Density

In a previous post I mentioned the theory of digitizing to help us understand why we do what we do.

Okay lets take a look at what density is...

(Webster 1828)

Density, n.

1.  Closeness of constituent parts; compactness. Density is opposed to rarity; and in philosophy, the         density of a body indicates the quanitity of matter contained in it, under a given bulk.  If a body of       equal bulk with another is of double the density, it contains double the quantity of matter.

2.  Thickness; as the density of fog.

Now lets look at the basics.  By the basics, I mean hand embroidery.  If you've never tried doing a satin stitch by hand I suggest you give it a try to help you get a feel for designing a satin stitch in the machine.  Mary Corbet is amazing, I love her work and she has great resources on her site Needle n Thread.

Back to digitizing, lets say you want to create an embroidery using 60wt. instead of 40wt. thread.  You have to do a third (1/3) more of the stitches.  This concept works with all specialty threads.

                            I apologize if these are hard to view.  I could only do them so large.


                                                The density reads: 8957

                                          60wt Before adjusting density.

                                         

                     The density reads: 10392 (This was adjusted from 5 to 4)

I wanted to keep this short and sweet for a beginner.  If you have any questions, just leave a comment below and I'll get back to you.


Cultivating Creativity,
Dora (aka Elaine)

Theory

The key to good digitizing.  Just as in piano, a player can only improve when they understand the theory behind the music and a composer can only be as good as his knowledge in the area of theory.  You can compose a song without knowing what the circle of 5ths are.  However, you can create an even better piece when you know and understand how you get the circle of 5ths.

So lets delve into some embroidery theory over the next few months.  I still consider myself a novice, but I love to study things out and hope that I might be able to shed some light onto a few aspects of digitizing theory.  I have some background in hand embroidery that helps with this as well.

Here are the first couple of lessons we will focus on:

1. Density - What is it, Why does it matter and How specialty threads are effected by it.
2. Underlay - What is it, Why does it matter and How does it effect my design.

I will put out lesson one this month and lesson two in October.

I hope you'll join me as we theorize on how to digitize!



There are no mistakes, we'll just turn that into a happy little tree.
~ Bob Ross
(I love Bob!)

End of Challenge

I hope those who did the challenge, but chose not to comment, finished their challenges successfully.  Here are how my challenges turned out...

Blog:  The challenge I listed last was actually my first and easiest to accomplish.  That was the blog post on Paper Piecing Tips.

Digitized Embroidery:  This was technically a success.  However, when stitched out I ran into bobbin thread issue .  Still not sure how to resolve this.  I tried 40wt. RA and 80wt. Bottomline, next is 80wt. Aurfil.  It may be the thread snips leave to long of threads.  Another issue is that rayon threads tends not to cut was well as cotton so I am looking for the Aurfil to do better than the other two threads.   

Embroidery: I failed to complete this mission.  Time escaped me, however, I did do a cutwork design, just not off the edge which was my main goal.  I created it in my Premier Plus, it needs a little tweaking, and I had an issue which created a pull in the fabric.  I do feel I met some challenges in this because it was the first cutwork design I created and it boosted my confidence in attempting future cutwork designs.

Keep Creating!!