Back to a bit of stitching

I've had a bit of trouble focusing on stitching lately. I think it's because I have these new upcoming projects in my brain and I can't get them out. I went back to Faces of Faery 167 by Jasmine Becket-Griffith and, although the 32ct has been going good, I think it might be the color scheme. Her face is a bit...how can I put it nicely...ex-presidential? I'm not a fan. As with any HAED, you don't know what you're going to get until it's finished, but geez, is she orange-tinted! I left off here on her last time:

And, just a reminder, this is what she is supposed to look like, no orange to her on the original pic:

Since we aren't a fan of the orange-tinted bafoon in MY household, she's gotten a bit hard to stare at. And she just has these big eyelashes, which look more like black eyes right now, giving off a demon-vibe, so I decided to stop on her before I finished the row (and I was getting so close). This pic is a bit off, she is more orange than is showing up here. And, it's a little blown out of proportion, the whole project is only 11x11, so from a normal distance, she is super tiny.

Once I can move down to the second row, I'm sure she will clear up a bit, but for now, I'm just not in the mood for reminders of things I don't want to think about (I get enough politics in the daily news). But there is one project that has been calling to me, although I'm not sure why. Tilton Craft's Captain Hook by Daniel Kordek. Since it's been so long, he's supposed to look like this:

I have the entire set (there are four, Hook, Jefferson, Graham, and August, although, considering the names of the others, I'm not sure why this one isn't named Killian or, if you're going to call this one Captain Hook, call the others Mad Hatter, Huntsman, and Pinocchio). But alas, there are three more, so ultimately, I have to go through this process three more times. I LOVE these designs (although don't get me started on why there isn't a David/Prince Charming, I'd trade them all for one Charming!), but maybe they would have been better as prints rather than cross stitches. I'm still at the point though that I could start over though because of its issues (more on that in a sec), so I think that's why I'm so wishy-washy on it. If I have to do it three more times, I better pick the right process. I last stitched on this in May of 2020.

I did have to re-attach this one to the scroll rods because the tape on the E-Z Stitch velcro had melted on this one too like Maleficent. I just used the tape I used on projects in the 80's. It worked better than anything I've ever tried, so if it ain't broke, don't fix it (well, I fixed it, but you know what I mean). Besides, I cut the ends of the fabric off when I'm finished anyway (and it's folded behind when it's mounted, so it doesn't matter what holds it to the scroll rods, as long as it's held.

I'm not sure what was drawing me back to this one, other than to look at Killian's face (eventually). Why I thought I could stitch all that white background is beyond me. I probably should have stitched it on white fabric and skipped the background altogether. Last night, I almost gave up again as I sat there in my 4-6 hour stitch window and only stitched a little more than an hour. I piddled with supper, I played with the puppies. I measured fabric for the new projects. I looked at the scroll rods I had for the new projects to see how many I needed to make (basically, one for each really, so seven...I have plenty of dowels in my current stash, but not any extra side bars for some reason). I scoured Etsy for needle minders and pre-made scroll rods. I played games on my iPad. I checked Amazon for scroll rods too. I debated buying the side bars for the dowel rods I had that would fit the littler projects (in the end, I bought nothing from nowhere, proud of me for that). I've been watching Castle, a show I've never watched before, but I'm still not diggin' (and I'm in the middle of season 3, so it's safe to say I'm not gonna get into it, at least I can say I've seen it?). Last night, I actually paid attention (still ain't diggin' it). I did my Duolingo lesson. Basically, I probably would have stared at the wall to have kept from stitching this background. As you can see...suckage progress. I think about 350 stitches, maybe.

And I do love my swan needle minder. If you know, you know (and, ironically, it will work for the other three projects as well, although I probably won't use it for the others...well, maybe Graham?). I think I bought it from Kim's Needle Minders...yep, just checked. I've only bought needle minders from a couple of stores, so it's not too hard to forget (or I just check my Etsy history). I'll try to remember to link my needle minders when I think about it. The rose on Faces came from Gina's Unique Boutique, and I've bought a lot from her since. I'm not a big fan of the new way they kind of just print stuff on plastic or wood now, but oh well. Now that I can make my own, I'm not too worried about it. I did just buy a few more last week, but it's only because I feel like every needle minder needs to "match" each project. I'm annoying that way.

Hook is on a cheap scroll frame, another big issue, probably from Hobby Lobby. The side bars are WAY too long and I can barely get my hands up to the top where I need to stitch. It needs much shorter side bars. And, as per usual with the cheap ones, I can't really tighten the nuts good enough, so the fabric keeps going slack. But I've got nothing else to put it on without buying something else (and I can't do that right now and I could never afford those Millennium frames or even their cheaper counterparts, those are way out of my league). I guess I could get new screws for the nuts with actual heads like phillips or flat than can be tightened with a screwdriver, instead of those flat bolts that just spin when the nut gets to a certain point. That wouldn't be too expensive. Ugh. I just want to stitch, I don't want to do woodworking! But if I want scroll frames that hold, I guess I have to make my own, hence...woodworking. I've actually got half a mind to put this in a Q-Snap and I HATE those things! Or, maybe I could try to turn it upside down and stitch it that way, but I'm not sure my brain could reconcile stitching upside down or backwards. I could always try. At least where I'm stitching (right now, the upper right-hand corner), would be closer to me in the lower left. Yeah, that's the plan to try for tonight, wonder how long that will last?

If I could restart it and decided to continue to stitch the background, I might try to do it on a gray fabric instead of oatmeal. A lot of these colors are beige-y tan-y grays and they are hard to stitch on the oatmeal. And I might go to Lugana instead of Monaco, simply for all the reasons I praised Monaco for in my last post, the holes are too tight. With all this white thread, Lugana would be easier. And I'm also not sure 25ct wouldn't be a better choice with Anchor black. But then again, I might just be making excuses. It's a pretty picture, but will it be worth the hassle of the stitch? The further I go, the more I'm wasting my time if I'm going to end up "Suteki miserable" (my new catch phrase), although I'm not there yet, but I need to decide soon. In all fairness, the top part is going to be the most white-heavy, so if I can get past that, it should get easier.

And, I do actually have another Hook-themed project I could do instead of the Tilton, that would be far easier, and by easier, I mean, harder in that it's a black-stitched background instead of white (and there is no way I'm stitching on black fabric), it's much larger and far more detailed, but you get me, right? It's GeckoRouge's Amour et Vengeance by Dailen Ogden. I think it's a retired kit, but I managed to snag it back in the day. Yeah, that's what I need, another absolutely HUGE cross stitch WIP! I only bought the GR kit because I knew they were going to discontinue it and I couldn't decide whether or not I wanted it or not. I figured it was better to have it, even if I never stitched it, than regret not ever getting it. I love GeckoRouge's kit's, but they are way out of my price range sometimes. I would love to do one of their maps, but I can't spend $1000-$2000 on one single kit! I could kit up 10-20 projects for that! But anyway, here's Amour:

.

I do prefer the design of the Tilton to the Gecko, but ultimately, it comes down to the "Suteki miserable" of it all. I'm gonna stitch on Hook this week and see how I feel then. I may stitch all the white, or work on the other colors to break it up (there are still quite a few other colors in there I haven't done yet, all shades of gray). I probably should have cut down the top and sides a ten-block or two. It could have helped. Hindsight. I have never been good at altering patterns though. I've always been a pattern follower to the letter or else I feel like I'm cheating. My moral code is very weird...I'm an Adam Ant song...anyone old enough to get that reference? Yeah definitely something inside. And, in a weird sort of way, Once's Hook reminds me of Adam Ant....although, again, I'd much prefer...Prince Charming, Prince Charming...yeah, I'll stop now.

Have I been watching too much FlossTube?

I'm so sorry about my last post guys...I guess I wasn't very clear, I said my ADHD was bad that day! Maybe I got too "FlossTubey" with my terminology? Let me try again and hit the highlights with a clearer brain. I was trying to say that I'm worried that if I stitch the supersize max color Bookshelf on my usual 28ct fabric, it's at a risk of being too thick. 28ct is already pretty tight (which is why I like it, full coverage with no fabric see through), but when it comes to confetti-heavy projects and a lot of color changes, the back just becomes a jumble of thread mush (aka "carpet"). There were times I couldn't even get the needle through Suteki without the use of a pair of little pliers. Yes, I was knotting my thread back then, but I don't think even stopping that practice on Bookshelf will help much since the Bookshelf has three to four times the number of colors in it and there are no solid patches of color blocks, just a virtual pixelated mess (that will look like a million bucks when finished and my most challenging project to date). I just don't want to have to restart it after a few pages, so I was questioning whether I should just buy new supplies now for 25ct, before I officially start.

As far as pitching out Monaco vs Lugana, those are just fabric types. Monaco, like Aida, is made with 100% cotton (as is Hardanger). Aida and Hardanger are just more stiff and Monaco feels like Linen or other evenweaves. I'm from Arkansas, we should be called the cotton state considering how much of it is grown here (but it is called the Natural State, so there you go). The Monaco has smaller holes because there is more fabric (cotton is thick unless blended with a lighter fabric), which is very noticeable at the 28ct level. You don't notice it at the hole size of Aida because the fabric can be woven tighter (hence it's stiffness instead, more fabric in a less confined space). Lugana is a blend, a little over 50% cotton and the rest is viscose, a material made from wood pulp (something like that tends to stick in your brain, or at least mine). I find that Lugana tends to tear between the stitches if you're not careful, probably because the holes are bigger and the fabric weave is thinner. Fabrics like Jazlyn and Jobelan (the only other two I've personally tried) are mixes of 50+% cotton and the rest is rayon. I don't like the feel of rayon myself, it feels slimy to me. There are obviously many other types of fabric, with many different blends, but all around the 30-50+% cotton range plus something else.

Back in the day, I didn't even consider stitching A Walk In The Highlands on Aida. It would have been too big and I didn't have the wall space for it. Plus, after that Teresa Wentzler, I liked the idea of a fabric with a count that I could stitch 1x1, so I started experimenting to the largest count that I could still see (with the aid of reading glasses, of course). HAED always recommends 25ct (as does a lot of other companies), but I didn't like 25ct coverage because too much of the fabric showed through (and my recent test proved that to still be the case, but I've since learned there are ways around even that, like with black you can use Anchor instead of DMC thread because it's thicker). After my initial experiments, Monaco just worked best for me and I haven't really try much else (other than a brief stint with Linen, but I don't feel the need to go there ever again!). Monaco will always be my fabric of choice, although most of the fabric I bought for the new projects was Lugana, mainly due to the pre-gridded stuff. I can't imagine life without gridding now, so knowing I don't actually have to ink in the grid is pretty nice (unless it confuses me more, time will tell). I know higher counts aren't for everyone and the worse my vision gets, the more I might have to rethink it myself, but right now, fabric types are more a concern. My Snow White project? The fabric I've always hated so much? Lugana. I think I was more resigned to it this last time because I've gotten more used to it after a couple of other projects.

Everyone who does these bookshelves typically does tent stitch (which I just can't bring myself to do) and also uses a 25ct or an even lower count (there are actually people doing them on Aida, which blows my brain). And I've seen a few who stitch on 28ct, but do it 2x2, so they are basically stitching it 14ct, but hey, everyone has their own process, it's just not MY process. On 28ct 1x1, it will be almost 36" wide...that's 3ft wide. It would change with other size counts. I can do a bit of a breakdown for fun (assuming all these are over 1, but obviously thread counts would change per size, 14ct might need 3x1, I haven't worked with 14ct for YEARS):

14ct.....71 3/8 x 51" that's longer than my living room!

18ct.....55 1/2" x 39 5/8"

25ct.....40" x 28 1x2"

28ct.....35 5/8" x 25 1/2"

32ct.....31 1/4 x 22 3/8" as of now I can still do, but if I'm worried about tightness on 28ct, 32 would be worse

40ct.....25 x 17 7/8" that sounds WAY more manageable, but my eyesight is too bad for that

A lot of it is about the just looking more like a painting if the stitch count is higher, but for me, I also have major space issues in my house (which some of you are aware of), and I really don't have the room for a 3ft wide project, let alone something 71" wide, so given the lesser of the two evils, I'm going with the 36" over 71". If I change the fabric from 28ct to 25ct, that will only change the stitch size up to 40" (still really too big for my house, but oh well). Because of the added border size on the 40" though, it would go end to end on a 48" dowel rod, so I would need to order the next size up (which is 72") and cut them down with a saw, hence the worry about all the woodworking in the house. If I stick with the 28ct fabric, the 48" dowel rods will work fine.

But speaking of eyesight...I just got a bill from the eye doctor for my contacts last year (I thought I had already paid it, but apparently I hadn't) and it was $540 with the possibility of more if insurance doesn't cover the visit. Why they are just now billing me for an August visit is beyond me (I swear I paid for the visit though and I tried to call them, but they are apparently closed on Fridays and I'm just not hitting them right today, too early this morning and I've hit their lunch hour so far today). Point of that story...my previous, ununderstandable question of changing out fabric? Moot. Not that I could before, but now I definitely can't afford to spend another $120 on cross stitch supplies to switch to the 25ct now, even if it's best, given the new eye doctor bill. Fate has a way of sticking it to me, usually in a very brutal manner. This is her way of saying I made the right fabric choice, by slapping me with another medical bill, when she just could have made me write an easily understandable blog post!

I'm stumped and second guessing myself

I don't regret UFO'ing Suteki, I hated that project. But I can't stop thinking about it, athough not for the reasons you might think. It was confetti heavy and it was like stitching through carpet because of the color changes. Granted, it was during a time when I knotted the ends of my thread (I can be lazy that way sometimes and I still do it upon occasion, although I try to waste knot it at the front now). I was stitching her 1x1 on 28 ct Monaco (my fabric of choice). And I am a cross country stitcher by nature, which also doesn't help with heavily confetti'ed projects. I debated parking, but I'm just not built for those hanging threads.

The reason for the sudden obsession? The Aimee Stewart supersize max color Bookshelf that will be one of my new starts. It's going to be Suteki on steroids (and I have no plans to use any kind of knot, I can loop method one strand, I just don't like to, it takes too long). Back in the day when I did my first HAED and decided that 28ct was for me, I did try 25ct, but I didn't like the coverage for 1x1 (I have never been a fan of 2x1 and I'm still not...there's a story behind that too, of course). So, I've lived happily ever after in 28ct land 1x1 with the occasional foray back to 18ct 2x1, but I always complain about it while I'm doing it, even if I picked it for a reason (usually because 28ct is too small for the project or the design is too simple for the smaller fabric count). I watch FlossTubers who do 25ct 1x1 and their coverage looks fine, but I'm not seeing it close up. They are usually showing wide views (or they are stitching 2x1 tent, and I've already decided I'm not doing tent).

I need to interrupt this mini-panic moment for storytime. This week, I did everything I could to avoid Everest, although the why is a mystery. Maybe it was almost two weeks without stitching and I needed to retrain myself to the discipline of it all? I'm not sure. But I decided it might be better to change projects again because I literally put in 6 hours in a week (two actual days of stitching) and that's just horrible! It was here last week (which might seem sooner because last week's post was a bit late):

I was just so sick of all the blue! Blue in the sky, blue in the mountain, blue, blue, blue! Believe it or not, there are three colors of blue in that top part of the sky...you can't even tell! Even when I could get a brown or a purple in, it was for a brief amount of time, then back to the blue. No page finish, no real progress.

As my ADHD kept getting worse...back to my original thought. I started noticing the coverage on Everest (which is 28ct Monaco 1x1). It's a good coverage, exactly how I like it...here's a close up (and ignore my crappy stitching):

It's not too thick, there is no "carpeting", it's just the right amount of coverage, knotted back and all. Where you can see fabric poking through, once it's washed, those will disappear. But, I do actually have some 25ct chillin' in my fabric stash, it came with my Dollmaker kit from GeckoRouge (I just switched out her fabric for 28ct). So I got the bright idea to stitch up a block of different colors to see how bad it actually is (keep in mind, I did this test once back in 2010, but I figured maybe my tastes have changed or maybe my memory was skewing my view of the situation). I was using thread from Everest's stash which, ironically, is almost entirely made up of the knock-off thread I cleared out of my stash a few weeks ago. If it's faded, I can't really tell because it's all the same, but by golly does it shread really fast! I have to cut the strands very short or it will just tear apart after about 2/3 through. But anyway, here's my mock-up block on 25ct 1x1 (with a tiny little BamBam hair right there staring back, I thought about retaking the pic when I saw it, but it made me smile, so I left it in):

It's pretty much the same as I remember, pretty good with the lighter colors, but crap with the darker ones, especially the black. I should also add here that the 28ct of Everest is Monaco and the 25ct test is Lugana. In my experience, the holes in Lugana are bigger. Monaco is harder to get nowadays (and it's pretty much exclusively 28ct anyway) and the Easy Guide fabric I bought for the Bookshelf only comes in Lugana (even though it comes in various sizes, I bought it in 28ct for Bookshelf), so the holes will be bigger (which may negate this issue altogether and I'm, as per usual, getting bent out of shape for nothing). If I re-buy it in 25ct, I could go with Anchor black to solve the coverage issue, but it does create a couple more issues. First and foremost, it means I'm spending more money on a large fabric that isn't cheap (and more floss...21 skeins of Anchor black). I also couldn't get dowel rods longer than 48" locally for the new scroll rods I'm gonna make, which is fine for 28ct, but the fabric would need to be exactly 48" wide for 25ct, which makes them too short if I want a bit of hang-over of the rods, so I'd also have to order new dowel rods (and the next size up is 72"). Drilling in the house is one thing, but sawing too? I don't have an outdoor space to work in (let alone it's been 20 or below for two weeks now, with no change in that for the forseeable future) and I don't have an adequate vacuum to clean up sawdust. I am certainly not buying a new vacuum too!

I still have time before my February 29th start date to change all this out to 25ct, but the window is shrinking. I don't want to start on the 28ct and regret it because it turns to carpet, but I also don't want to rebuy it all for the 25ct and regret that as well if the coverage sucks. There is one FlossTuber I watch who starts big projects over and over again for various reasons (usually due to fabric and coverage) and I couldn't imagine doing that. I did it once with my Highlander Girl because it was my first full coverage and I didn't understand stitch lines if you stitched certain ways and it was pretty traumatic knowing I had to give up all that work (and it wasn't even a full page yet, let alone pages and pages of work like that FlossTuber does). I'm just not built that way nor do I have enough life left for that. She's young.

As for now, I'm trying to control my spending and trust my instinct to go with the 28ct. I have almost all of the bookshelf patterns (not quite all, but most of them), so if I do more than one, they will all need to be on the same fabric. Whichever one I pick first, needs to be the right one. I can't change later. Like the DoNa's, 18ct opalescent, each and every one. Someday, I will have a real house to hang the in, and they need to match. I am nothing if not a matchy-matchy kind of person.

But back to storytime (yes, the ADHD is strong), I did have to switch projects to keep myself stitching, so I did that on Sunday. I switched to Faces of Faery 167, a HAED by Jasmine Becket-Griffith. She's actually on 32ct 1x1 (a little experiment I'm still on the fence about). She's small, she'll only be 11x11 when she's finished. I have several other of the Faces series, so I'm not sure if I'll continue them on 32ct to keep the size consistent, or go back to 28. I'm not as strict on size for these as I am for some other projects. The bookshelves and the DoNa's are all the same size, the Faces vary. That helps with the decision. Plus, to be honest, in five years, I might not be able to stitch on 32ct as my eyesight gets worse than it already is. It's actually not that much smaller than 28ct, but it is smaller. And again, it's the "old" charting way for HAED, so there is no dithering, which means it's not "carpeting" up at all and that also helps with seeing it easily (some of the newer ones are dithered, which will make it harder to see as well, no chunks of continuous color). I left off on her here back in June of 2020:

I had trouble focusing Sunday, but I got a chunk done (although it's not my usual chunk and it just looks like more because she's so small). And, for the entire day, I only stitched 6 hours. That seems to be my new magical number. It's even hard to see what I got done on her because of the light colors and it was basically just fill in. Maybe I need to start on her face this week so next week you can see the progress as well:

As a bonus, the reason why I hate 2x1? I started stitching young, but they were young kids tiny kits. Teddy bears mainly. Back in those days, kits were all we had. I am older than the internet, remember? My first "real" kit was a Teresa Wentzler...yeah. I was 12! I had NO idea what I was in for. I don't know if any of you have done one of her projects, but tons of blended threads, half stitches, back stitches, french knots. I was WAY out of my depth. I was a one WIP pony at that point, and that kit took me through high school graduation, college, numerous jobs, marriage and separation before I finished it (although I would sometimes put it down for years and I apparently signed off on it with my married initials, so I wasn't quite divorced yet). This is a horrible picture of it and I think I've rematted it since, so I probably need to rephotograph it, but here it is:

There is a stain up by the dragon's neck that I never could get off. I have no clue what it was. I spilled tea on it at some point and half the fabric is "tea dyed" (or so I claim it when someone asks). It's supposed to be white Aida (I think 18ct, yet another reason to hate it). Ironically enough, I do have another Wentzler kit in my stash. I started it many many years ago (I was in my 20s), but I made a mistake and put it down. Haven't touched it since. It's 28ct, but it's 2x2 with some 1x1. I've never been good with 2x2 on a higher fabric, let alone mixing the two. I already intimidated myself enough by my initial experience, so between the mistake and the future issues this project could throw up, I've gotten too scared to touch it again. This one makes the other one look like child's play (what I would consider a Chatelaine on steroids with a dose of heroin). I started in the middle on it (which is what I used to do back in the day), but it all needs to be frogged before I even think about restarting this (which I can't imagine doing again unless I go crazy or something or someone offers me a million dollars to do it, and even then I might ask for 10 million). If this were a full coverage HAED, I'd be all over it in no time! This is it:

I had actually given away a bunch of kits to a co-worker at one point and panicked. I did the unthinkable and asked for some of them back, this being one of them. I'm still not sure why. I've never been good with letting go of things, but those of you who have been around for a long time, know the reasons behind that. It was a horrible thing to do, I'm aware of that, but I just couldn't help myself. I really shouldn't act on rash decisions! If I were smart, I'd sell the Disney Kinkade kits rotting away in my stash. I'm NEVER gonna stitch them, the detail is horrible and they have all those specialty stitches I hate, I was only buying them as "collectibles", and I never got Rapunzel (the last one before the company went belly-up). They go for several hundred on eBay now. I could get several thousand for the whole set. But, as with everything else, I can't part with them. That's for dealing with after I'm dead I guess.

So, I guess that's it for this week. This wasn't supposed to be a long post, but none of them ever are! I'm just a very verbose person in writing. I really should write a book someday! I'm more of a storyteller than a speaker or a "quippy" person. If you guys have any first-hand experience with those bookshelves or 28ct vs 25ct, let me know (but I know most of you guys don't work on those types of projects). I do so prefer the one-on-one relationships we have here versus what happens on YouTube. I still hate commenting over there. And I'm on Instagram, but I'm bad about posting a pic and forgetting it. I rarely respond to comments because I have notifications turned off (I have notifications on almost all apps turned off, I hate my phone pinging every two seconds), and I don't catch them until the next time I post a pic, which might be in a couple of weeks. I'm just not good with social media.

Unavoidable Distractions

I've been busy with stitch stuff the past week or so, just not stitching per se. I did switch off Alice and the B's because it was turning into "work". It must have been all that Petit Treasure Braid. For some reason, Everest by Addict To Cross Stitch from Etsy was calling to me (I'm not even sure if they are still a shop, I've had this pattern forever). I had barely started this back in 2020 and haven't stitched on it since 2021. Since it's been so long, and I'm not very far, here is what the design is supposed to look like:

Granted, despite the animated nature of the picture, it is a real bridge in Animal Kingdom in Disney World, although, with all the changes, I'm not sure if it's even still there now. It was one of my favorite places to get away from all the traffic of the park because not a lot of people would usually go back in that corner. Whether it's still there or not though, I still love the design, so I decided not to give up on it. I left off here back in Feb of 2021:

And I had only stitched one night before I ended up with a super-migraine that lasted almost a week:

Instead, for the days I could, I started winding bobbins for my new starts that will be coming (I've decided to start them on Feb 29th, since this is a Leap Year, it will be interesting to see how far I will be by next Leap Year, maybe I'll have more than one of them finished in four years, who knows!). It's taken me well over a week, but all the projects are bound up:

The bottom one there is a two-sided bobbin box, that's where my super-sized/max-color one lives now. That container was originally bought to help expand my thread collection (I keep my spare threads in those boxes and the three I had were running over, so I bought the fourth, but by the time I cleaned them out, I'm at two and a half now, so this one was a spare again). The one above that was the original box I got for that project, but I very quickly realized it wouldn't fit. When I got to Blue Marble, I realized it wouldn't fit in a regular bobbin box, so it all worked out. Also, there were so many of the little paper thingees from the skeins, it half-filled a small trash can:

I also learned a valuable lesson, when ordering thread for projects, only order thread for one project at a time. The two I ordered on their own was perfect...no extra thread, no missing thread. The order I made for five projects was missing thread and, for some weird reason, I ordered 42 skeins of 208...I only needed two! Granted, 123 Stitch's ordering system is a bit weird and you have to be careful how you click on the numbers, if you hover too long the number goes up exponentially (and, if you don't click off, it will drop down to zero), so that must have been what I did, I forgot to click off and just ran 208 up to 42. I just chalked it up to the question of life (if you know, you know), and wound those too:

I'm sure they will come in handy someday, although it's not MY color of purple (I prefer a more blue-purple). I still have to go to Michaels and get the missing thread I didn't order properly, but it's only like maybe 8 skeins or so. And here is a better picture of my DMC "trash" for comparison (shame those aren't recyclable, but boy, I need to run that trash can through the dishwasher, sheesh!):

As another side project, I had gotten myself a magnetic board for my needle minders to get them off the fridge (since the fridge was already covered in Disney magnets) and the new board was looking pretty sparse with my 8-10 needle minders, so I went around the house, pulling out my spare (or duplicate) Disney pins, old buttons, duplicate magnets, duplicate keychains, even seashells I thought might work, and made myself enough needle minders to fill the board! I did have to order some new magnets for all the bits I found, but with a headache that wouldn't go away and all the bobbin winding, I was busy enough until they arrived. Anything Harry Potter, Outlander, Supernatural, Marvel or the pave Disney stuff are basically the bought ones I think, maybe a couple of other ones...I probably should have taken the bought ones off the board and just taken a picture of the ones I made. Oh, and for the record, the one on Everest is one I made a long time ago from an old Disney pin.

I do still have to make my scroll rods, but that's for another week or something. I might have to watch another YouTube video on making those before I attempt it. I still have some time before Leap Day and I'm ready to get back to stitching before I lose my bug again.

I had a day where I left work after just 30 minutes when the migraine just got to be too much. In hindsight though, I'm not sure how much of it was headache, and how much of it was a panic attack...there was a lot of extraneous noise in the office, I was in a lot of pain, and I just really wanted to be home and not there, so I was already hyper-sensitive. I've worked through worse headaches. When I went to the office manager and told her I was going home, I was met with a bit of resistence, and I just kind of freaked even more and I just left (they weren't going to stop me, but I could tell they didn't want me to go). But once I got home, even the headache eased, so I'm thinking it was more panic attack and I probably could have suffered through the pain if not for the attack, but I have sick days, so why? If pressured (which I won't be), I'll call it a mental health day instead of a sick day, although we don't get those here, it is Arkansas after all.

We (surprisingly) got a fair bit of snow this week, not ice, but actual snow! It has been below 20 degrees here for over a week (and that will continue for another week, as well as below 10 at night with a wind chill in the negatives). At least I got to work from home for a whole day. We did get more than this, but it was just got too cold to open the door later, so this is the best I got.

I do live in a trailer, so we have to be extra careful about pipes freezing, although, in the South, we all have to worry about this because our houses aren't really built for cold weather. For me, every water cabinet door has to be open, every tap has to be running...it's super wasteful in my opinion, but at least I don't have to pay the water bill, that's on the park (although I do pay my gas and electric). On Sunday, the water went off completely. The park "claimed" the main water froze (which, in 28 years of living there, that has NEVER happened, even with colder weather and harsher weather conditions). Even though that put my own pipes in greater danger, there was nothing I could do. I typically don't buy bottled water because I don't like the taste of water from plastic bottles (so, of course I had no spare water other than what was in the Brita in the fridge). I only drink tea (made from tap water), so I had some of that in the fridge, but I don't drink sodas or anything else, so no other fluids. We were pretty SOL on the liquid situation. I drove up to the lab and filled what large containers I had (and a few water containers from my office), so at least I had water for the pups and to boil and bathe with (and believe you-me, they weren't that big, but it was a desperate situation at that point).

Then, a strange pattern started emerging, about Monday night, the park water would come on, but only between 7a-10a and 7p-10p. After initially calling the trailer park the second the water went off and seriously questioning her explanation initially (she sounded like she wasn't telling the truth), it didn't take me long to figure out that they had probably (allegedly) turned off the water on purpose. They have more rentals out there now than owners, so they were probably (allegedly) protecting their own properties from freezing up. I'm hoping it was just a coincidence that the water was freezing and unfreezing at "scheduled" times, but even I'm not that stupid. The water is officially back on full time now, although the pressure is leaving something to be desired. It's probably the same as what it's like to take a shower in an RV. But I'm not complaining, a shower is a shower and, when you haven't had one in several days, you are grateful for whatever you can get!

And, to add to the "fun", we are expecting our typical ice tomorrow. The amounts keep varying, so I'm not quite sure yet if it's enough to keep me working from home yet. I'm far less stressed when I do that and, probably, far more, regimented. I sit at my desk at home, I don't listen to any podcasts or music, which I have to have, at minimum, at least earbuds in at work (even with nothing playing) to tune out the noise of the office because even people's voices can be upsetting sometimes, and I just work. Certainly no TV or other distractions (maybe a puppy snuggle or two, but that's it). I even tried to listen to a podcast Monday and I had to shut it off almost immediately because it was too distracting at home. I almost work like there is a hidden camera on me at home, whereas at work, I'm horrible about distractions and probably am way more lackadaisical than I should be, without fear of consequences (although I should have, I'm almost daring them sometimes to do something...maybe it's my ODD). I managed to get caught up on everything I got behind on last week at work with my headache, on Monday, it was great! But now that I'm back in the office, I'm stressed again and the headache is coming back.

But tonight, I say I'm going back to stitching, although, as I have been winding bobbins, I have been glancing back over to Everest, and I'm thinking I might want to change to something else. It might be because I'm in the boring sky and it's just not fun. I keep trying to remind myself that I have to get through the boring sky to get to the "good stuff", but it's a LONG way to the duck. I'm not sure if there are mice ears in this top row or not. It's a long project, but I'm not sure how tall it is (it is horizontal, so definitely not as tall as wide). The mock picture doesn't make it look very big, but even on 28ct, it's almost as wide as Alice and the B's. Maybe halfway between Alice and Maleficient. And the dithered nature of the pattern is also a bit of a bore, especially in the sky (although it looks great in the wall). Time will tell though. It's the first I've stitched from this company and, like I said, I'm not sure if they are still in business, or even if I have more of their patterns (I think I do), but so far, so good!

And that's this week's update...for a week of no stitching, I had a ton of stitching-related updates I think! I wound probably several hundred bobbins, sorted seven new projects, and made quite a few new needle minders, all with a migraine that ranged from severe to mild, so I think I did pretty well!

Still moving along

Not much new to report, still stitching along, although I did take a couple of days off stitching when I returned to work after vacation. As per usual, fate decided she was going to kick me in the teeth, and I literally have been knocked off my feet every single day since. Eventually though, I accepted it, and just started stitching again, shutting my brain down to it all, even though I'm not stitching as much as I was, some days, barely getting in a thousand stitches a day.

I left off on Alice and the B's here last week:

And, although I did get Cinderella's side finished up and started moving on to Alice's face, once I hit that Kreinik, I got stuck and spent almost all this weekend on nothing but. I do use Petit Treasure Braid instead, but all in all, it's the same stuff and it's a pain sometimes. I'm glad HAED doesn't really chart with it anymore, or at least not on the patterns I've bought in the last year or so. On some charts it looks good, but on this one, the coloring is so off anyway (I mean, look at their skin color, it's nothing like the original print, they look zombie green and you can't tell the difference between Cindy's shirt and her chest because it's all the same colors, it's NOT supposed to be according to the original artwork). The shiny thread is just an eyesore, but first, where I got to:

And, as hard as it is to photograph, especially with a phone, here is the Petit Treasure Braid, as best as I can show it:

There was more of it than just Alice's face, there was also some on Cindy, but not much more and not enough to single out. It was basically just that patch that took me all weekend, although along with the other stitching I did across the piece, it was still around 2000 stitches total for the weekend (which is about a third of my normal weekend stitching). I didn't count for the whole week, but it was way down, I'm sure of it.

On the coloring issue, I've talked about this in the past (probably ad nauseum), but I'm REALLY hoping it all works out in the end. HAED's are like that sometimes. Considering the size of this piece (it's the largest HAED I've done to date, although the bookshelf will outmatch it in spades once I start it, it's just hard to tell how big it is from these pictures), I won't say it will be a total waste of time and effort if they look like zombies (which, they aren't meant to), but I will be disappointed, especially after all these years of working on them.

I did have to stop watching FlossTube, because I ended up with more patterns, not all of which I'm going to show you (there are too many), but I got some more Vivsters patterns and seriously thought about starting this one as well, Quaker Tiles, Scotland (I may have shown this to you already, I got it in the first batch of Visters), but I would want to do it with silk thread, and the thread alone was yet another $100, and I'm just NOT going to do it!

And, when I was looking for something else entirely, I ran across this one by Modern Cross Stitch for A Discovery of Witches, another one of my favorite shows, which I had also read the book series (I actually read them first, a rare occurrence for me, normally a show gets me to reading nowadays). I do want to start this one as well, but I think I can wait for now...for now. So many easter eggs in this! Love it!

So, I just went back to watching A Discovery of Witches instead of YouTube this weekend (and easy weekend show because it's British, so short seasons, and only there is only three of them because three books, well, four books, but the fourth book is something else). I do think it slowed me down because I wanted to watch the show more than stitch, so there is that and that's something I need to consider going forward...because I do spend the majority of my time on YouTube anyway, but when I started stitching again, I found it easier to drop in Supernatural because I have seen that show so many times, it was easier to just have background noise that something I needed to pay attention to. Shows like Once or S.H.I.E.L.D., I'm gonna wanna pay attention to, even though I've seen them hundreds of times a piece. I guess I need an "OK to watch" pile and a "nope, distraction" pile. I can only deal with the family business of saving people and hunting things, taking the hobbits to Isengard, and telling Harry he's a wizard, so many times before I start to get burnt out. I can deal with people reacting to any of my shows or movies on YouTube pretty easily, but not that many people watch Once or S.H.I.E.L.D. and no one watches ADoW (must be a copyright thing), and the ones that do watch the other shows, only put out content once a week or so. I watch people react to GoT all the time as well, I've probably watched reactors dozens of times versus two times I've seen the show all the way through. I think I prefer it that way. Just anything to keep me away from FlossTube or I'm never gonna get out of debt! I do have other channels I watch, and I have to keep up with those, but it's mainly weekly content, so I really only have to drop in once a week for a day to stay caught up.

And I have also been watching the new Percy Jackson on Disney+, another book I've actually read (the first one at least, but after the first movie came out). But that's a weekly thing and only 30 minutes per episode, so not much of a distraction. The verdicts not fully out though yet because I'm not seeing the reason for the remake. I LOVE both movies, but I haven't read the second book, so its flack I don't get (other than the bad CGI, which I can ignore). I don't get remakes, unless there is an important reason for it, and so far, I'm not seeing those reasons (and that includes live action versions of animated movies). I get making books into movies or shows, some people just don't read anymore and it gets more media out there. I'm a reader, although I don't do much of it anymore (but I still buy way too many books for my liking). There are some rare cases where I like movies better than the books (A Walk To Remember comes to mind, love the movie, hate the book), typically I prefer the book to the movie, but usually, I can separate them and like them in different ways. In the case of PJ, it's like 8-30 minute episodes, basically a 4 hour movie, so again, why remake it? If they were hour episodes, I'd get it then. I know there was a lot of flack over the diversity casting, but what's new in today's world? Most of the new actors are better than the original cast (except Logan Lerman, he's still Percy to me). I have seen shows or movies fail simply because people went nuts over the casting. If the actors are bad, no matter their race, it isn't going to work anyway (don't get me started on the TV adaptation of Vampire Academy again). Sometimes story needs to be tweaked if you change the ethnicity of an actor, sometimes it doesn't. PJ does well without changes, VA made too many changes and was unrecognizable to the books (and the bad acting was a huge factor as well). Eventually though, if Percy fairs well, we will get to see all the books on the screen, so maybe it's a good thing, jury's still out. I'm still snagged on the sameness of it all as it's very similar to the movie version.

The upcoming Harry Potter series? Only time will tell and that's a fanbase that is rabid and extremely militant. Jo Rowlings is a whole other ball of wax I don't want to touch with a 10ft pole. No one can replace Alan Rickman, so whoever is cast as Snape is doomed, no matter who they are, inside or out. A couple more hours of information, if the episodes aren't long enough, is not going to change much story, except in Goblet, Prince, and the battle of Hogwarts at the end of Hallows 2, which the movies changes more of than they should have from the books. But I love both versions of all, they are just two separate things in my mind. As of now, I just don't see the purpose in remaking it. It's brilliant as is. I'm not really militant about much though (which, I probably am and just don't realize it, definitely Duran Duran, and Disney too, Disney is just in the naughty chair right now).

I'm not sure how I got off on that tangent, but enough gibber jabber! I'm all culturally referenced out...snap*...did all the bad people disappear yet? I don't think the world will be happy until we're living in the Mr. Hankey, The Christmas Poo episode of South Park (there, one more reference before I go).

The dangers of FlossTube

I still haven't started officially kitting up my new starts yet, but I've instead been happily stitching along on Alice and the B's (update to follow when I'm a bit further along). I've been spending a lot of time watching FlossTube, and last night, I was down the current rabbit hole of end of year WIP parades. Someone (and I honestly don't know who it was because I fell asleep watching YouTube, so there are so many videos that played after I fell asleep, I'm not sure which video it was on), but it was a she and she was stitching a HAED that was a Hufflepuff design I was either unaware of, or had forgotten existed. Now, I'm not a Hufflepuff (diehard Ravenclaw, which, I'm sure for those in the know, that's not surprising), I was IMMEDIATELY sucked in and I went looking for the Ravenclaw to see what it looked like. I figured it was gone...most patterns that are a bit too close to certain themes get pulled pretty quickly, but with a bit of digging, I found it and, of course, I fell in immediate true love!

I was careful at first, partly because I've just spent a fortune on supplies for my other new starts, but I was also struggling between the SS/MC version, the regular version, and the mini, so that was slowing me down too. I have officially gone nuts with the SS/MC versions lately, so I decided on the regular version (I didn't think the mini had enough detail) and I put it in my Wishlist (I can count on less than one hand how many times I've ever bought HAEDs at full price, I always wait for sales), so for at least a couple of hours, I was content. And, as per usual, I have thought about nothing since. The hold-off on a purchase lasted maybe half a day?

I found a video of someone doing the mini, and the detail looked pretty good, and considering the coloring, I'm not sure I would want to do a full size, so I just bit the bullet and bought the mini, sale or no sale. Then, I immediately decided it needed to be another new start because I want to start it NOW, so I had to get it kitted up, so off to 1-2-3 Stitch I went for supplies and got those ordered. So hey, looks like there are going to be seven on the docket instead of six! Oh, guess you want to see it, huh? It's called Mini Wisdom by Cherie Gerhardt.

I'm still going to do the Harry Potter Book Covers, so that will be two Potter-themed projects, but it will be fine, right? I'm a bit too much like Veruca Salt for my liking, just a shame my rich father ain't the one helping me get what I want when I want it (how many got that reference...I'm a Wonka purist, I was born in the 70's after all). I'm humming the song already, "I want the works, I want the whole works, presents and prizes and sweets and surprises, of all shapes and sizes...don't care how, I want it now". Yeah, I figure I'll be falling down that bad golden goose tube anytime now!

An Actual Stitch Year In Review (I'm so proud)!

I can't believe I've started stitching again! It's very surreal. Stitching used to be therapy for me, my mind dealing with various issues, but now I can't let my mind go there because my headspace doesn't work that way anymore. Now I try to just keep my head clear and work on the project at hand. But sometimes I catch myself wondering why I'm stitching in the first place. Once I'm dead, what will it have been for? I stopped stitching for other people because they didn't seem to care. And now, my life is pretty void of humans in general and I'm very happy with that decision. But I can't help but dwell on all my stitching and my collections getting scooped into a dumpster by whoever trashes spinster old lady's stuff when I turn into worm food. I've considered selling some of my more valuable Disney items, but the thought just makes me sick. Some of my biggest regrets in life are things I've gotten rid of for one reason or another or lost (or got taken away). It's just the Asper in me, I need my stuff. I keep telling myself it won't matter when I'm dead, but it does matter to me now, oh well, can't cry over milk that's not only not spilt, but not even from a birthed cow, so moving on.

For the first time in quite a few years, I have made some New Years resolutions...the typical "stick to the diet" one (that's going pretty well, although it's more eating healthy than a diet, per se), but I'm also going to try to keep a positive attitude about as much of everything as I can (despite the above paragraph, which might have sounded negative, but I prefer to think of it as "realistic"). I'm going to try my darnedest to make 2024 better than the past several years and despite whatever bad things might happen, I'm going to smile my way through them, one issue at a time. I'm also going to make a pledge to pay down as much of my debt as I can (but the HVAC...that one is just too big for one year). I'm pretty sure I can do it (or at least come pretty close, excluding some other financial nightmare that might arise). It's time to start preparing for my future.

So, with talk of paying down debt, wanna see what $700 worth of stitch thread and fabric look like? It came in a very small and very light box, but here it is, and there is another batch coming, but it will be much smaller.

It's also ORT jar report card time. Up until October, it was completely empty, so I'm happy to report this year's "bagging":

Especially compared to the past two years:

Of course nothing beats where I started keeping them up to 2017 (the GLORY that was 2017 in general, the year that shall not be named, so to speak), but I'm still keeping them all for some reason (cough, hoarder, cough):

All my full progress on all that I worked on will be at the end of this post including Maleficent. She's still hanging up in my spare bathroom on the shower curtain where I hung her to dry over a week ago after her bath. I took last week as a home-cation week, so I decided to spend the entire time on Happy Haunts. This was a test for more than one reason. I wanted to see if I could finish the row (I failed), but I also wanted to see how I felt about 2x1 (for tent stitch practice for the Aimee Stewart bookshelf), which Happy Haunts is (although the context is different, it's 2x1 full on 18ct Aida). I very quickly remembered how much I absolutely HATE working 2x1, so I'm pretty sure I'd rather do 1x1 full crosses on the bookshelf than 2x1 tent stitch. It also solves the issue with tent itself. I just can't break my head from thinking that tent is like cross stitch cheating! I don't know why, it's absolutely ridiculous! I tried to convince myself it's just another type of stitch, but my brain rejected it absolutely, so problem solved, hate 2x1, hate the idea of cheating stitching, so full 1x1 on 28ct. Anyway, I left off on Happy Haunts in April of 2020 here:

And there were days I had to take breaks, but the days I did work, I worked over 8 hours per day, so I should have finished the row...I didn't. I hated every second of this. The Haunted Mansion wallpaper to the left was a nightmare and I even fudged a lot of the colors simply because I wanted at least one page finish. I could not get those colors filled in to save my life! By Sunday, I got it done, but barely and I literally had to force myself to stitch some days just to get it all in. It's going to be adorbs when it's finished, but heaven knows when that will be.

So come Monday, instead of continuing on, I was ready to move on, New Year and all, so back to Alice and the B's I went! Alice and the B's is in the scroll frame built for my old lap stand that doesn't need the clamp:

And I was excited to go back to the old stand again just to compare it to the new one, but I very quickly realized that, at least in the recliner (where I stitched for dozens of years), Alice and the B's was just too long (or I'm not as wide as I once was, take your pick) and it was very uncomfortable stitching in that far left side, because it hung too far to the left and I was reaching at odd angles, speaking of, guess I should show where I was back in December of 2020 when I left off on them:

And I started with a new approach, filling in the missing areas of the first couple of pages first, instead of whatever weird method I was trying to do back in 2020 (and that's the shadow of the clamp of my new frame to the left):

I got quite a bit of Cinderella's left arm and chest done. A couple more days should do it. I don't know if I'm going to finish the entire row before moving on to the next project, but I might get a good chunk. I sure enjoy 1x1 on 28ct...that's my jam, I guess.

Speaking of "moving on", the new starts...when will I be starting them? Right now, I'm not sure. I have the stuff, I'm just in no hurry to start kitting them up, I have the stuff to make the scroll rods, but again, I'm in no hurry to do that either. It might be March or so. I think my brain thinks I need to get my tax money in and pay off the debt before I can feel "comfortable" with actually stitching them, but we'll see. I might get a wild hair one weekend and kit one or two of them up. Right now, those bags of thread and fabric are just sitting on my living room table and the bobbin boxes are also just sitting around, waiting. I think there's a bit of guilt in there right now.

I worked on The Bride Dollmaking from a clean row to just a bit (dipping my toes back in the water so to speak), but she got me thinking about a new stand and getting my rear off the couch for the first time since 2017:

I went back to Snow White, who's fabric I thought I hated, but turns out, she's not so back after all. I still may have to do something with that weird patch in her cheek (it's driving me nuts), but we'll see later). I went from a partial row finish, to a full row finish, but got more determined to get a new stand:

And after one night with Night Wish, a project I hadn't touched since 2020, I knew I couldn't work with my current stand anymore, although I'm gonna visit her again pretty soon. She deserves some love!

And during transition between moving back to the recliner and getting a new stand, I worked on Maleficent. I left off on her in September 2022, and I finished the page row I had been working on and then the final page row (which was one ten block row from a full page row), for a full finish! Quite proud of her! Still need to get her framed though.

And that's 2023 in review, I'm pretty proud of myself for the amount of work I got done considering I only stitched from October thru December! I got quite a bit done stitch-wise all things considered and, if I can keep it up, 2024 is looking good for a couple of finishes hopefully!