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Josh's blackwork display in context; note his note.

Title: "Betsy" Blackwork Embroidery Sampler
Artist: Joshua Holden
Designer: Catherine Strickler
Technique: Blackwork

Artist’Äôs Description: I stitched this piece from the pattern "Betsy", by Catherine Strickler, published by Indigo Rose. Though a modern piece, it was inspired by Elizabethan English blackwork. This style of embroidery was traditionally stitched in a reversible stitch known as double running stitch, or Holbein stitch. Strickler writes that this stitch was described to her as 'Going on a long trip with a lot of little side trips along the way, then returning straight back home.' Those with a background in graph theory might recognize that as a variety of a Hamiltonian circuit, and indeed there is quite a bit of graph theory lurking behind blackwork patterns.