Feeling Crafty

It’s crafty day! Due to NaNoWriMo last month, I wasn’t participating in the Stitcher Blogging Questions on a weeky basis. I also didn’t have my camera to post updated photos of my work, so I’ll have those updates, too. :)

Measi.net was being extraordinarily cranky with photo uploads last night. I finally gave up at 11:50 p.m. and moved everything onto my old Kodak Gallery account. Over the weekend, I’ll work on posting photos and updating my Work in Progress (WIP) pages on the site, since they haven’t been updated since before my house move. For now, though, all of my updated WIP photos are here.

I’ve been working almost exclusively on The Castle this month and have ditched my rotation for the time being. I’m so (-oooo) close to finishing. The tail is almost completely done. Then I have a small section of rocks to do, and then a mess of backstitching. It definitely won’t be done by the end of the year, but the end of January is very feasible, and I’d love to get it done to start 2006 off with a great finish.

The week between Christmas and New Years will most likely be spent between stitching and sorting through all of my projects to prep a plan for 2006. I already know that 2006 has two wedding samplers (so far!) that are must-completes. Everything needs to rotate around those for now.

Onto some of my backlog of Stitcher Blogging Questions…

9/28/05- Have you ever just quit a project while in the midst of it? (We're not referring to UFOs (unfinished objects) here, rather projects that you know that you'll never work on again.) Why? What did you do with it - throw it out, give it away, put it away?

I’ve had two projects that I’ve completely stopped. One was put away, but eventually thrown away because it became damaged. The other was just tossed immediately. I didn’t like how it was looking at all.

10/6/05- When you have almost finished a pattern and start thinking about the next one to stitch, how do you select it? (a list, most recent purchase, etc.)

Ironic, since I’m focusing on this right now. First comes any “obligation” stitching (for example, the wedding samplers I know are in-line). Then I go to my list of projects that I’ve kitted with all supplies. Since I love Teresa Wentzler’s designs and have a dozen or so that I want to stitch, any TW project I finish will almost certainly be replaced with another TW.

10/12/05- How do you `non-hoopists' who use a rotation system handle it (as it seems to be lot easier if you are in good terms with hoop)? Do you have several scroll frames? Do you use Q-snaps or maybe something completely different? Or do you just have one or two big projects and others are small enough to be kept in hand while stitching?

I usually prefer a hoop, but a couple projects just won’t work with one, so I’m adjusting. One project is on a scroll frame. The other is an in-hand project. If I were to move into stitching on multiple projects on hoops or stretcher bars, I’d probably adjust my rotation so I had a travel piece on a hoop for my commute and keep the larger scroll frame pieces at home to work on in the evenings.

10/19/05- Do you mark or hi-lite your patterns or can you follow them without any markings? Do you make copies to mark up, or do you mark originals?

I make copies of all of my projects to work from. I usually set the photocopier so that the pattern is enlarged and easier to read. If it takes more pages to copy, it doesn’t matter to me. My photocopies and the original pattern are then kept in poly envelopes with the tie-button closures to keep everything together. (Kitted patterns that I haven’t started have the bobbins of thread enclosed in the envelope, too).

As I go, I highlight. I can follow without markings, but when working the more complex patterns, it’s so much easier to work with a marked copy.

I then use the original copy to follow for backstitching (but don’t mark it as I go).

10/26/05- Have you ever stitched something as a gift and later realized that receiver doesn't respect your stitched gift a bit (for example it's never on show, or you have other reason to suspect that it may even be nonexistent or at least placed in some dark storage room corner)? If so, what have you done? If you've been lucky enough to avoid such people what would you do if it'd happen to you?

Hasn’t happened yet. But to be honest, I don’t see myself doing a lot of gift stitching for people that aren’t either stitchers or knitters themselves—people who will appreciate the time that goes into making something by hand.

11/2/05- If you have stitched for a while, can you usually pick out the DMC colors you need from memory when you go to your LNS? (For example, you know that 610 is a brown.)

(LNS, for those reading and not stitchers, is a Local Needlework Store)

Not all, but there are a couple strings of numbers that I know. The 500 greens that are common in TW projects. The 790’s that are my favorite colors of blue. The 3345-48 string of green because I have TONS of them for some reason in my excess stash and probably won’t ever have to buy them again in my lifetime. I usually just bring a written list to the store, though.

11/9/05- When comparing large projects versus small projects, which do you get more excited about finishing?

Definitely larger projects, due to the time involved.

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More SBQ questions in tonight’s entry to get me caught up on questions! :)

~ Mel.