Things are still rather hectic so not much forum or stitching time, but the time i found I've been looking more into this Ukrainian whitework (you may remember DH bought me a book about it in York). One of the things the book mentions is that in Ukraine, its traditional needlework has been largely replaced by cross stitch. I'm not sure I like her slightly deprecating tone about cross stitch (in fact the Ukrainians have come up with some lovely patterns, especially on clothing, both men's and women's) but it's true that when you Google "Ukrainian whitework", most of what you get is references to this book and another book about it, and that if you Google "Ukrainian embroidery/needlework", most of what you get is cross stitch, not whitework.
The author makes a real point of Ukrainian whitework being absolutely unique, and although I think the examples she gives are lovely and have some distinctive features, there is no getting away from the fact that it is very clearly related to other whitework styles like Hardanger and Lefkara (and to some extent Lagartera, although I think that was always in colour). She even says she has left out Kloster blocks in all her designs even though they are part of Ukrainian whitework, because "they are so familiar already".
Nevertheless, it's lovely stuff and I like the use of pulled work together with hem stitches and satin stitch. So I've been playing around with them, using some stitches as they came (like small round eyelets) and some with modifications (like some braided stitches), and some stitches which were hem stitches I've used as surface stiches and some stitches which are pulled in Ukrainian work I've chosen not to pull, and I've decided not to use the needlewoven hems but to have completely uncut designs. No particular reason, and I may in future include cutwork hems, but they just didn't feel right at the moment.
So I've come up with a small sampler which I've called Lviv, and a set of two designs called Orpheus (DH and I are great fans of a lovely 8-man male voice vocal group from Lviv called Orpheus
). Traditionally white on white or at least tone on tone, I also wanted to try a variegated version. DH didn't think it would work very well as it would distract attention from the textures, and I agree but wanted to try it anyway just to see how it would turn out , so here is a sneak preview, the first bit of Lviv using the threads I used for the non-cut heart:
It does look a bit psychedelic with all the colour changes
but who knows it may work in the end.
Lovely as always. I like the way the variegated thread looks in the design. This may sound strange, but it looks "happy". I have no idea why but that was my reaction. I think it will be really pretty in a single color too because the pattern and the stitches are so nice, but the variegated gives it a special kind of quality. 
)
