Life Update and a Little Knitting

So it’s now been a few weeks since I have done an update and I got to say in that time I have done no stitching at all.

The first few days it was mainly because I just wasn’t interested in stitching or doing any other crafts, but this week and some of last the reason I haven’t done any is that my neck muscles and some of my back have just been too sore or stiff to make it worth stitching. If I have even a little pain of stiff neck and I stitch then it will just get a lot worse.

So mainly now I have been stretching out my neck with exercise that I was given by my physio, which I should be doing them more than just doing them once a day but work kind of gets in the way of that.

So I did though go to my local yarn/needlework store a few days ago with my mother in law as she does crochet.

Anyway, I just picked up a few things.Sorry if the picture isn’t that great.

With the skain of yarn, I did start a new knitting project (I know I haven’t knitted in a very long time) anyway with the cold weather coming and me only living two blocks from work I really just wanted a neck wrap that just goes over the head and my coat over it.

I don’t have much, but here is what I have so far:

So that’s it for me right now. What is everyone else up to? Have any of you start Christmas ornaments or Christmas themed stitching?

Happy stitching and knitting everyone

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My Home of a Needleworker

Hi everyone,

I am back to do a stitching update and also show you the piece that I have been working on for the past four and a half months.

This piece is Home of a Needleworker. You all know what it looks like, but in case you don’t, I put a picture below of the chart.

Now I made a lot of changes to mine, as this piece has been done so many times I really wanted mine to look different. For starters, I did not use any of the called for DMC threads, in fact, I did not use any DMC threads. I wanted some variegation in the piece so I actually changed over into using Silk ’n Colours by The Thread Gatherer.

I love these silks. Nice to stitch with (sometimes knots up) and the colours are so nice. Now I couldn’t find any conversions going from DMC to Silk ’n Colours so what I did was I looked at a colour chart online of the Silk ’n Colours and basically looked at the type of colour they were using for each symbol and picked what I thought would look best. Now, this isn’t always the best for everyone and it can turn out wrong, so if you don’t feel confident enough to do it this way then don’t. It also can take a very long time. I didn’t mind doing it and it felt like I was designing my own piece of artwork.

I started this piece on: June 24th, 2018 I am stitching it on: 32 ct. Evenweave Threads using:

00E Ecru

063 In the reds

177 Simply Strawberry

161 Bear Brown

175 Straw into Gold

260 Slug Bug

089 Dark Forest

090 Green Leaves

00B Black

174 Chestnut

339 Industrial Stone

So far I have worked 50 hours on the pieces and this is what I have so far: So what is everyone else up to, is anyone starting anything new on Halloween?

And happy Halloween everyone.

Stitching Tip: Monochrome Shading

I don’t know about you but thinking of doing a whole cross stitch piece in one colour truthful sounds like the most boring thing ever. And of course, if you don’t like something you’ll start it but won’t want to finish it.

But what if I really love the pattern and I want to keep it monochromatic?

Well to that I say then you should look at the colour it is and with using a colour chart like the one below pick out all the different shades. You can have the main colour be a dark colour and it goes into little shades or the main could be a light colour and go into darker shades. The choice is up to you.

I do not have the DMC colour chart (which is what is pictured below) however I have also never thought of this idea and I have never done a monochromatic chart without changing it to some kind of variegated thread (my Death by Cross Stitch pattern is a good example of this). But after I have found this idea in Book of Embroidery I thought it was just a wonderful idea so that you can still change up the colours but just with different shades.Now if anyone has used this kind of method before please let me know in the comments and let me know if it made a difference in keeping your interest in stitching the piece.

Stitching Tip: Changing Colours

I was reading my Book of Embroidery from RSN and I came across something that I have learned before but never applied it to cross stitching before.

So if anyone has ever taken an art class before you will have heard of the colour wheel before.

Now looking at this colour wheel you know that if you want colours that complement each other you choose the colour that is directly across from the colour you want to use. They call these colours complementary colours.

Now I have changed colours in charts before but I thought using a colour wheel would be a great idea if you had a monochrome design and wanted to change it into something with different colours. Well, I think using the picture above could help if you just had no idea really how you wanted the piece to look.

I hope this was a good tip to anyone that is afraid of changing colours, you can start with this and even though it might look like they don’t go together, as long as it is right across they will, sometimes you just actually need to see the colours together instead of just on a wheel.

A New Guide to Cross Stitching

New book from The Royal School of Needlework:

The school finally decided to update and relaunch there learning series and make it into a whole book instead of before where each topic was its own little book.

They have topics on:

• Crewelwork
• Blackwork
• Whitework
• Silk Shading
• Stumpwork
• Bead Embroidery
• Canvaswork

• Goldwork

You can get this book online at Amazon or get it at Indigo Online, which is what I did as both were the same price, but I get points with Indigo.

I only just started reading some of it and since it is broken up into chapters I have started reading about canvaswork as I love canvas work and have done a piece before.

This book has great pictures:that will then go into detail on the steps for explaining how to do certain tasks.

I might at some point as I start reading this post tips that I get from the book.

Four Months…Stitchy Time

Hey, everyone.

Yes, I am still alive,

And yes I am still writing this blog; even though I guess I’m not on here enough and don’t even post enough. When I first started this blog I didn’t care if people read it or not (actually still don’t care if no one ever reads this) I just wanted a place to write and talk about stitching. The only problem seems to be that now I don’t really update enough. I really want to try and make this a place that I am always updating and showing my work as I am stitching. I even thought of a great idea of posting my progress on my stitching though I can’t really do that until I start a new piece (which I don’t really want to do as I am working on almost past my comfort zone)

And basically, I want to post a picture of my work each time I work on it. So, for example, I will show a blank canvas as the first picture and then show another picture with how much time I stitched on it. And then from there, I will just keep showing how much time stitching it took to get to the new amount stitched. If any one is reading this I would love to here your thoughts on this idea. Thanks.

I did actually finish this to give to my mom for her birthday. I do have it all framed I but I forgot to take a picture of it framed before I gave it to her. It looks amazing framed, I went to Michaels to get it professionally framed. My sister happened to be with us that day and she went behind the counter and right away started pulling off frame samples and seeing if they would match. The forming lady didn’t mind at all and said my sister had a good eye for picking things out, though of course I didn’t ask for the price of the frame and it turned out to be almost 200 dollars. It was a shock but I wanted it to be really nice and after all, it was for mom. Besides that frame looked perfect on it.

This i also finished, though only last week or so. It is a free chart on Plum Street Samplers if anyone wants to know. This is part of a Tracy P. Birthday SAL that she has been doing for the last three years I believe. This is my second time doing it. You don’t have to give it to her, you can just stitch it like any SAL and keep it, but I actually like stitching it and then sending it to her in the mail. She liked the last one I did. I will have to show you how it looks when I get it all FFO’d.

I do have a new start (okay not new as I started it around three months ago) but new in the fact I haven’t shown it yet. I think though since I would like to write all the colour changes that I did I will make it a separate post.

So besides stitching, I guess the only really new thing that has happened is that my fiancee and I moved (about two months ago)

It actually is only a block away from our old place, the reason we moved though is that the place is bigger and actually way nicer. I am so glad we moved and it really feels like a real true home. I am already looking at all the walls and seeing what I could stitch to fill them up so they are not so plain.

It feels good to write on here again. I have really missed it. Even though I might not be actually talking to anyone I feel as though I am getting all my thoughts out about my craft and it feels so good. Even though I have a wonderful fiancee that finds it so funny listening to me rant about my craft to him, I really don’t have anyone else to just fully express myself to. I mean just even to talk about my new finishes feels good. I worked so hard on them and in a way writing about them here makes me see how much progress I have made in terms of stitching.

Quote of the Day: Sept.27/28

”The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love, and loyalty.”

-Zig Ziglar