Stella's (Worldwide) Adentures - Part I of

I joined Mia Hansson's Stella's (worldwide) Adventures, which turned into my first weaving project of 2026. Here's a good intro to what the tour is. (Stella's Adventures group page covers or will cover her entire trip.) Now let me tell you my part.  

2025
I came across Mia's Bayeux Tapestry Story group page on FB early in the year. Mia is a Swedish Brit single-handedly trying to recreate the Bayeux Tapestry over a decade. Her group page is crazy informative on the techniques, process, and decisions she's had to make to carry out the project, while we fans often interject wild or informed speculation, all in buzzing joviality. There, Stella the Persistent Assistant appears from time to time to make mischief. 

Mia decided Stella should travel to get out of Mia's hair, so she solicited hosts to welcome her worldwide, and by the way, hosts should add some embroidery to the linen Stella will be traveling with. I didn't rush in, but when Mia announced the countries she's had volunteers from, I flippantly wrote, "New Zealand?" I didn't hear from Mia for months and gave no further thought, until in December, she requested my address, informing me Stella was about to leave Australia! I was working nightly on my needlepoint at that stage, so no worries, I can wing it. 

2026/1/15~18
On 1/15, I received an unsmall box containing Stella and her (new) little friend Arlette; a pink notebook in which hosts wrote background of themselves, local info, or their contribution, (some riveting reading itself;) and a piece of linen 82cm high and 135cm wide, neatly hemmed just the way Mia showed us she does on her project.

(The linen is not crocked but not pressed; it's my fault for not tugging from all sides.) This is 100% unbleached linen in plain weave, with quite a hefty weight to it, giving it that lovely large-dog-leaning hand. The recreation project is done on linen, (though now Mia suspects it could be linen/cotton,) 70cm high and gazillion meters wide before hemming, in a twill from memory. Both this cloth and the almost stiff embroidery gave me the impression the original Tapestry was probably far from delicate or fragile but hefty and more "down to earth", which is probably how it lasted this long. 

What astounded me in the first instance was the high level of embroidery skill of the previous hosts. Mia's star in the center, (Stella,) and the Bayeux-style tree in lower left, (see little Stella hanging on?) by Brigitte were done in wool in the traditional stitches used by Bayeux seamstresses. I realized it's been decades since I did cross stitch, maybe over 50 years since "freehand". I have bitten far more than I could chew! Reluctantly only at this point I joined the Stella's Adventures FZB group, and flipped through the pink notebook. I discovered the length to which everybody went in researching their subject, or took Stella around their homes/regions to introduce to the rest of the group. There was even a visit to Bayeux Museum and the cathedral where the tapestry used to be hung!! To say this was going to be a two-pronged project was an understatement. 

With bad weather coming, I started with Stella-around-my house, planning to move on to around Nelson on the group page front. In there I snuck in my trepidation about the lack of embroidery skills, to which Queensland weaver Lyn commented I should attach a piece of my weaving. Oh, I never thought about that! By Sunday morning, I knew what I was going to do.

2026/1/19
What: If you look at the pictures, considering I'm the 20th of 50 to contribute, though there is still plenty of space, placement is a consideration. Also, I wanted to use New Zealand Merino, somewhat fragile against friction, so I didn't want it to go where the cloth was likely to be folded. I decided a short narrow strip, or two, wouldn't be too obtrusive but also wouldn't disappear in the busyness.   

A long strip along one side was immediately voted out for not being harmonious with the other contributions. 

On the other hand, a strip the width of the text at top left (2cm*23cm), or the text+small Stella (2cm*30cm) would create a balanced look, but to make the weaving a little easier, I might make the width-on-loom between an inch and 3cm. I could put it at top right, or bottom right; it could even work bottom right and left, though top will probably be rubbed less often.

Warp: 

The linen cloth has a tinge of yellow, while in the 30/2 merino I plan to use, I only have pinkish "naturals." Of the two the darker taupe appears less jarring. Elsewhere I have undyed merino, but they are far whiter than the cloth, so that's out of contention. 

Weft: 
(This was part of the group page entertainment; I let the girls have some say.) 

Mia uses something like five or seven colors, in darker values than what I have, and quite a lot of yellow in them. There is a Burgundy, (I have brick orange in its place, which Mia says is closer to the original,) a dull yellow, (mine, a brighter version,) and indigo, (mine, second row far right.) Then I may pick maybe two others between green and blue. Mind you, the big difference is she makes pictures with these colors, while mine are weft colors, in clear horizontal squares. (I'm judging everything by looking at photos on her Tapestry page.)

And then I found Brigitte took Stella to Bayeux Museum, and there they had a display of the wool colors. 

I'm doing the usual. I'm not sure if I want to use many colors or just one or just a few.  

Sett: 
The merino I plan to use is 30/2 100% in the warp and the weft. Previously I used this in the warp at 36EPI to go with 26/2 and 20/2 cashmere wefts. At that time I experimented with 36EPI and 48EPI, (but apparently not 42,) and mentioned 48EPI was too tight as if the yarns had no room to expand. I think for the purposes of this project that sounds about right, as the embroidered part in wool is stiff. I'll sample 42 and 48EPI.

Draft: 
I had a quick look at Mia's finished length for a possible Bayeux-based abstract border motif, (over 55m so far,) but nothing jumped out. She being Swedish, I thought of one 8-shaft pattern I really like but only used once.     

Ooops, this is Stella; I think she's a Viking girl, as Mia used to make Viking reenactment costumes, and Normans were Viking descendants. The draft in question is to the left of her head. It can go the way it's drawn, or turned. I'll be weaving a long, narrow strip, while it will be attached sideways on the cloth, so wide and short.  

I usually prefer the bottom look, but in this case I like the directionality of the top two. I must consider what's the easiest to lift. Either works well in terms of warp repeat numbers to make an inch- or 3cm-wide strip. 

Decisions: 
With the easy stuff done, I have to decide on the following before putting a warp on and sampling: 
1) Weft colors. In fact, am I also happy with the neutral weft warp color?
2) One idea is to put on a wide multi-colored warp and weave a short, wide strip for the Stella project, and then to resley and weave a scarf  from the same warp. In this case, however, there will be gazillion warp ends to tidy before I can attach the strip/s to the linen, so in the first instance this sounds like a terrible idea. But a colorful scarf?  
3) The threading/orientation.
4) In case I need two strips, I should put on two warps side by side with a wide gap in between and weave the two at once.  

2026/1/20
No work done but went over notes. Making up my mind is sometimes the hardest thing to do. But I am enjoying the process as I have not had a "thinking" project since the elephant blanket of 2019.  

More to come.