Cross-stitching finished and framed

[kate_nepveu]

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.)

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I am primarily a knitter, though I've done various types of embroidery off and on since I was six. Knitting is even better than needlepoint for mindless occupation of hands, unless you're doing lace or something with complex shaping. I nearly always have a sock in my purse for doctors' offices, standing in line, or whatever.

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!

[kate_nepveu]

Thanks for the comments about evenweave. But hardanger, no, I'm not doing anything white-on-white, I undid more stitches doing the cloud in the first of these cross-stitches than in anything else!

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.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, that's one of the brilliant things about knitting. Some patterns require counting and attention, but others are perfect for plopping down in front of DVD-series-of-your-choice, especially once you've got the repetition memorized.

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)