{"id":16761,"date":"2026-11-10T09:03:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T09:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=16761"},"modified":"2026-10-26T12:12:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T12:12:00","slug":"more-on-the-oak-leaf-wreath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/2026\/11\/10\/more-on-the-oak-leaf-wreath\/","title":{"rendered":"More on the Oak Leaf Wreath"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/MaybeTooChunky_Watermarked.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"193\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/MaybeTooChunky_Watermarked-193x300.jpg\" alt=\"Close up of an oak leaf using the needlelace stitch known as &quot;pea stitch&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-16744\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/MaybeTooChunky_Watermarked-193x300.jpg 193w, https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/MaybeTooChunky_Watermarked-658x1024.jpg 658w, https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/MaybeTooChunky_Watermarked-768x1195.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/MaybeTooChunky_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 193px) 100vw, 193px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My first oak leaf is pleasing, but a bit too chunky, I think. Regular readers are familiar with my near-obsession with scale of thread, fabric, and stitch, and the interesting effects they have on each other. In this case, I like the rather &#8220;mossy&#8221; effect, but considering the final piece, I&#8217;m afraid that by the time I&#8217;ve wired the edge, which will involved buttonhole stitching the wire in place, the whole thing will appear clumsy and out of whack. I will finish it in due course, because it might still work. The mirror it would be part of a frame for is quite a large one, so I may decide that large and quite chunky leaves are the way to go.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/NewSetUp_Watermarked.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"250\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/NewSetUp_Watermarked-250x300.jpg\" alt=\"Photograph of me, a white woman with greying hair, in profile. I have glasses on and I am peering through the magnifier on my work light at the embroidery in the frame held in the chart clip below it.\" class=\"wp-image-16743\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/NewSetUp_Watermarked-250x300.jpg 250w, https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/NewSetUp_Watermarked-768x923.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/NewSetUp_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I have already decided, however, that a frame held in a mount is Definitely the way to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first leaf is the first success of several attempts when I was simply holding my frame in my hand, and to be honest, I wasn&#8217;t enjoying the needlelace as much as I remembered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Aethelflaed and others occupy my floor frame in the window, but this arrangement is working well for needlelace. The strong working light isn&#8217;t as variable as natural light, the magnifier allows me more variation in thread thickness (so I can Experiment!!), and having the frame under control means I can use both hands to control the thread, which makes things much easier!<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/TryingAgain_Watermarked.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/TryingAgain_Watermarked-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Side on view of what I am working on in the photo above\" class=\"wp-image-16735\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/TryingAgain_Watermarked-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/TryingAgain_Watermarked-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/TryingAgain_Watermarked.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the moment, my imagining of the Oak Leaf Wreath is of groups of three oak leaves wired into a circlet, which can be mounted around the mirror, rather than actually attached to it, so it will be a while before you see this project again. I will do three oak leaves, wire them, and then play with arrangements and offer them up to the mirror to see whether I have something that works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If I do, good &#8211; all I need to do then is work out the colour progression and then start making oak leaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If not, you will all be witnesses to my rending of hair and rethinking Everything!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My first oak leaf is pleasing, but a bit too chunky, I think. Regular readers are familiar with my near-obsession with scale of thread, fabric, and stitch, and the interesting effects they have on each other. In this case, I like the rather &#8220;mossy&#8221; effect, but considering the final piece, I&#8217;m afraid that by the&hellip; <a class=\"continue\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/2026\/11\/10\/more-on-the-oak-leaf-wreath\/\">Continue Reading More on the Oak Leaf Wreath<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[31,238],"class_list":["post-16761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-needlelace","tag-oak-leaf-wreath","radius"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16761"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16784,"href":"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16761\/revisions\/16784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.virtuosewadventures.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}