Weekend Progress Report #46

This weekend was one in which I should never have even attempted to stitch ... everything I have done will have to be frogged.

First I decided to start work on the December Bride's Tree SAL ornament, skipping right over the November angel, since I had gotten the Workbasket chart for the Quaker Santa and some lovely Belle Soie Cranberry silk, two skeins worth. Perfect, right? Well, no, not exactly. To start off, I must have been mildly dyslexic this weekend because I misread the dimensions of the Quaker Snowman, 96h X 77w [also included in this leaflet] as the dimensions of the Santa, 126hx95w. The 96x77 would have been the largest ornament in this series but I had wisely ordered some 32ct linen in the same raw color ... so that would bring the Santa into scale with all the other ornaments stitched on 28ct ... or so I thought. Then because I am a creature of habit, I loaded my needle with two strands of silk. Well, I wasn't more than ten stitches into the project when I realized one strand was needed. Do you know what you get when you frog silk from linen too tightly woven for two strands? What you get is fuzz ... lots and lots of fuzz ... and treacherously thin stretches of floss just waiting to shred ... that's what you get. Okay, so into the ort jar with two 18" lengths of luscious silk! The heart breaks a bit but one soldiers on. Mind you, I still hadn't noticed the dimension error! That only happened when I was still only 2/3rds of the way through stitching the first row of Santa's robe ... it looked off to me, so I decided to do an actual count ... imagine counting cross stitches, what a concept! ... out came the quilting pins as I counted off groups of ten stitches and realized I was already well past the 77wide I had thought was involved. Now, totally exasperated by the "misprint" in the chart, I snatched the offending leaflet up only to discover I can't read what is plainly printed on the card. Okay, having calmed down, I decided "I can fix this." I frogged back to 70 stitches over two, which will now become the bottom border [though that means wasting about 2" of linen below and to the left of my stitching]. I can stitch a 60 wide excerpt from the chart, using the central Quaker motif for the body and top it off with Santa's face, beard and hat. I can't say I am really crazy about this idea, so maybe I'll consider stitching the entire design over 1 on the 28ct raw linen. In any case, I put the whole thing aside ... I'll sleep on it and make a decision tomorrow.

Next, I picked up a piece I have been itching to start: Workbasket's Quaker Sampler. A lovely rectangular piece. I cut a piece of Silkweaver Shadowlands 36ct linen and started stitching [over two with one strand, correctly this time]. I got half way through the first large motif in the upper left corner before I was ready for bed. I took the linen out of the hoop and realized that I had oriented my stitching all wrong. The longest leg of the rectangle should be horizontal and I have been stitching as if it was vertical. More frogging in my future. I give up. I will not stitch for a few days ... not till my head clears.