Adapting to or from needlepoint patterns

RingosMom

Does anyone have experience and tips converting cross stitch patterns to needlepoint or needlepoint to cross stitch.  I am particularly interested in bargello patterns.

Ann

What is bargello?
Distinctive patterns are built up from rows of straight stitches, arranged in a zigzag line, and repeated in varying shades or colours.
The steepness of the zigzag depends on how many threads the stitch is worked over, and the position of subsequent stitches. The diagram below shows that when the stitches are stepped by more canvas threads the peak is higher. To give a more rounded effect groups of stitches can be worked either at the end or part way down a slope. Traditionally all the stitches in a design are the same length throughout.

Design in bargello There are three main types of design in this type of needlepoint: row, motif or mitered. The simplest is a row design. The pattern is established in the first row, and then repeated using a different colour, tone or tint in subsequent rows. I will explain the colour terms shortly. To create a motif design, part of a row is mirrored and a medallion or motif is formed. The medallion can be filled in repeating rows or each enclosed area can be dealt with differently. The pattern is mainly formed by the use of colour. A mitered or four-way bargello needlework design consists of a triangular section that is then mirrored both ways. Both rows and motifs can be worked in this manner. Some traditional patterns worked in this way are known as tulip, rose and pineapple.

How to use colourIn Bargello the pattern relies heavily on hue changes. These can be subtle or vibrant.
One colour scheme you can use is monochromatic. This uses tones of one colour. Take blue for example, you could start the sequence with a dark blue (a shade is made by mixing black with the original colour) and then use lighter and lighter tints (mixed with white) ending up with a very pale blue. The sequence is then repeated. I dont want to get too technical here but Ill introduce another colour term; analogous. Basically this scheme uses related hues that are close to each other on the colour wheel. For example red, orange and yellow. Another choice would be purple, blue and green. Bargello needlepoint can also be worked with contrasting colours. To find any colours contrast look opposite it on the colour wheel. Yellow is opposite purple and therefore its contrast. The same goes for orange and blue. The trick here is to use much less of the contrast than the main colour. Think of it as an accent. If you use equal amounts of each the effect wont be as vibrant. Think of a mainly blue room that has the occasional orange pillow to give it some "spark"!

MaryGas70

is very complicated convert cross stitch to bargello ... because the difference of the stitches ....is more easy you achieve bargello patterns ....
Here I upload one pattern for you:
http://www.pindiy.com/forum.php? ... tid=4823&extra=

mummymimi

Ann, thank you for the lovely tutorial!  And Mary, I agree, it is hard to convert TO Bargello from XS.

Conversely, though, it is easy to do XS from Bargello, although I am not very good at explaining it.  I just look at the Bargello pattern, and use the filled in area as XS.

If that makes any sense?

dove

The thing to remember in doing conversions is that needlepoint counts canvas (or congress cloth) holes while stitching on other grounds counts threads.  So, 18 ct canvas is 18 holes per inch and 36 ct linen (the equivalent if stitching over two threads) is 36 threads per inch.

There are many beautiful reproduction samplers (especially Italian) on linen that use Bargello.  You might also find it named Florentine stitch as that is where the stitch seems to be first seen in use!

Hope this helps!

adri

:loveliness:

R Lee

I would suggest enlarging the pattern you like and just working straight off the printed pattern. remember bargello is only one way like longstitch, and cross stitch is stitched twice making it double the thickness. you may need to increase number of threads or increase fabric count to make it look right. experiment.

tcca

Oh, I never thought of converting bargello to cross stitch, that could be interesting!

u1sunny

Very Nice!!