Hramavik - Thunder Spirit

Canvaswork, trianglepoint

A few years ago, I came across a book from our Toronto Guild of Stitchery Library entitled Trianglepoint by Sherlee Lantz*. The technique introduced by the author impressed me and I was inspired to blend Belarusan motifs with trianglepoint. Moreover, I hadn’t seen any pieces done in this technique and eagerly, I rushed to my computer and immediately designed some preliminary patterns. Strangely enough, for some unexplained reason these patterns were saved and put away-- perhaps, they were waiting for their time…When I saw the proposed colour palette for Spring 2011, I remembered these “blue-prints” and thought it was time to dig them out!

I decided to introduce a very famous pattern of Hramavik, which very well suited for this technique.

When I say ‘famous’ I mean, actually, this pattern is used in folk motifs all around the world; I have seen it in various cultures, and in Native American culture particularly.

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The word Trianglepoint, created by Sherlee Lantz for her book published in 1976, had no past. It was a new structure system for applying yarn to needlepoint canvas. This structure, like the Bargello technique, made available to the canvas a vast, hitherto unused, brilliant surface covering repertoire of triangle and hexagonal designs. She asserted she just “reinvented” the technique, which means it was inspired by widely used triangle and hexagonal designs in ancient oriental motifs, as well as similar American and English patchworks quilts of the 19th and 20th centuries.

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A triangle is the building block of trianglepoint work. It is most helpfully thought of as a stitch like cross, tent, Florentine or Hungarian Point (Bargello). Trianglepoint is surprising because it is so easy to learn, so rapid to work, so uncomplicated and constant in its structure. It requires no complex graphs, charts, no numerical instructions, no counting of minute canvas squares.

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When attempting this project for the first time, stitch a small sampler first.

The classical triangle point is worked as in Graph 1. The stitches of triangles always graduate up and down by two canvas threads. The first stitch travels over two canvas threads, the second over four canvas threads, the third over six, and so forth. The stitches can be worked horizontally or vertically.

The inverted triangle as seen in Graph 2a can be stitched in the identical way, starting the first stitch from the “base” line (the base is at the left), or from the diagonal lines created by the sides of the previous triangle.

Trianglepoint requires smooth, easy stitching – a relaxed but disciplined hand. The thread must be laid across the canvas without stress or slack. The surface must be smooth to form a proper liaison with the mosaic nature of the design.

The shape of a triangle is the foundation design for trianglepoint. See Graph 3. The geometric patterns are shaped entirely by the colours used. The application of tone and shade to triangles produces the hexagons, rhombuses, and stars. The triangle can be thought of as a pre-cut mosaic piece.

This is the basic on the trianglepoint stitching technique.

My Hramavik - Thunder Spirit design is the result of three sources of inspiration: a Belarusan motif pattern, the Trianglepoint stitch technique and the colour palette proposed by A Needle Pulling Thread.