Crewel Linen

An embroidery frame has this photograph taped beside it as the only reference. Work the entire scene in crewel wool on slubbed linen. The woman remains that woman: same hair, same clothes, same pose, translated into stitches rather than into a pattern of someone else. Use long-and-short fill for skin and cloth, French knots for hair mass, a slightly naive outline in darker wool. Needle holes show. A few tails of thread sit on the surface. The linen is hooped; at the very edge of the frame you can see unstitched cloth and the wooden hoop. Daylight from a window, no digital smoothness, no cross-stitch grid, no woven tapestry, no knitting.