December 22, 2009
Too Late
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.
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.
On the crochet front, I saw a scarf pattern in an email from Lion Brand Yarn a few days ago, and realized it would be perfect for a quick gift to make for another family member. I grabbed some yarn I had left over, even though it was weight 4 and not 5 as called for in the pattern, and started and finished the scarf in one day! That was despite having to start and stop dozens of times to take care of the kids. So that’s done, and I’m going to make another one, from some 5-weight yarn I found in my stash, for another family member. With the 4-weight yarn, you can’t see the corkscrew effect as much, but the yarn is so soft and fluffy, it is still wonderful. The yarn I used was Yarn Bee Infatuation, in rattan color, about 1 1/2 skeins. The original pattern is the North Pole Ruffle Scarf pattern #90326AD on the www.lionbrand.com website, if you’d like to look it up.
I finished the angel tree topper, and I think it looks pretty good. Very angelic! It really didn’t take too long to make, and was inexpensive, compared to a store-bought topper. The porcelain doll head cost $1.88, the doll cone $1.79, and the wings were $3.99 (plus shipping since I had to order all those parts). The wreath cost about $0.50, the fur $3.99 (but I used less than half of it), and I already had more than enough size 10 white crochet thread. I couldn’t find a plastic ring the right size for the halo, so I made one out of wire, crocheting around it. I’ll take another picture of her when I get the tree up in a week or two.
I finished all the green and purple shades on the cross-stitch angel too. Not as much of those colors as the red and whites/grays. There are still some more purple shades in the dress detail, but they all have metallic threads blended in, so I’m waiting on those. Next, I believe I’ll do the skin and hair, and maybe some of the orange highlights – just a few stitches for that color, I believe. It’s going to be close, but I’m still hopeful I’ll finish before Christmas. If not, well, the person I am giving the picture to as a present will understand, and be willing to wait a few more days, I think! (She may be reading this blog, so I won’t give away any more information yet!)
Here is the latest picture of my cross stitch angel. I just finished the lighter medium red color, which really fills in the overdress and sleeves. I think will do more of the green next, and then purple, and save the face, hair, and wings for later. Several of the colors have a strand of Kreinik metallic added, so I want to save those for later since they can be trickier and take longer, trying to keep the thread intact and laying straight. I tend to work with shorter lengths when using metallic thread too, since it twists up so easy and when it gets tangled, it usually breaks.
Finished the medium gray on the angel. The shading created by the different gray colors is really beautiful, and make the dress look quite realistic. The sheep look better too. There is outlining to do afterward still, which will make it all stand out even more. I’m now doing the “very dark red” color. Not too much of that, since it is more of a edge color. I’m not sure what color I’ll do next. Green? Purple? Or start on the face, hair, or wings? I think I’ll leave the lion for last.I’ve gotten a bit more done on the crochet angel topper. I’m more than halfway done with the dress, so it should get done fairly quickly, and hopefully in time for decorating the tree starting after Thanksgiving. Once we decide where to put the tree, that is. I have an extra table in the living room right now, for the kids to eat on and do their crafts, but it’s sitting right where we usually put the tree, so I guess I’ll have to rearrange something.
