The Sketching Solution

The sketches of my embroidery projects were made with fine pencils. Of course, they are water soluble. I read about sketching on cloth and what pens to use; Mary Corbet wrote an interesting essay on sketching and how to remove the tracing from the linen. This made me anticipate the final stage of my work with some fear. In a former project, I more or less covered the sketch with the thread. Wool thread is a lot easier to handle than cotton or linen thread. It covers the traces with its floss.
Today I finished the carnation piece and soaked it in lukewarm water.
It just took seconds to remove the ink! Nothing was left but an ever so faint shading of turquoise, washed away in the water. I don't know if these pencils by Schwan are available everywhere. A good solution, taken literally.
Here's the finished embroidery.
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