Day 72. I Took A Few Days Off Because I Need To Buy More Thread And Needles, An Because Of Our Minor

Day 72. I took a few days off because I need to buy more thread and needles, an because of our minor heat wave. I do not function well in heat.

I looked up from my work for a couple of seconds to watch the kittens play, and when I looked back down this little punk was crawling over it.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood... I was having doubts about the colour palette last night, but I feel a lot better about it this morning. I'd say this is just over a quarter done.

K, L Q, R K is Dutch knot, L is French knot, Q is sorbello stitch, R is French cross stitch. I really like puzzling out how I'm going to group the different types of stitches within the whole sampler. Sorbello stitch is very similar to Dutch knot (the difference is 45 degrees), and French knot and French cross stitch are also similar. All four are types of knot stitch.

More geometric play. The symmetry isn't perfect, but given the amount of tension points, I'm happy with it. The stitches used here are all really basic - twisted satin, buttonhole, vandyke, lazy daisy, whipped wheel. The complexity comes from how they interact with and tension each other (e.g the vandyke stitch will loop around the cross junction of two button hole stitches, and pull them into a new positions (and then you have to try and get exactly the same tension another 9 times). I don't know if there's an official name for this type of embroidery. I have a lot of stitch dictionaries and collections, and I've never seen anything like this in any of my books. If no one else knows of a pre-existing name for it, I'mma have to invent one. Maybe... Arachne work.

I'm reblogging this here so I don't have to type it out again.

I would like to take this opportunity to assure anyone I owe art to (give away winner - I am an awful person, I am very sorry) that I have not forgotten them nor given up on completing their pieces.

I'm going to make a concerted effort to update more regularly, and be more productive.

Day 76.

This post is dedicated to grrlcookery And darkness-be-my-friend- for asking where I was/if I was okay. I probably wouldn’t be posting this without those precious messages of support, so: with all sincerity, thank you.

It’s been a while, I know. The last however many months have been busy (PhD upgrade - I passed), hard (landlady illegally tried to kick us out of our house, but of course we then had to move anyway - who wants to stay where they’re so obviously not welcome?), and rough (health, money, stress).

I’m really trying to get back on top of things and have some semblance of routine and productivity in my life, but I don’t want to make any promises about being back in full flow for now, because I’ve tried to get back into things before and just crashed myself again.

Here’s hoping I update again tomorrow.