Whitework

While we don’t see many pieces of needlework done entirely in pulled-thr ead work in the Middle Ages, there’s an interestin g class of textiles where we do see bits and pieces of this technique fairly often. That is in the church textiles used for the penitentia l season of Lent. The combinatio n of counted-th read and pulled stitches in these fine linen textiles is referred to as Opus Teutonicum , or German whitework.

Pulled work is the distortion of the warp and weft threads to form patterns. The threads are literally pulled out of alignment and bound into groups to create patterns. Pulled work is also used to create a background for other embroidery .