confessions on cross stitch, crochet, and other colorful crafts
Just a quick note while I have some bandwidth to say that we are having internet difficulties. I couldn’t upload the last blog entry until just today, and I may not be able to upload any more for a while. Maybe not having internet will give me more time to work on my craft projects!
I didn’t quite finish the angel in time. I know it’s not Christmas yet, but we celebrated with my parents this past Saturday, as we are going out of town to be with other relatives on Christmas day, and my mother is the one to whom I gave the angel. I might have finished all the stitching if I had been able to continue working until Christmas, but I wouldn’t have been able to get it matted and framed in time anyway. As it is, I finished almost all the stitching. I just have a bit of the wings to finish, the outlining of the wings and lion, and the gold cord overlay on the angel’s cape.
I am always amazed at the enhancement that outlining brings to a piece. Not all designs need it, but for those that do use it, the picture really stands out after the outlining. In this pattern, the sheep really needed the outlining, and look so much better now. The dress and its decorative metallic sections are very nice now too. Doing the outlining was a bit tricky, however, as the pattern does not differentiate between outline colors on the chart. The lines drawn on the chart are all the same type of line, and you have to determine which part of the picture you’re doing to determine what color to use. I actually couldn’t figure out a few lines, where the pattern called for white highlights on the eyes and fruit. I couldn’t see the white on the display picture, and so I couldn’t tell which eyes or which fruit called for it (I actually didn’t realize the decorative parts of the dress were images of fruit at first). While I’m mentioning difficulties, I should add that I believe there are at least two stitches on the wings where the wrong symbol is used, having been mistakenly replaced with a similar-looking symbol. I just stitched the color I think was meant to be used, instead of doing a single stitch of a different color in those two spots.
If you do this pattern, make sure you have at least two spools of the pearl Kreinik blending filament, #32. I ordered a spool of that earlier, as I mentioned, and it came within a few days, but then I used up pretty much the entire spool just doing the wings! I’m not sure if I have enough to finish or not, since I haven’t completed the wings yet, but we’ll see if I can get by without ordering more.
There are a few beads used in the pattern too, which I added a few days ago. They look quite ornate on the sleeves, collar, and halo. I did have to switch to a smaller, pointier, needle to thread on the beads. It’s a good thing I didn’t have to use such a sharp needle the rest of the time, or I would have plenty of needle-pricks on my fingers!
I’ll post a final picture when I get the angel completely finished, but I’m taking a break this week since we’re traveling. Time for me to get back to the crochet table runner too, and then start some new projects in 2010!
Well, I seem to have a problem with running out of supplies. I finished all the colors with metallic blending filament, except for the wings, and then discovered I was just about out of the Kreinik pearl filament. It’s hard to tell how much is on those spools until you begin to see the core of the spool underneath…. Since the majority of the wings use that color, this presented a problem, especially since I hadn’t been able to find any Kreinik filament for sale at the local craft stores earlier. So I went ahead and ordered some online, from EverythingCrossStitch.com. They had one of the best prices I could find, plus cheap shipping. I went ahead and ordered some of the #4 braid cord in gold and silver as well. I need a small amount of those for the cross-stitch angel, but had been planning on just substituting a few strands of the blending filament. This will be better though. So now, the only substitution I’ve made is using citrine filament instead of star yellow filament for one color. I expect my order to arrive this week sometime, so I guess I’ll go ahead and start on the outlining until it arrives.
The blending filament colors have been more difficult to work with, as the filament does not pull straight the same way the embroidery floss does. Combining the two sometimes (often?) leads to tangles, difficult to unravel without breaking the filament. The filament does tend to break more often than the floss, so it’s better to use shorter strands. The pattern calls for 2 strands of floss and 2 strands of filament for each color, and I have found that threading my needle with just one strand of each, and then placing the needle at the halfway point and folding the floss/filament in half works really well. That way, once the thread combo is secured and I start stitching, I don’t have to worry about the thread coming out of the needle, and it’s easy to pull it taut and straighten it out when needed. You just have to be sure to stop when you still have enough thread left over to weave it through the back without too much trouble.
I thought I’d attach a picture of the macrame wall hanging I made a few years ago. It took me a few years to make, due to pregnancy, and then it was a while before we finally got it hung up, but it has really warmed up our all-white living room walls. I designed the overall pattern, using smaller knot patterns/instructions from a book called The Macrame Book, by Helene Bress. The book has lots of different diamond patterns you can mix and match. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but the wall hanging is about 4.5 feet by 8 feet, so it’s pretty heavy. After finishing the knotting, I then wove in various types of fancy yarn to add some color. Some of the strands hanging down still need to be straightened, but since it’s hanging so high up on the wall, I just haven’t gotten the ladder out to fix them yet.
I just finished the last non-metallic thread color for the cross-stitch angel. For the last few colors I did (yellow/orange), there were quite a few regions with only a few, or even one stitch of a given color. This slowed things down a bit, as I had to start and stop frequently, finishing off the thread before moving to another region. But this is what makes the pattern look so intricate. Now, to do the final shimmery threads and add the beads and outlining.
I’ve also attached a picture of the angel tree topper on our tree (very near the ceiling!). I ended up putting our tree behind a baby gate, due to my 13-month-old, who had been trying extremely hard to pull the whole tree over on top of himself! This way, he can still see it, but can’t get to the tree, ornaments, or the presents! Maybe next year, he’ll be old enough to have the tree out in the open without continuous monitoring. Maybe next year, I’ll have made a bunch more crochet ornaments too.
