It has begun!

Last week I tried to continue on with Night Wish and I started strong on Monday with progress, but then I didn't stitch for the rest of the week. Let's get the progress out of the way, and then I'll explain. I left off here last time:

Even though it doesn't look like much, it was all the Petit Treasure Braid on this one side, as well as the rest of the final touches around her face. It was definitely a lot of work for one night, even if it doesn't look it:

I don't really even have a good excuse. Although I finished watching Castle and it was OK (I can at least say I've seen it), I was not oblivious to the number of Firefly references throughout that show, it became like my Hidden Mickey game in Once Upon A Time. But it also meant that it put in me in a Firefly mood, and Firefly, well, let's just say that Firefly is one of my obsession shows that takes over for quite some time and it's a hard pit to dig myself out of once I'm in it. Like any other of these obsession fits of mine, I will just have to let it run its course, but it may be a long one, so I've just accepted it and am dealing the best I can. Hey, it could be worse, it could be Twilight, right? I might not want to give myself any ideas, so I'm going to change the subject now.

By Friday, I was able to scroll rod up the fabric for the new projects (at least some of them, still waiting on some supplies to come in), and by Saturday morning, I started my first project! I went for the US version of the Harry Potter Bookcovers (in case you don't remember, it looks like this:

So I started with a blank slate (and more on the fabric and the gridding on the gridded fabric in a minute):

I had a little trouble focusing on Saturday, because I had to catch up on some of my YouTube stuff, I'm more than a bit behind on all the channels I watch (and I was still going back and forth between that and Firefly, god help me when I start watching reactors reacting to Firefly), so I only stitched about 6 hours (not great for a weekend):

but I got in a good solid 8 hours of stitching on Sunday, so I almost finished the first page (but that's not saying much and I'll explain more on that, again, in a minute):

First up, the magic guide fabric. You will notice that I did add grid lines myself. Until I get used to the magic guide, I thought it was for the best. Up close, the magic guide covers a row of stitches and, as long as you plan it out, you can work out in your brain where to start and where your block is, but until my brain figures that out on it's own, I needed a bit of help.

It's way easier than griding yourself beccause there was no counting involved and now I feel a bit spoiled (I spent several hours Friday night griding up the first row of both Evil Queen and Merida because they were on non-grided fabric, so I had to count it out and count it twice, the joys of OCD). If the fabric itself works out nice, I can see myself using this for all future projects! I decided to go with top and far left for my grids on this, and it's working out well. I initially only gridded the first page of HP, but I went ahead and moved into the second because it's pretty easy and I'm not ready to do it myself yet.

The other snag is the pattern itself. I don't know about most people, but I tend to stitch like I read, left to right, top to bottom. There are some notable exceptions, but as a general rule, that works best for me. This pattern, the top row of pages is technically the last row of pages. Here is the page chart map:

So even though it looks like I'm breezing through the first row, it's not even a full row because it's the partial bottom row. It's SUPER weird. And, of all my new WIPs, it's not the only one to be arranged in a non-standardized (left to right, top to bottom) pattern arrangement. There are more than a couple, each with a different arrangement. I don't get the logic in it, and I'm not a fan, but oh well, it is what it is.

I wanted to start all these new WIPs in the month of February for Leap Year, but I don't think that's going to be possible since it's already almost the end of the month, unless I start switching them daily. I'm really enjoying Harry Potter, and I want to keep working on it for now. To be honest, I thought this one was going to be WAY more difficult than it is. When I first saw this, it was somewhere on a Reddit post (I don't have a Reddit account, but it was just something I came across while looking for HP patterns) and I remember the poster saying it was the hardest pattern she had ever done and had taken her years, even though she was an experienced stitcher. I'm pretty sure I got the same version as her, the super-sized version, and I used her post to find the pattern in the first place from Fox and Teacup Designs. I know I'm using a smaller fabric ct (I'm using 28ct and I think she was using like 12 or 14ct), but that's the only difference I know of, and that usually doesn't make something more difficult if it's what you're used to (12 or 14 would make it more difficult for me, but for someone else, 28ct might be harder). If I focused steadily on this, I think I could finish it in a couple of months (but obviously I'm not going to do that) and the chart is VERY easy to follow. I'm a bit confused now on what the difficulty was. I'm starting to wonder if I got the wrong pattern or something. Oh well, again, I'm not going to complain about it. It was an older Reddit post and since I don't have an account, I could only follow the string so far down before it blocked me anyway.

The other issue, one you can't see, is that in the actual pattern I printed off, J.K. Rowling's name is at the bottom of the books and looks like this (not the image you see above):

I got two patterns when I bought it and I didn't understand that one of them had her name at the bottom and one didn't (although the "unnamed" version should have been my first clue...I just figured it out when typing up this post, I can be pretty thick sometimes). I just printed one at random (which happened to be the one with her name). I've been trying to figure out how to stitch her name out this entire time and whether or not I should. Now, considering it's just one row of pages, it's an easy fix because I just need to print off that row instead of a whole new pattern. Easy fix or not, it's still a question of "should I?" because, despite the obvious reasons of her personal views (which I do NOT agree with), she is still the author of the books and these are her bookcovers, US versions or not and I like true representations of things. Like a lot of HP fans, I've chosen to give up on her and not the franchise, but I think this is kind of a special case. I'm not sure I feel comfortable with her name at the bottom of my project to be honest, true representation or not. So I'm at a weird cross roads. At least I have a choice now, so I think I might print the extra row and make the decision when I get there. Maybe things could change by then.

Next week will see if I've moved on to another or if I'm still in Harry Potter world (although technically, I do have two new HP projects in my new WIPs, so we'll see), so have a good week everyone and aim to misbehave!

Best laid plans...

I barely stitched this week. Partly, because I wasn't in the mood, and partly because I was working on building my new scroll rods, a process I did NOT enjoy. I didn't plan the process out very well. I got the right amount of dowels (which was more of a case of not knowing which circumference to get, so I got a lot to try), but I didn't get enough of the side 1x2 boards (I only bought two), which ended up making five sets (not nearly enough for the number of dowel sets I had, but I also kept changing their length, hence the abnormal number), and the hanger bolts recommended in the video seemed really big to me, especially compared to the bolts in the scroll rods I usually buy that are built similarly (those are way smaller in diameter), but I don't know enough about measurements to figure out how to get a smaller size. She mentioned in the video that sometimes they split. I can see why (and I almost split one). I also didn't even come close to getting enough hanger bolts because I didn't account that I'd need two packs (there were two per pack) for each scroll rod frame (two for each dowel, two dowels per scroll rod frame). That meant that I also didn't have enough twisty knobs for the sides...it was an overall mess.

By Saturday, I had already built another Lowe's cart that was reaching up to the $100 mark for more supplies to finish the other rods. But then, I decided I needed to do a test first before I spent anymore money, so I took the scroll frame I made for Bookshelf, since it was the biggest, (only one of three that I had actually finished), put the fabric on it, and got the shock of my life...it wouldn't stay stable! The knobs wouldn't tighten, they just kept spinning (which washers might fix, but that meant yet another purchase that may, or may not, work), the fabric was super loose, and it was a wobbly mess! To say my frustration level was on high, is an understatement. I still don't know how the lady in the video made hers work, but here's mine. I took a picture of it on Sunday night after I calmed down a bit (and it's only part of it, the whole thing is 4' tall and I didn't feel like framing a photo properly by this point):

Sleepy Hollow Mural is also long, but its frame is store bought has a stablizer bar at the top which keeps it from being wobbly (which it is without that stablizer bar, a fact I had actually forgotten). I do typically prefer the bought scroll rods that are built with bolts in the ends with knobs to tighten them to the side bars. I don't like the split rail things, although I do have some of those too. The bolted kind are a bit more expensive, but not like those Millennium frames or Omanik or any of those other fancy things that cost more than my entire stand (which is the most expensive cross stitch thing I have ever bought). Here it is, the extra bar screwed at the top (and a split rail behind it):

So I added more things to the Lowe's cart to built a stablizer bar for the longer projects, more hanger bolts, washers, more knobs and nuts, more 1x2's for more side bars, and then I realized that I basically almost had the same amount it would cost me for "real" scroll rods for all but the big two projects and I could just use my much dreaded Q-snaps for the two biggies. It's not ideal, but why spend more money to build more stuff (which I hated the entire process of) and there was still a chance it didn't work and I would end up buying the scroll rods anyway. It was the lesser of two evils and I had really had enough by that point. Like I've said, a woodworker I am NOT. So, off to Amazon I went, and bought everything I needed. Yes, I did spend more, but it was well worth it for the lack of trouble.

It's not better than those super-expensive frames that are strong enough to be 48" long and hold everything taunt, but it will do. Now, here comes another rant...when it comes to cross stitch accoutrements, needle minders are a big yes (I kind of think of them like Disney pins, collectible, but usually not that expensive, so it's something I can justify, especially since I can make them myself), but all the other stuff...expensive stands, francy frames, scissor fobs, and especially fancy project bags, nothing but decorator swag and all I can do without. If someone can sew and make their own project bags, then cool, but I can't sew. I'm a bobbin person, so I keep each project in their own bobbin box. I use paper patterns (along with apps), so bobbin boxes and paper also aren't that conducive to project bags. I also don't stitch on the go, or have a craft room to store everything in. I keep all my WIPs on a bookshelf behind my chair (a piece of which you can see above). The scroll-rodded projects in a clothes hamper on top, the bobbin boxes with the row of sheets I'm working on stack neatly on the next shelf, the shelf below that is the three-ringed bingers that hold each printed project in their entirety lined up (or, for the smaller ones, the zip plastic envelopes), and the bottom shelf is old lapstands (probably, soon to be the new WIPs). It's all tight and confined, but definitely no room for another container for project bags.

And just to add to that, same with those new chip system thread keepers, both the hanger kinds and the bobbin kinds...a whole set of those is about $250...I mean, seriously? I can buy 500 bobbins and five thread box for under $20 (and Michael's thread boxes come with 100 bobbins in each box, so that's 1000 bobbins). Then, you have to buy these foam inserts for those chip things to go into either an Ikea or another storage system (both of which ain't cheap either)...I live in a trailer. I ain't that rich and I don't have the room. I think, even if I won the lottery, I wouldn't own those things. It's a waste of space having the bobbins spread out like that like rings in a ring box. But to each his own, I guess and if you have the money, I guess you can spend it on whatever you want.

I also think my issue with project bags is tied to my OCD...I like bobbin boxes because I have the entire project's thread in one area, all together, neat and clean. The thought of throwing a few bobbins in a bag separate from the set drives me insane. I wouldn't be able to do it. Plus, I just don't work that way. I won't know which direction I'm working in until I get there, and if I don't have the next color, I would go into panic mode. It's why I carry a 400lb purse around. I carry it all because you never know when you need it all. Irrational? Maybe. But it's how I'm built.

Now, having said all that, I did buy those cheap Amazon project bags so I have something to keep the larger Q-snap projects in. Hopefully, I don't end up with the issues I had with Sleepy Hollow because I left it in the Q-snaps all the time. I'm only going to be using them for Blue Marble and Bookshelf and neither one of their bobbin boxes is going to fit in the project bag since they are supersize bobbin boxes, but it is what it is. It's really just to keep the fabric safe. I also expect that the process of putting the projects in and out of the snaps is going to make me dread working on them. We'll see. I only have one grime guard (it's the purple thing hanging off my hamper above and yet another one of those luxury stitching items I don't see having dozens of), and I don't intend on buying another one, so it will have to be shared between the two.

Enough ranting, let me show you what little stitching I've done...oh yeah, but first, here is the coverage of 28ct Lugana that I meant to show you earlier...it's good coverage, but you can still see material underneath. Thanks again to Leonore and Sleepy Hollow for making me feel better about not switching Bookshelf to 25ct. Plus, after putting the 28ct Lugana magic count on the scroll rods to test it, it's awfully thin, so now I'm worried about it because this Lugana is way thicker. But here's Sleepy Hollow's coverage:

Here is where I left off last time:

And I may regret it, but I stopped taking pictures all the way across, just to where I am, so that way the picture isn't so long and maybe you could see it a bit better, but it's still only two days of stitching since last time, so not much progress:

In the middle of Sunday, I also decided I was ready to move on from Sleepy Hollow, since I couldn't start one of the new ones (which was the plan and why I started building the new frames...I'm getting heated just writing this), so I went back to Night Wish since I barely got to work on her last time because of lapstand issues. I left off on her here back in November:

And again, since this was barely a third of a day stitching, not much progress, plus, as irony would have it, I ended up back in the Petit Treasure Braid! I mean, seriously?

For some reason, everything I ordered from Amazon is not going to be here until next week some time, so I'll be lucky to get every new project started by the end of the month. I can probably start on Bookshelf and Blue Marble, since I have the Q-Snap now, but as it stands, the very thought of Q-Snaps makes me cringe. I would rather wait and start the others first. HUGE props to everyone who uses Q-Snaps and loves them!

I can say though, one good thing did come out of this whole disaster...the side bars I made for my scroll frames can be used with the dowels from my bought ones. For some reason, I have a TON of the dowels, but not enough sides. Now, that issue is fixed. And wingnuts (which I also bought some of because I didn't know which I would want, the knobs or nuts), will work just fine with the store bought dowels. I'm not sure about the knobs yet, but I kept them just in case. I haven't thrown anything else out yet (because I'm a pack-rat), but I probably should. I doubt I will have use for those dowel rods anymore, especially the ones with hanger bolts hanging out the ends.

Not much luck on the stitching front

Turning Hook upside down actually worked pretty well...eventually. I learned (almost the hard way) that the direction in which you stitch is the same upside down. I made it across an entire row before I started to panic and question whether I needed to frog it all. My bottom stitches go ///// and my tops go \\\\\ (and I'm not too picky about which I go in first, top holes or bottom holes), but turns out, even upside down, they end up in the same direction! But what I did discover about three rows in was that I was one column short, and it was causing complications since I was working left to right (like I always do), but it's technically right to left upside down, so I was going from the far right edge to the area I had already worked, and I was meeting an area I was already up to and coming up short. It took me the three rows to figure it out. If I would have continued right side up, I'm not sure I would have figured it out if that final column stayed white all the way down. It was all pretty tedious work and I had trouble stitching last week because of a headache anyway, so I only went from here:

to here (with the extra column added) and I marked the page breaks to make it easier for me to figure out where to stop:

I can continue the white upside down, but I can't stitch the entire thing that way, it's too hard for me to figure out symbols, which was what I was afraid of. My brain doesn't work that way. And I had decided I'd better switch projects again because I was losing interest, so the only real project left in my WIPs (at least now) is HAED's Sleepy Hollow Mural by Lewis T. Johnson. I believe it's a retired pattern (which I guess means I have two retired HAED's in my WIPs). In case you don't remember it:

It was the first project I ever tried on Q-Snaps since it was so long, but I had a horrible time with them, so I put them on the longest scroll rods I had (the fabric is still folded at both ends because the rods aren't long enough...if I have enough dowels left, I may make a new set for this one too). I left off here back in May of 2020:

And again, it was a headache week, so I only managed two measly stitch days on it, although I did spend one night alone just reattaching it to the scroll rods because it was another one that had come loose (plus, I tried to straighten it up a bit, it is stretched crooked because of the Q-Snaps, so it's taped to the rods in a really weird way). It' also Lugana, so that may have been why the fabric couldn't hold up well against the Q-Snaps. I also replaced my Mad For Minders Sleepy Stitch needle minder for one I made myself from a magnet I got from Plymouth, Mass:

Two things about this one have been an eye-opener. I know it's Lugana and even though it's 28ct, I can see the fabric through the thread, so it squashes the idea of 25ct for good. I thought I had already killed the idea thanks to you guys (especially Leonore, thanks girl!), but it must have still had a breath or two left because I was finally able to nail the coffin lid closed. 25ct Lugana is NOT for me, it's official. If I can see the fabric on this, then 25ct would be even worse!

Secondly, it's not nearly as long as my new Bookshelf will be, but it is really horizontal, and I can already see that long horizontal projects are going to be a problem in this new K's Creation Stand. It won't hold it well. I already have a concrete block holding down the base, but I had to add one of the buckets of water that I got when our water was off on top of the block because it was still tipping over (all three water buckets were still sitting in my foyer). Even tightened, the entire arm still gives way under the weight of it when I turn it away, so it probably means I won't be able to keep the project in the stand when I'm not stitching on it. That's a pity. I'm a bit scared the weld is going to give if I keep it on it long-term. Once I get some bills paid down, I may just have to spring for a Lowery stand or maybe even an Omanik (just the thought makes me cringe!). Stitching is definitely a rich person's game!

Speaking of which, I had every intention of building my new scroll frames this weekend. I didn't. I watched TV and worked on my family tree. I definitely am a cyclic person when it comes to hobbies I think, but the frustration with the stand was keeping me away from it this weekend. Oh, and in case you're wondering how I'm going to build these scroll frames, this is the video I'm getting my inspiration from:

I think I'm worried about the supplies. I bought what she recommended, but I think the hanger bolts are too big for the dowels, which means, if I replace them with a smaller size (and I'm not savy enough to know which way to go in bolt size to go smaller), then I also have to replace the knobs, so more purchases and more waiting for orders to come in. And, I'm not sure why I'm so scared of dealing with the drill. Granted, I don't have a fancy battery drill, it's an old plug-in kind, but it's not like I haven't built a ton of furniture in my day. I'm not a delicate flower, but it has been YEARS since I've even touched that drill...part of me is scared I'll put it out and it won't work and I'll have to buy one of those too! I'm more of a screwdriver kind of girl, but this project definitely calls for a drill. I think I've worked it up in my head to be more than it is, but I'm still watching long scroll frames on Amazon and part of me wonders if I wouldn't rather spend the money to buy one rather than deal with the stress of building one...money versus stress or the stress that spending the money will cause? It's a never-ending cycle.

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!