And in case FutureBaby was waiting for the nursery decoration to be complete, today we picked up the framed little dragon cross-stitches and put them on the walls.
Pictures behind the cut; not great ones because they were taken without flash (reflection off the glass) and then color-corrected, but they give the idea.
"Hello":
"Butterflies":
"Little Friends":
(I'm currently trying to finish this ten-year-old kit, slogging through 5-strand satin stitch for the big diamonds on sheer stubborn—not only do I hate multi-strand satin stitch, but I don't particularly like the design any more, either. But I'm trying to be virtuous and complete this before I start experimenting with evenweave.)
Completely not for everyone, I understand, but I was surprised to find how well I liked it when I picked it up again.
Evenweave isn't too difficult a transition to make -- you quickly learn to start seeing two fabric threads as one. The only hard part is skipping over a large unworked area, and you can weave a threaded needle in and out of the fabric to help you visually track two-thread groups. It looks much nicer, though, and it lets you get into really fun stuff like hardanger cutwork!
Pretty, though.
I am a little curious about knitting, especially if it'd let me watch TV rather than just listen, but one craft at a time.
Right now, I've got a lace shawl (not mindless!), a baby blanket and a relatively simple lace sock (memorized now and therefore TV-able), and a sweater that I specifically picked out to be stupid enough for frequent complicated-pregnancy hospitalizations, plus a needlepoint Desiderata Sampler I started in 1998. I am not very good at monocraftualism :) (http://www.123stitch.com/cgi-bin/itemdetail.pl?item=97-1470)
I have that kit, which I converted to evenweave, actually, though then I wandered off because a close friend's imminent baby needed a blanket. Someday, someday....
Literally the last time I worked on that kit was New Year's 1999, and I'd even gotten as far as starting the bottom wide band of blue cross-stitch. So it seemed a shame to leave it that close to finished. If the damn satin stitch doesn't break me, that is . . .
Edited at 2008-08-03 10:04 pm (UTC)
(See, FutureBaby, there are all kinds of squee-able things, if you'd just *come out*!)
Oh, I know that one, especially lately. Thank you for the thoughtful comments here!
All the best, Kathie, ASG