Sometimes my fingers get tired of knitting so many tiny stitches (I seem to specialize in tiny needles and tiny stitches these days) which means that I’m always looking for another small project to break up all that knitting time. I know, blasphemy, but there it is! My newest intrigue is crewel embroidery. With crewel, I get to use all that lovely wool I enjoy so much while trying out a whole other world of needles beyond the clicky, knitty variety.

The problem is that I never seem to buy anything below worsted weight yarn when I’m shopping for myself. I can spin a decent fingering and lace weight yarn but I can’t seem to manage a lovely, squishy bulky skein so I tend to buy yarn to fill in the chunkier end of the yarn spectrum when I have a chance. So, when I saw a chubby ball of fingering-weight Palette, I knew I had to try my hand at crewel with it.

Now, I haven’t tried “proper” crewel thread yet. Palette is a similar, slightly heavier, two-ply version of it. There is so much more yardagein one ball that you could cover quite a large area compared to the small hanks of thread I’ve seen around. Plus, Palette’s stunning range of colors developed for knit colorwork is a boon for embroidery as well; it’s easy to find the perfect color combinations for an entire embroidered scene!

Anyway, off I went and tried my hand at a very simple satin stitch circle with Sky, Huckleberry Heather, and Raspberry Heather on a small piece of linen fabric I had around at home. And voila! It worked like a charm. I made sure to use a sharp needle with a fairly large eye and I was able to finishes the entire piece before my favorite period drama had ended. Easy as pie! Now I think I’ll try my hand at some more complicated patterns with larger areas of satin stitch to fill in.

I love the combination of Sky, Huckleberry Heather, and Raspberry Heather! The finished diameter is roughly 2.5 inches and used less than three yards of yarn which also makes this technique a great way to destash your scraps. I think I’ll use this as the center square in a little pillow sometime soon.

Has anyone else tried embroidering with Palette? If so, how did it go? Tell me all about it in the comments!