Doodle Cloths- What are They Good For?

Doodle cloths are also known as practice cloths, learning cloths or test cloths. Usually pieces of fabric that are too small for the hoop you brought and that have unfinished edges, they are often suggested as potential pincushions or Christmas ornaments. Doodle cloths are beloved of teachers who have scattered interesting and difficult stitches through a project. There is no practical way a student can count across 76 threads from the top left and then down 134 to place a set of perfect Rhodes Half Drop stitches in taupe silk during a three hour class. When at home, having completed the umpty-ump rows of stitching above those Rhodes Half Drop stitches, why should you put down your lovely project and turn your concentration to a piece of scrap fabric that will never become even so much as a scissor fob? Do the words "Oops, I have to frog" strike terror in your heart?

Doodle cloths are useful:

• Any time in a project when you are attempting something that you just aren't absolutely positive will work.
• Any time you are beginning an intricate stitch that you do not want to rip out if it isn't right.
• When you are substituting fibers and using something that might not 'go' as well as you had hoped.
• When you are doing a completely new stitch from diagrams that you are not able to read clearly.
• When you feel like testing a technique, fiber or tool.
• When you are completing a kit and you aren't sure of the fiber allotment.
• Any time you don't want to risk your project on a 'learning experience.'

I do not always use a scrap of the same ground fabric and lengths of the same fiber for my doodling. Use up my Legacy linen and hand dyed silk on practice? Naah, the funky color Belfast I got on sale and the leftover fibers from some other project will be close enough. The sample swatches you got in the grab bag at your LNS work wonderfully for this. I try to at least simulate the way I am managing the ground. If I'm working in a frame for the real project, I'll put the doodle in a Q-snap. I use a piece of reasonably sized fabric. A doodle cloth that is less than 4 inches square is more frustration than help. One doodle can be used for more than one project. If you have the space, save them for later. Lazy Wenches who take notes and keep them with the doodle don't have to reinvent the wheel later. I've been using the same piece of 18 count canvas as a canvaswork doodle for three years now.

When do I stop doodling? When I am comfortable that I know what my results will be on my real project. I might need to only to complete half of a specialty stitch. I might need to do a stitch many times with different threads and take notes. When I know what I'm doing and I like the results, I leave the doodle and go back to my project. If I don't like what my doodle results are, I keep doodling. I try not to rip on a doodle cloth, it isn't worth the effort. I move to a clear space and start again. I carry threads, I use away waste knots, I don't clip ends neatly. My doodles are not for show, they are for results. The results can be seen on my finished project.

If you take a class and are handed a teensy scrap of Aida to doodle for an evenweave project, smile and say "Thank you," while making a mental note not to sign up for that teacher again. You do have fabric scraps and a hoop in your class bag, don't you? Whip those puppies out and practice on something that will really help you later. If you make a gentle suggestion or comment to the event coordinators, you may save others from the same fate in the future. We Lazy Wenches are all in this together.

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