Re-Starting My New Start - And Another Giveaway

The discarded 32 ct fabric

Replaced by this lighter 28ct linen

Usually my instincts are pretty good when I exchange the recommended fabric for something I already have in my stash, but not this time.  I had chosen a 32ct deep green mystery linen for my TW Woodland Angel Christmas Stocking and the two strands of blended floss just weren't laying properly.  The overall effect was just plain messy ... I can think of no better way to describe it.  Now, usually I like the look of two strands of DMC on 32 ct but this particular linen is even more irregular than some, with some extremely thin threads and some very nubby fat ones and everything in between.  It also has an unusually soft drape in the hand.  Even with the softest of tensions, some of the stitches look fat and some look like they were stuffed into threads too thin to hold them.  Rather like a size 18 woman squeezing into a size 12 dress.  I still wanted a bit of color in the background rather than the recommended ivory so I have started over again on a 28ct Silkweaver Cashel linen.  The color is called Castle View, a very pale misty dawn sort of blue-grey.  Since the color is more of a neutral [rather like the recommended Ivory] I expect the DMC colors in this project will show to better effect.  And the floss is laying better on the 28ct.  The stocking will be a bit larger than I had wanted but I am sure the end product will look a whole lot better.  

At least I haven't wasted too much time on the dark green fabric, only an hour or two.  I know what my next waiting room task will be: frogging the 32ct fabric.  Aside from Christmas ornaments or a sunflower sampler, I can'r think of many ways to use this color linen.  But I expect I will find some other use for it that will involve stitching over two threads with one strand of silk floss.  Silk tends to have more of a loft than DMC cotton so one strand of a Belle Soie is thicker than one strand of DMC but thinner than two strands and ought to work well on this fabric.  As I said, I have very few ideas as to what sort of project would work on that deep  green color [see the first photo].  So, I invite my readers to make suggestions.  If I use a suggestion, I will send the reader who offered it a small gift of some of my favorite green flosses from Thread Gatherer or GAST or WDW.