crafty corner, deux
August 23, 2007
I like cross stitch. I do. I took it up mostly to give my thumb and wrists a break from all of the typing and knitting but I am starting to enjoy cross stitch qua cross stitch.
But I don't like cross stitch that requires 80 gazillion colors and switching back-and-forth between all of them with every stitch.* You know -- cross stitch that required my brain.
Like, say, this:
It has taken me an obscenely long time to get this much done. I keep having to stop because I get this deep, uncontrollable urge to throw it very hard across the room. Then to jump up and down on it.
Is there a trick to this? Or am I just not cut out for keeping track of all of these little pieces of thread?
Regardless, it's about to be banished to the closet of shame, where it can sit and have a good think about what it has done while I move on to something that might be more fulfilling, like teaching the cats to heel.
* Opus 2 is my idea of heaven. Sick, eh?
First of all... Wow. Linen. How brave of you. I tend to stick to an evenweave like Aida so I don't have to think too much about where the stitches go.
Second, gazillions of colors do indeed suck. It's why the Van Gogh (http://trishwah.blogspot.com/2007/04/moving-stuff-around.html) took me yearrrrrssss to finish. It too spent months at a time in a closet. That pattern originally called for 90-some colors. About a third of the way through, I decided that it only needed about half that. I don't think it suffered for the "color editing" that I did.
Yours is looking really great tho. Brava!
Posted by: Trish | August 23, 2007 at 04:42 PM
I'm no cross-stitcher...at ALL. But why couldn't you keep some needles cocked and loaded with thread? Like lets say there are 7 colors, why couldn't you have 7 needles loaded with the thread and they'd be ready when you need 'em? Is that possible? That seems a LOT faster to me...but then again, the closest I get to a cross stitch is that little "x" I make when sewing buttons on.
Posted by: Catherine | August 23, 2007 at 04:50 PM
Yearn. I used to do a ton of cross-stitch. Looking at those charts makes me think it's time to take it up again.
Posted by: Melanie | August 23, 2007 at 07:50 PM
What's interesting to me is that I've been knitting to make a bunch of little Christmas presents before back-to-school, but my right hand has really started aching, so the day before yesterday I went and dug out some old cross-stitch projects to give my hand a break for awhile.
I have done linen, but mostly stick to Aida so I can cross-stitch while watching TV or the kids or the puppy. Anyway, I pick an area and do all the stitches in a single color and then switch colors. Start with the darkest and move to the lightest, or your fingers will smudge the light color by working it. I also tend to work "frame-y" stuff in the design first, counting carefully. Then I just work in from the frame.
Posted by: Heidi | August 24, 2007 at 08:27 AM
What I do when doing any sort of embroidery, is sew all the stitches for color 1, then color 2 and so on.
Posted by: Jennu | August 24, 2007 at 12:50 PM
I may have made a tactical error. Rather than push through on the jeweled scarab that is annoying the crap out of me, I may have ordered a new pattern that involves pumpkins. Maybe. I will neither confirm nor deny.
*whistles innocently*
Thanks for all of the advice. I'll keep it in mind once I pick this one up again. Provided I do pick this up again.
Melanie and CK -- one of us. one of us. one of us.
Posted by: Adrienne | August 24, 2007 at 01:26 PM