Saturday 16 February 2008

Taking it Slower

Thank you for your ouches, I like a little sympathy when I’m hurt. The hand is healing quicker than I expected. It has put on a colourful display throughout the week (I should have taken a daily photo for the blog) and has been very sore but I don’t think any serious or lasting damage has been done.



The main thing is I can still stitch, but only for short periods at a time so progress on all fronts has been painfully slow (excuse the pun). I am right handed but most of the time I stitch with two hands. It is necessary for Japanese Embroidery but long before I began JE, I learnt to use two hands when I started to use a floor stand. Now it seems awkward to stitch only with one, but when needs must! More awkward for me is using the mouse right-handed. The first PC I used belonged to my left-handed boss who grumbled if I rearranged his layout, so I started to use the mouse with my left hand. It is very convenient as that leaves my right hand free for all the things I can’t do left-handed – that is everything except control the mouse!

Thank you also, Jeanne, for the You Make My Day Award, I am honoured that you have included my in your list. I have already listed ten of the blogs that make my day so I hope you will excuse me if I do not make another. However, I would like to say You Make My Day to everyone who takes the time to leave me a comment, it is always a thrill to read them.

Considering I decided the basic idea for my February TIF on the first day of the challenge and had a firm design in mind within a couple of days, I have not progressed very well. My design includes a lot of stitching so I decided to keep the format small, just 4 inches square. Approximately one third of that will be cross-stitched. I have worked out that I have to do just over 1500 cross stitches alone. Working slowly and for short periods, it is taking me a long time.


I am using the three shades of blue from the colour scheme and trying to fade gradually from one shade to the next. The stitching is a single strand of DMC worked over two threads on 35 count linen. Elizabeth of Quieter Moments very kindly sent me a sample of linen to try some pulled work stitches on. After playing for a few rows I realized it was just what I wanted for my TIF design. Thank you, Elizabeth.

By the way, did you spot my deliberate (not) mistake? And I don't mean the extra long stitch in the middle. As progress is so slow, both mistakes are staying!

Happy Stitching

3 comments:

Jude said...

Sorry to hear about your injury, glad to see you are still stitching even though it is in small bouts! I'm looking forward to seeing the finished project for TIF.
And thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment.

KV said...

That's what I get for not keeping up with you lately, Carol-Anne -- gosh, there is nothing worse than an injury to one's hand! I have the reverse problem since I am left-handed and I always seems to do awful things to my right hand.

Take care, please . . .


Kathy V in NM

Hideko Ishida said...

I hope your hand is recovered as soon as possible. It must be uneasy situation for a stitcher like you.