There is a great emphasis in Ukrainian embroidery on having a very tidy reverse side.  This is part of the no knots caper, and was also taught to me by my Baba Zina.  Along with knots, one also does not want loose threads on the reverse side or long bits of thread navigating from the end of one stitch here to embark on another stitch over there.

How does one achieve this?  No knots is one factor, of course.  Additionally, navigation.  The needle makes the shortest possible transition from the end point of one stitch to the start point of another.  If needing to travel to another spot, the thread in use is tucked under existing stitches, or, if they aren’t there, is finished off and started again.  There is no random through and through here.  It all comes down to technique and that really means organization, being aware of what is going to happen with the needle and thread next.

This is no exaggeration!  Any embroidery displayed will be quickly flipped up at the corner by someone in the know, and a discerning eye will be cast over the reverse side.  I often think that the more it resembles the front, the more the raised eyebrows of approval rather than disappointment.

My Baba taught me cross stitch.  We started by making straight horizontal or vertical rows of stitches.  We then progressed to stitching every second cross.  The final thing she tried to teach me was to embroider in little zig zags, zubchyky, literally meaning “little teeth”, which I did not understand at the time.

So my earliest starts in embroidery will have looked something like this, however with longer rows of the same.

I don’t remember how old I was when the penny dropped around making diagonals out of cross stitch, but suddenly zubchyky became clear.  There is a way – a way to make diagonals and keep reverse side stitches short and embroidery neat.

This particular fussiness extends to other embroidery techniques, but I think is actually its most difficult in cross stitch, which has often lead me to muse that other techniques in Ukrainian embroidery should be taught first.

In any case, the flip side is important.  Anyone could pass a needle through up and through down.  The technique lies in the organization that brings about a tidy reverse side and is really at the core of what one learns when one learns Ukrainian embroidery.

~oOo~