolling vine and then copied then (carefully!) onto the linen.

The scrolling vine line might be a bit thin at 4mm.

I read today in Zimmerman that the limits of the width of Plaited Braid Stitch is determined by the size of the thread.

The Lurex I’m using might be too thick – I have no idea. If so, I’ve got room to thicken the line – or I can try ladder stitch at the current width.

I’ve been asking in Stitchin’ Fingers about how to do the bird’s feet and legs.

Paula Hewitt had the wonderful idea of doing the bird’s beak in kid – I’d like to do that!

I’ve also been trying to find out about doing Plaited Braid Stitch left-handed. Calico Crossroads said to do it upside down and then wasn’t sure (since left handers normally reverse left-right direction).

Nobody seems to know.

Since it’s such a difficult stitch, I’d love to know – so I’m at least starting off in the correct direction when I try to learn the stitch. I will probably have to sort it out as part of my learning of the stitch.

(Or decide it’s too hard and do Ladder Stitch or Ceylon stitch instead)