Stitching Progress

[annuin]

I finally finished part 1 of my St. Petersburg White Nights cross-stitch pattern. Well, almost. It's missing the crystals and beads, but this is all the actual stitching for part one.

This is part of a very large cross-stitch piece. It's an online class where one part is released each month (and I'm way behind, of course, lol, though I started late). To give you an idea, part 1 is about 5.5 x 5.5 inches (13.5 x 13.5 cm) and the finished design should be about 27 x 27 inches.

It's stitched with various silk threads and metallics on 32ct Millennium Blue linen. There are also 2 specialty stitches in this section, Rice stitches (the navy ones in the middle) and Rhodes stitches (the less visible and smaller aqua coloured little blocks in the "legs" of the cross) .








A computer generated image of what the finished design should resemble:



The design is by Martina Weber of Chatelaine Designs.
http://chatelaine-design.de/newweb/

Comments

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

It's kind of like painting by numbers really. You have a chart with a legend, and you (mostly) do cross-stitches matching the legend with the appropriate colour floss.

I bought a cross-stitch book which explained all the basics and stitches and techniques when I started stitching again earlier this year (after not having stitched since I was a young teenager). The specialty stitches take a bit of fiddling, but the chart I'm doing has detailed descriptions of those stitches (and they're in my book also), so while they're more time consuming, they're not necessarily that much harder.

You do need a good lamp to work by, and just to pay attention to what you're doing, as it's easy to miscount sometimes, which can screw you up and mean you need to unravel parts and start again.

And it's time consuming, progress isn't necessarily very fast, which can be a little frustrating as you'd love to finish something much faster! :D but I'm just a bit impatient, and I have several other patterns I'd like to do. One of which I'll start soon, Dashiell's birth sampler, which I'd like to finish before kiddo #2 arrives in March (thankfully it's not as huge as what I'm currently working on, and so won't take near as long).

I have not tried my hand at knitting, though I'd love to do so at some point. Knitty.com has some awesome patterns on it (the Lizard Ridge blanket with the Noro wools is goooooorgeous!)

[passercul.livejournal.com]

My aunt is fair at cross stitch (she made us a Last Supper, and a few other things), and she once gave me some basic cross stitch materials for christmas. I think I wound up returning them to her after some years.

Oh god, you're right. The Lizard Ridge afghan is too lovely, but so is Muir (http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall07/PATTmuir.html)... Although I have a similar shawl so I don't feel rushed about learning how to make that.

Honestly though, I'm really just a beginner. I knit rectangles and other basic shapes. I don't understand what to do with half the standard terms--I need an actual book to learn with, I think.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

That Lizard Ridge afghan is in part so lovely due to the use of the variegated Noro Kureyon wool. You should look it up on some of the online wool/yarn stores, there are some gorgeous colour combinations that Noro does.

As for a book, I was recommended "Stitch 'n' Bitch" by Debbie Stoller. I think Lunamoth from the GN forums recommended it too me. There are several patterns in there too, of the funky and cool persuasion, rather than things that make you feel all stuffy and grandmotherly, lol. Plus there are simpler things in there too, numerous scarf patterns and such, so not all massively complex stuff.

I have the book, I just need to actually sit down sometime and actually read and practise along. But for now I have lots of cross-stitch that I want to do.

Too many things, so little time!