Every couple of months, I get the urge to break out of my little knitting bubble to try my hand at some other crafty craft. My latest adventure has been with crochet. I’ve dabbled in crochet here and there but I’ve never undertaken more than a small toy (yet at the moment, I am completely obsessed with working on my first-ever crochet blanket!).

However, a few months back when I got the itch to try something new with my yarn collection – I fell in love with the world of embroidery! This was a whole new way to explore color and texture, it was almost like drawing (slowly) with yarn. I even bought a shadow box to frame my little embroidery sampler that I was working on as a fun way of meshing my crafty explorations with pretty home decor.

So it was no surprise that my interest in embroidery was revived when I saw Kerin’s latest design – the Suzani Jacket!

This pattern incorporates four different types of embroidery to embelish and beautify this colorful cardigan. If you’ve had your eye on this pattern but haven’t had much experience with these techniques (or maybe you just want more fun and unique ways to use up those odds and ends!), we’ve created a series of video tutorials that focus on different embroidery techniques.

For this week’s technique of the week, we’re highlighting the versatile back stitch!

Back stitch is a simple embroidery technique that is used to form lines and is often used to outline shapes or add small details to a motif. It’s such a great way to add fun shapes or embellishments onto your projects. I can totally see adding some cute flower or leaf motifs that travel up the side of a cardigan.

Or you can do what Kerin does in the video and outline a colorwork motif! Not only is the back stitch a simple and effective way of adding a small pop of color to your project, but it lets you highlight different segments of whatever colorwork motif you’ve already created.

Do you use embroidery to embellish your knitted or crocheted projects? I can already feel myself setting my needles aside in favor of some fun embroidery experiments.

I’d love to hear more ideas or projects that could incorporate embroidery techniques!