I made this canvaswork piece for a friend’s Book of Hours, and then paneled it as my period competency in canvaswork for the Athena’s Thimble needlework guild. The design is from a 16th century icon of the Archangel Michael, and it isn’t stitched on commercial needlepoint canvas, but a soft loose-weave linen, which was not easy to work with. Unlike stitching counted thread on linen, here the linen holes have to be large enough to pass good-sized wool thread. Counted work is stitching on fabric; canvaswork is making the fabric – usually heavy tapestry – on a loose scaffolding.

The yarn was all handspun by me, and dyed with period plant dyes, most of which I grew in my herb garden. The orange-red of Michael’s tunic is madder, and his cloak is from onion skins. His halo and trim are dyed with goldenrod. All the shades of white, ivory, black, and brown yarn are undyed wool from sheep that I kept at various points, before I had to travel for work and had to rehome them. The black sheep were Black Welsh Mountain, the browns were Shetland, and the light colors from various Icelandic and Romney sheep.

Embroidered book covers were common in the 16th century, but most of the ones in museums are fancy fabrics and threads. I wanted to recreate something more rustic. The idea of this piece is that some rural farmer’s son managed to learn to read well enough to go into the clergy, and was gifted a Book of Hours, and his family pitched in and stitched a cover for it, using wool and plants they had on the land. Not a fancy noble person’s book, but one which the rural priest would keep and remember until it finally fell apart.