WIP Wednesday

Yes this is usually wordless, but I want to talk about this project! I’ve been posting photos of my cross stitch projects on Instagram but now they’re going to live here as well.

So Allyson Dykhuizen over at The Sweatshop of Love is pretty much entirely to blame for this. Well, Allyson and my mom. Let me begin at the beginning.

Back in the day, twenty or so years ago (…ouch), I was a lonely kid who sat in her bedroom working on a cross stitch sampler her mom had purchased many years before. I was terrible at it and didn’t finish that sampler, as kids are wont to do, but I still enjoyed the process. (If anyone’s curious, I did technically learn to knit before this but that lasted about a minute—cross stitching lasted about three weeks.)

At some point in the last few years, my mom unloaded a bunch of her craft projects to me (you may remember the crochet blanket that’s half older than me). Included in these were a bunch of cross stitch and crewel sampler pieces. So fast-forward to present day and Allyson’s posting all these photos of these incredibly adorable cross stitch patterns she’s working on. She got me hooked on the Satsuma Street “Pretty Little Cities” from Jody Rice (I may have impulse bought Pretty Little Paris and Pretty Little London when I got my tax return—impulse because of my current cross stitching goals).

Meanwhile in January I discovered these hand-painted cross-stitch canvases based on the work of Charley Harper (who incidentally is the artist featured on my calendar at home this year—it took me a while to put those together). So I made a deal with myself—if I finished two of the canvases I had from my mom I could buy this Charley Harper canvas I really wanted. I haven’t finished those two canvases—I mean, we’re talking about the first one today for crying out loud—but I did buy the Charley Harper canvas kit when I had a bit of money because I was afraid of it selling out (I’m pretty sure my buying it is why it’s out of stock now).

SO ANYWAY long story longer, I’m loving working on cross stitch projects. It’s a nice break from all the knitting I’ve been doing and am still doing, because I don’t really have to think about it. I just follow the little lines on the canvas or wherever the key told me to stitch a thing and I do that thing (yes you can also have super mindless knitting, but inevitably I change something so that requires more thought).

My satin stitch could use some work—it’s a little better than my Catwoman hat but that’s because I have lines to fill in.

BUT LOOK AT THAT STEM STITCH PROGRESSION. The top photo shows my first attempts; and then I figured out I needed slightly longer stitches and I could “measure” them against the fabric weave and I’m so pleased with that stitching now.

And then there’s the Batman flower.

Now if only I could find more time for all the stitching I want to do so I can get to work on my Charley Harper or Satsuma Street projects!