Comments galore
I don't know if it is the stress of being back to work after a long weekend, or getting myself riled up over Maleficent, but my head is exploding today. Days like this I'm glad I don't have access to a drill at work or I'd "fix" the problem myself. Needless to say, I guess there won't be any stitching tonight (and probably not much working either). When it's bad enough for me to give myself an Imitrex shot, it's bad. But right now I'm living in "med land", so I can speak a bit more on yesterday's post (although I can't guarantee it will be in English most times).
I've heard from a lot of you about the dithering issue on the HAED patterns and I've learned some things I didn't know. I didn't realize that different people charted for HAED, so of course it makes sense that there will be different charting methods performed by different artists, I only just started noticing it in the past couple of months and it seemed to be on almost every new pattern. I looked hard at Maleficent and I didn't see it on the sample pic, so I dived in (and considering the subject matter, it probably wouldn't have mattered anyway, I am a Disney freak after all). Of course I will be sticking with Maleficent to the bitter end and I still have hope that once I start in with other colors, it won't be so bad.
Miamina over at Miamina's Musings (great blog BTW! Love her stitching!) mentioned that she has an old chart that is done the same way, so I went back through all my old HAED stash this morning looking for the same pattern and luckily, none of my forty plus HAED stash is cursed with it. Some are very heavily confettied, but no dithering. She also says she prefers it to the block look and likes doing it. I'm really hoping that, in the end, I'll be happy with the results as well, but I definitely don't enjoy doing it, at least not right now. But I do value her opinion, so I gotta hang in there, right? And I did make it almost six pages across the row in the color in 15+ hrs, so I don't think it is necessarily taking more time to do it this way, there is just more brain power involved.
One of my favorite things about cross stitching is it's almost like factory work in a way, labor intensive with very little brain matter needed...I can just shut everything down and work. The TV runs in the background, I drink my tea, and all becomes right with the world. It's my meditation, my time out, my "me" time, washing away the scourge of the day and basking in nothingness. It's one of the few moments in my life when my brain actually stops running at full speed. Dithered patterns take away quite a bit of my "shut down" mode. I even found myself having to pause TV several times to make sure I was counting correctly. Normally, I don't even really notice the TV is on, it's just background noise.
Heck, when it all comes down to it, I just don't like change...what Aspie does? I'm still a newbie HAED stitcher, with only three completed pieces under my belt, one of which was a quick stitch, so I shouldn't be so set in my ways just yet and I'm, by no means, a HAED expert. I'll finish this and, if I still hate it, I will be more careful in choosing patterns from now on. It's what has kept me away from other pattern sites in the past though. At least I have enough non-dithered stash to last four or five lifetimes and I really never need to buy another one anyway (unless they decide to put out Jasmine Becket-Griffith's Disney series, and then, dithered or not, they will be mine!).
Needless to say, I'd never thought I'd hear myself say I'm looking forward to working on A Summer Ball again, but if by some miracle my head lets up by tonight, it's off to the ball I go, at least until the weekend.
I've heard from a lot of you about the dithering issue on the HAED patterns and I've learned some things I didn't know. I didn't realize that different people charted for HAED, so of course it makes sense that there will be different charting methods performed by different artists, I only just started noticing it in the past couple of months and it seemed to be on almost every new pattern. I looked hard at Maleficent and I didn't see it on the sample pic, so I dived in (and considering the subject matter, it probably wouldn't have mattered anyway, I am a Disney freak after all). Of course I will be sticking with Maleficent to the bitter end and I still have hope that once I start in with other colors, it won't be so bad.
Miamina over at Miamina's Musings (great blog BTW! Love her stitching!) mentioned that she has an old chart that is done the same way, so I went back through all my old HAED stash this morning looking for the same pattern and luckily, none of my forty plus HAED stash is cursed with it. Some are very heavily confettied, but no dithering. She also says she prefers it to the block look and likes doing it. I'm really hoping that, in the end, I'll be happy with the results as well, but I definitely don't enjoy doing it, at least not right now. But I do value her opinion, so I gotta hang in there, right? And I did make it almost six pages across the row in the color in 15+ hrs, so I don't think it is necessarily taking more time to do it this way, there is just more brain power involved.
One of my favorite things about cross stitching is it's almost like factory work in a way, labor intensive with very little brain matter needed...I can just shut everything down and work. The TV runs in the background, I drink my tea, and all becomes right with the world. It's my meditation, my time out, my "me" time, washing away the scourge of the day and basking in nothingness. It's one of the few moments in my life when my brain actually stops running at full speed. Dithered patterns take away quite a bit of my "shut down" mode. I even found myself having to pause TV several times to make sure I was counting correctly. Normally, I don't even really notice the TV is on, it's just background noise.
Heck, when it all comes down to it, I just don't like change...what Aspie does? I'm still a newbie HAED stitcher, with only three completed pieces under my belt, one of which was a quick stitch, so I shouldn't be so set in my ways just yet and I'm, by no means, a HAED expert. I'll finish this and, if I still hate it, I will be more careful in choosing patterns from now on. It's what has kept me away from other pattern sites in the past though. At least I have enough non-dithered stash to last four or five lifetimes and I really never need to buy another one anyway (unless they decide to put out Jasmine Becket-Griffith's Disney series, and then, dithered or not, they will be mine!).
Needless to say, I'd never thought I'd hear myself say I'm looking forward to working on A Summer Ball again, but if by some miracle my head lets up by tonight, it's off to the ball I go, at least until the weekend.
Comments
Linda
Thank you for the mention too :)
Sorry that you're having headaches again. Try not to stress too much (easy to say, not easy to do) if it helps, stitch on something that isn't as stressful for you.