Holbein has a lot to answer for.

Today Serena led a mini workshop on Holbein stitch. She has been stitching and designing patterns for a VERY long time and is super talented. 

Just a little example of her work.

The RSN Stitch bank has a description of the origins of the stitch. The name Holbein stitch is credited to Hans Holbein the Younger who showed the stitch on the clothing of his portrait subjects.

Serena has a book by Louisa Pesel who wrote about blackwork samplers; it has many lovely examples. 

We had instructions for a "simple" border to practice with. Well, it proved to be less than simple for some of us! Getting the front and back to look the same isn't as easy as you might think. Serena can see patterns in her head, a skill most of us were lacking. We had fun though.

True to form Serena went one step further and produced individual designs for us, incorporating our names in a rotating pattern. 

Our progress was slow, so here are our first attempts and example of her rotating patterns.

This photo shows two different rotating designs of Sally, it's really clever and I'm about to tackle mine - fingers crossed. Thanks to Serena for putting this together.