An Eclectic Ensemble

I did!

Howdy, y'all! Thanks for all the interest in the blog hop post. I'm glad you guys like Frosted Pumpkin cuties too! I figured I'm well overdue for a crafty recap that doesn't have to do with holiday stuff so let's take care of that, shall we~? :D

before

after

First up, I finished the next side to the Monster Hunter cube, Zinogre the lightning doggy!  I rather like how this guy turned out.  (Have I said this about all of them? ;b)  I was worried about the lightest color blending in too much with the fabric but it turned out to have just enough texture to make it subtly pop.

Technical Details

• "Zinogre" glyph from Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, pattern charted by me.
• 2 over 1 on 20-count light tan jobelan fabric.
• Finished size: 3.50 x 3.50" (9 x 9 cm).
• Started: July 6, 2017, Finished: September ??, unknown hours.  

I'm pretty sure this is a hunt

Four sides down!  Next up is Nargacuga, the hyper catbat.  I haven't started him yet; I'm not even done tweaking the chart for him!  He will be a rather dark stitch as I'm trying to keep to the main species and not the subs (this will present a problem for the last stitch).

I promise this is a flower

I have also started the next Flower of the Month -- September's Aster.   I'm still not enthusiastic over this one but it's not too terrible to stitch.  I snack on it on occasion but that has tapered off with all the holiday crafting.  I do not like that jarring orange center.  I am leaving it until the rest of the flower is stitched to see if it becomes less InYourFace but I am not hopeful!  Luckily it's only a few stitches that will need replaced if need be!

sunflower coaster

I'm kind of proud of this one.  I couldn't find a crochet or knitted sunflower pattern to suit my needs, so this was my first attempt in cobbling something from nothing!  I had to learn how to crochet the crocodile stitch (which, if you're interested, consumes a LOT of yarn), plus learn how to do it in the round.  For a first attempt, it turned out fairly well.  It's made of cotton yarn so it should work well as a coaster, though I'm not sure the recipient is using it as such!  I do wish I had written down ANYTHING about what I did for this pattern haha.  I'm not sure I could recreate it, though I think I'll give it a try at some point not-Christmas time.

front - front, back - back

I feel like I've been doing an awful lot of knitting lately too.  These are "star stitch" washcloths made as part of a Christmas present!  YAY I AM ALMOST TIMELY.  Also it is a good thing I started these rather early as the star stitch is torture for us poor tight knitters and these take me quite a while to make.  It does lovely things to variegated/ombre yarn, though, and that is why I chose this particular stitch pattern.

close up of the action

I have two more I'm going to make in "winter" colors.  I might make some for myself, but they can wait until after Christmas!  I did both a crochet cast on and bind off which have quickly become my favorite ways to start and end a knit project!  My tension is a bit better with them so they are looser, creating the slightly scalloped border on both edges.  Very much would recommend!

There was a minor annoyance with this yarn.  I bought the first skein at Michael's and it was 2oz.  This was enough to finish one cloth, plus about 7/8ths of the next one.  I bought the second skein at JoAnn's and it was 3oz!  Ugh.  3oz would've been enough to finish both, in the same dyelot (you can't tell the join on the second cloth though), with only a bit left over.  Now I have almost a full skein left to do ???? with.  I was a little grumpy over this.


Technical Details

• "Star Stitch" cloths, knit, pattern found here (free!) on ravelry.
• My ravelry project page found here.
• Cotton yarn: Lily's Sugar n' Creme in coral seas ombre.
• Size 9 (5.5mm) needles, plus a crochet hook for cast on/bind off.
• Started: October 28, finished November 10, unknown hours.  

Lessons Learned

• Crochet bind off.  
• Better tension control for purling! (!!!!)
• Where to buy yarn, bah.

I think that's all with crafts that I can show right now.  I have some small projects on the crochet hook which are turning out quite fun and really cute.  Plus I have another Christmas present on a different set of needles.  Plus plus I have some holiday cross stitch in the works.  Plus plus plus it's almost Cookie Time!!  I'm so happy to be excited about Christmas this year. :)

nyaa-p time

And even though it has nothing to do with anything I made but LOOK AT MY NEW PAJAMAS.  I don't impulse buy very often but I had to have these instantly, pink or no pink.  How can I ignore sleepy kitties and yarn balls!  These are seriously adorable and very comfy too.  They were brand new with tags, in a thrift store no less, so I got them for a whopping $6.  :D

helping

This entire post could've counted for Gifted Gorgeousness, haha.  I look forward to joining in again next year!  I hope you all have a wonderful time and those of you in the US, have a Happy Thanksgiving!  I don't have to cook for it this time.  \:D/

Gifted Gorgeousness: More MH3U Goodness

Hello again! It is time again for another Gifted Gorgeousness, hosted by Queen Serendipity herself. Jo "warned" me to not have any more disasters regarding GG posts! It does seem that this year is conspiring against me. However, this post was safely typed up ahead of time so while we are indeed surrounded currently by flooding (we're safe, just very soggy), the show will go on~

click me!

I have continued to work on the MH3U piece that is destined to become my husband's gift.

before

after

Finished his other pounder!  I love the colors in this guy... and I'm loving stitching him. Apart from having a fabulous palette, his attacks are neat and his armor is fairly awesome (except the alien helmet) and his weapon is hands down my favorite.  We're getting close to his battle in the new version.  wiggling intensifies

This is not part of GG but I completed my hat for the Ravellenic Games! :D

nyaa~!

I found the pattern free on Ravelry and I thought it'd make a good newbie hat. And it is! Knitting in the round isn't that hard but I still need a bit of practice with the initial join.  I know with the hat flat like that it doesn't look like much but when one puts it on, the corners perk up into ears.  It's very cute.  They yarn is the same as the ever-growing Kitty Prints scarf and, yes, I made it to match. Turns out this lovely soft yarn is not quite sturdy enough to hold up the ears so I put a cottonball in them before tacking them down. Perhaps the floppiness was also because I used a larger needle than was called for; I have no smaller circulars.  I added the embellishment as an afterthought.  What do you think?  Should I keep it or leave it plain?  Maybe make the nose pink?

Technical Details

• "KitKat hat" pattern by Andre Sue, found here on ravelry (free).
• #9 29" circular, one #8 DPN for bind off.
• Yarn: Yarn Bee Soft Secrets, aqua.
• Cast on 92, did 2" of ribbing - 9.5" wide, 7.5" tall.
• Started August 5, finished August 10, approximately 8 hours.

Lessons Learned
(hopefully)

• How to knit in the round (not magic loop)!
• 3-needle bind off - LOVED this. 

I definitely see more hats in my future!  They're surprisingly simple to make.  I thought about making another one of these kitty hats in black and white.  I don't know how to change colors while knitting and I feel this is a big gap in my education!

Okay, that's enough babble from me. Thank you for reading~ :D

Gifted Gorgeousness, TUSAL, and the Usual Rambles

help yourself

Hello, hi, howdy~ I hope y'all had a suitably romantic Valentine's Day, or do as we did, and mostly ignored it because we were in for some snow, yay!  I did find it a useful excuse to make cookies. :)  My husband loves sugar cookies and I have found this recipe to be just the perfect softness.  I do have to bake at a lower temperature but that's just my Specific Oven Persnickety.  They are glazed with this recipe.  I make these several times a year as I have quite the collection of cookie cutters; almost every holiday is covered. :D  And since it was a decent amount of snow (finally), I stocked up on snow ice cream again!  It's so nice to fish out of the freezer in July after an afternoon of mowing!

click me!

before

after

Here we have my contribution to Gifted Gorgeousness -- progress on Rathian, yay! I am glad to have done as much as I have on her, especially now that I'm past all the color issues. If you're new to my blog, this is part of a little gift for my husband.  It was originally just going to be the Mr. and Mrs. but silly me mentioned how cute a cube would be... and "doomed" myself as my husband's eyes lit up at the thought. :)  I enjoy making the patterns and stitching them up though!

growing, growing

I have also worked more on the speaker cozies, also for my husband. I seem to keep putting it off to do random other things (luckily he's such an understanding guy who knows the draw of books... video games... computers... something sparkly over there...) but every time I come back to it, I wonder what kept me away! They're such simple motifs and the pattern is pretty much engraved in my mind at this point. Here we have several little inner sections completed.

click me, too!

February "strings"

And here is my TUSAL update, completely untimely (didn't want to give it its own post). I must have a talk with the Moon.  It is being most unhelpful this year by falling squarely halfway between my normal posts.  I realized as I uploaded this image I hadn't taken a picture of the yarn ORTs.  There weren't many even though I did do something yarny!

guess how I took this picture

Tada! Here we have some fingerless mitts, completely finished no less! The lady who runs our little knitting group/class wanted to teach us the magic loop method. This is a way of knitting small projects on a single (long) circular needle. It's very handy but it does. Not! WORK! on super tiny things... like thumbs.  Perhaps if the actual needle parts of the circular would be only 1" long...!  I struggled through it on the first glove but decided that was for the birds and bought some double-pointed needles (DPNs) to finish off the second glove.  That was an adventure in itself as I have never messed with DPNs before.  I am one step closer to becoming an octopus.

At first, I wasn't too thrilled with the design of these gloves and originally intended them to be just practice and then they'd go off to the donation bin.  But they are absolutely amazing for cross stitch!  I always have cold hands and these provide enough warmth while letting my fingers be free to deal with the needle.  They're even great for sitting at the computer.

Technical Details

• "Uno" pattern by Annika Abbott, found here on ravelry (not a freebie), very well written.
• #9 29" circular, #8 DPNs.
• Yarn: Red Heart Classic Solid, light berry.
• Small size (6-7"), did a shorter starting rib (calls for 8 rows; I did 6). 
• Started February 1, finished February 8, 11.5 hours for the pair.

Lessons Learned
(hopefully)

• How to make cables, they're remarkably simple (C3F, C3B)!
  
• How to make a thumb gusset (M1R, M1L)!
• How to cast off with ribbing -- this totally baffled me, more than the gusset!
• Magic loop -- PULL THE STITCHES TIGHT ON ENDS! (!!!)
• DPNs - grow a couple extra arms for the first round!

Have I talked enough yet?  No?  Here, have one more item of interest.

bobbin case and hook assembly completely removed

I have been slowly puttering around with my Singer find.  On Saturday, I took apart the bobbin case and hook assembly down to the base and gave it a good cleaning using this great tutorial.  Only 65 years of gunk!  And quite honestly, not nearly as bad as some of the horror stories I find with Google image searches!  I used rubbing alcohol (carefully, as it will apparently do nasty things to the finish of the machine) and about five million Q-tips.  There's still a little bit of fuzz but it's noticeably cleaner around the hook assembly hole!  There's actually an uncoated surface down there!  It got fresh oil to make it slide around happily.  The bobbin case was a bit fiddly to get back in as one of the clips refused to slide over the little groves on the retaining clip.  Luckily I am (mostly) patient and eventually wriggled it into place.

all shiny and clean

And the feed dogs!  Oh my goodness gracious I was a bit grossed out by how much crud was in the little grooves.  It soaked in the alcohol for a while while I cleaned everything else and then got multiple passes with toothpicks.  It looks much nicer now.

One part done!  :D  I think I will next brave the tension assembly.  It's a scary part to me.  The machine stitches very well as is but the thread take up spring thingy is not quite positioned right.  I don't want to mess up a lovely stitch but something needs done so I'll spend some time reading up on how to disassemble and tweak it.

Hopefully your eyes haven't glazed over! :b  I think I will stop rambling now and let you get back to your life!  Have a lovely day!

FotM SAL - October Edition

Aloha! I am happy you're still reading despite my continued silence. :) I am no longer ill and am capable of breathing through my nose, how exciting!  Are you prepared to be wowed by my spectacular progress on the next flower?

click for more info!

before

after

Yaaaaaa-- wait, that's like, eleven stitches. I won't bore you with the struggle it was just to get those few stitches in.  I haven't touched cross-stitch since then; I'll get back to it eventually but argh.  I'm a bit sad I didn't get any Halloween stitching in.  I may be able to squeeze things in eventually but right now... I dunno.  Guess I'm in a funk.  Or maybe cross-stitch isn't as warm as yarny projects because...

various stash yarns

I did finish another square for the CAL! This is number four of at least nine (I haven't fully decided I want a small afghan haha). I really liked this square though I still hate that black yarn.  The yellow trim at the bottom of the sleigh was a different weight; I should've doubled up but didn't ah well.  Next up is the elf!  He looks like he'll have a couple of fiddly rows where I have skeins of yarn draped everywhere with all the color changes, bah.  I think I've finally learned my lesson about carrying yarn.  As long as it's touching the same color, it's okay to carry it.  If not, snip snip!

I'm still being bad with the ends.  I'll get them in eventually, with much complaining. :D

lemon and rosemary P&C yarn

I also managed to finish another dishcloth (using the same pattern). This time, I tried really hard to control my tension and it shows! However if I knit any tighter it will be a waterproof dishcloth hahaha. I crocheted around the edge out of curiosity. I was expecting to cover the edge but apparently that doesn't happen! At the knitting group, it was suggested that I knit around the edge to achieve what I was going for.

Next up is a simple scarf (yarn bought but not cast on yet)!  I am all gungho about socks and lace but it was strongly suggested that I increase my skills carefully hah. I see the logic but but but......  :)

I'm glad everyone else has been keeping busy with their stitchy goodness~  I'll return sometime.

Gifted Gorgeousness - January Edition

Yay, my first Gifted Gorgeousness post!  Thanks to Jo for hosting these~ :D

It's amazing how even our best-laid plans go wonky, or at least mine do. I was so excited to start the Muppets sampler. First, I washed the fabric because, learning from experience, washing after you've stitched does not always mean any fabric creases will magically go away and it becomes impossible to iron! So, washed, dried, and nicely ironed. Then I decided to cut the fabric down to a 20" x 20" square which would leave me a little room to play around with other projects on the smaller piece. Easy enough. Next, I wanted to mark the center of the fabric and toyed around with actually making a grid on this so I wouldn't have quite so many counting mistakes. I folded the fabric, found the center, and marked it.

With a blue permanent marker instead of the fabric pen sitting beside it.

Of course there's a nice empty space right in the center so it can't be stitched over and the colors for that area wouldn't really hide the blue anyway. I decided to try bleach... it lightened it extensively but still there is a nice little blue dot and the bleach did something strange to the fabric.

So, while the fabric isn't destroyed, it's not useable for this particular project.  It was large enough that I could cut it up for several smaller works or, if there was a pattern that fully covered the center... Bah.  I did so hope to have a whole array of adorable Muppet letters to show off this month. :(

Lesson learned: Keep your fabric pens separate! (!!!)

Before

So I instead worked a bit on Dolphin Trio! This little kit was a gift from my husband's grandmother(s) who like to encourage hobbies and know I like dolphins.  There's really not too much left on this piece. Here's where I was previously, back in May 2012.

updated

updateder

And here's the after! Most obviously filled in the bottom right corner because I like to see edges. Gives me a goal, haha. Not too sure how I feel about the dark half stitches, though.  Easy to stitch but ehhhhh.  There's a lot of them too!

Blah. Not at all how I wanted to start out the year! But I did work on something that really should've been finished eons ago so there's that~ :D

Pusheen Loves!

The Pink has survived the trip over to the wilds of England so I think I am safe to (finally) post this! First of all, if you do not know who Pusheen is, she is an adorable jiggly cat created by the talented Clare Belton and Andrew Duff. She can be found here in all her squishy glory! For my stitch, I used a combination of this image and this image plus a few creative liberties.

As a little bit of background, some friends from waaaay back in the day of online anime chatrooms got married recently! He (and she!) is a crafty sort of person and she (and he?!) likes Sailor Moon. By their powers combined, they get... Sailor Moon Pusheen Cross Stitch! This piece was (apart from the lace, ribbon, and a skein of light effects) stitched and finished entirely from stash. I managed to use up almost two skeins of pink. Geh.

staring down your soul

The Pink, started.

lovely hoop marks

At this point, I had started to question my sanity with stitching this much pink.

adding the lace

I had a hard time figuring out how exactly I wanted to finish this piece since it would be traveling so far. I was originally going to have it framed with a cute heart mat but that's an awful long way to travel with glass! Sooo I decided on a somewhat simple lace edge with a felt backing. The lace wound up hiding and binding the cross stitch fabric (you can sort of see how I was folding the edge down on this picture) and the felt hid the back. I realize now that I forgot to take a picture of the back of my stitching -- a shame because it's probably the neatest I've EVER had a back. It looked almost exactly like the front!

finished in the sunlight

are you ready for your close up?

I was tickled pink(?!) at finding this ribbon to make a little hanging loop in the same color as the rest of the glorious pink.

Technical Details

• "Pusheen Love" chart by rosey175, Pusheen belongs to Clare Belton/Andrew Duff
• 2 over 1 on 14-(18?-)count white Aida, approximately 8,000 stitches.
• Finished size: would you believe I forgot to measure before shipping?! I will guess 9"x7" haha.
• Started: May ??, 2014, Finished: August 24, 2014. Unknown hours.

My lesson (hopefully) learned from this piece is to stop putting off finishing things! I was scared of the lace at first -- it took about half an hour to attach. Then I was worried about attaching the whole thing to the felt -- it also took about half an hour. Weeks of being scared for a whole hour of remarkably smooth and simple stitching! sigh...

Anyway, hope y'all are much more brave with your stitching! I need to go figure out just what I'm stitching for MMMM.

TUSAL, Blog Hop #8, FINISH (yay)

Aloha! This is gonna be a busy post with a blog hop, TUSAL, FFVII squee-age, and whatever else pops into my head!

First up, September TUSAL, sporting another Calvin & Hobbes cover!

September TUSAL

Most of the additions were black. Lots of black. All squished down. :D If you're doing the TUSAL, don't forget to link back to it on Daffycat's blog! Like I have been doing, whoops. :)

Nextly, blog hop #8! I've missed having these, haha.

• What has been your favorite project to stitch? (either finished or in progress)

Well, I wasn't expecting such a difficult question! I have pieces that I absolutely adore finished but as for the stitching of them, the honors would have to go to this piece:

Southwest Spirit

I found this piece in a thrift store back in 2010 with the border and a bit of the background started. All of the floss was included in little floss-a-way baggies and the pattern was in pretty decent shape. It smelled horrible. I had to wash it at least twice because I was nearly overwhelmed with cigarettes. Admittedly, I purchased it mind of picking out all the stitches and using the fabric for something else. My mother saw it though and really liked it, so I decided to finish it up. I am glad I did because it was so much fun to stitch! My absolute favorite part was that little brown pot on the left. It was also the first piece I ever stitched on a floor stand and that may have contributed to the love, haha. It's so much easier to stitch using both hands.

Visit all the blogs in this round of the Stitching the Night Away Stitching Blogger Blog Hop:
Find the instructions on how to participate in this round by clicking here.

Lastly, lastly....!! IT IS TRULY FINISHED. It even gets the Super Special "finish" label!

"We may be retreating, but... we're still victorious."

And then sadness. I washed it and while there was no bleeding (thank goodness!), the creases will not iron out! Argh. I may have to block it or perhaps someone can suggest some sort of magic to get those darn things out. I totally feel Annie's (via The Crafty Pixie) frustration over stubborn wrinkles.

Technical Details

• Chart designed with KG-Chart and featured 10 colors originally. After stitching, I realized that two of the lighter blues were very, very similar so I replaced one with the other.
  
• 1 over 1 on white 22 count (hardanger). Black 2 over 1.
  
• Finished size: 11" x 6" (26.5cm x 15cm) -- need to double check this; I'm not exactly sure it was 6" high.
• Started: April 1, 2012, Finished: September 20, 2012. Roughly ???? hours.

Lessons Learned
(hopefully)

• Tweaking chart forever works out for the better. Getting the colors down to reasonable amounts was the best thing ever.
  
• Confetti the transitions even more. Stop going diagonal!
  
• Doing the colors in half-stitches worked AMAZINGLY. I was able to see the colors and decide if they were acceptable and if there was a mistake, half-stitches are so much easier to pick out. It also makes it easier to do the top leg.
• Black one line at a time, working up makes for the best "fill".
  
• Need to devise a better way of keeping track of the time spent on these. I have no idea how long it takes me to actually stitch them.
• Wash fabric before stitching to get out stubborn wrinkles. Bah.

action shot!

size comparison

I probably should've used a bigger piece of fabric... Oops. It will make framing interesting, I suspect. As for framing, I am not even going to attempt these guys. I'm taking them to a local framer where I can spend a few hours hashing out matte, glass, and frame preferences and then watch them suffer with my lack of fabric on the sides. I'm really a huge fan of the framing done by Jill at Rensel Studio but I don't think I can afford her, haha. Such fantastic work though!

Oh, and I actually washed FFVIII. Yes. With all those reds. I sort of cheated though. I fished out the colors in the chart and stitched them on a little scrap of fabric and then washed the little scrap. Nothing happened on the scrap so I figured I'd be safe washing the big piece, but let me tell you, I held my breath as I submerged that in the sink, ahahaha. It really, really needed a wash after being on the stand for five months and then a drawer for a year. It turned out sublime so this is a deliriously happy post instead of a woebegone gloomy post.

I think I'm (finally) typed out! I hope you enjoyed (or at least had tolerated amusement at) my very excited excitement. I hope you have productive fingers in the next week as well!

Soul Eater ~ Blair

Yosh, it is indeed Blair from Soul Eater (日本語で：　ソウルイーターのブレア…化け猫です。)! I enjoy the manga quite a bit. I chose her cat form for decency (hah - guess I could've chosen Lust chapter form :Q~). Plus, her cat form is cute. This is where I got her pose. I thought that an image existed of her in a similar position, or her sitting on a pumpkin (cat form) but I couldn't for the life of me find it. It sorta dawned on me as I was stitching that if one didn't know the subject was a cat... she kinda looks like a purple monkey, lol. The pumpkin itself needed a face because what is Halloween without jack-o'-lanterns? Google didn't fail me this time as I found the face I was looking for: the logo. I've dubbed it a "Soul Pumpkin".

おたくじゃありませんけれど…

"Soul Pumpkin" kinda has a hat at the moment...

Just miles of orange and backstitching left...

In this picture, my hoop is "upside down" from what I normally do. When I was adjusting the positioning of it, I noticed it said "THIS SIDE UP" on the full circle part. Wait, what? I've been loading my fabric wrong since the beginning?! Puzzlement ensued. I've always put the full circle part underneath the fabric and the screw part on top. I obeyed the great and wise hoop for surely it knew better than me.

Urg. I do not like how it feels in my hands this way. Perhaps I'm too used to holding it the other way and it has blinded my ability to follow directions. I can see where it could be a tad bit easier to stitch as you know where the smaller hoop is but I'd rather have it easier to hold. My wrists give me enough trouble as it is.

Hoop users, how do you load it? Am I an alien?

Sept IHSW ~ Finish!

Hello to any new people checking out my blog! :) I feel like this was pretty successful for my first IHSW because I... I actually finished it! *squee* Without pigs flying or the piece bursting into flames or my eyeballs falling out of my head (though they did come close).

"Even if the world becomes your enemy...
I'll be your knight, I'll protect you."

I thankfully didn't have to frog whole letters; it was the backstitching that was making them look a little odd. Once removed and redone, the letters looked more appropriate. I did redo Rinoa's flying hair a little bit. It's more inline with the original image now, but not quite there. I didn't have to adjust the cloth to finish her swoop! I could jussst barely stitch the last few on the end, but it was possible.

Squall's jacket poof remains unfilled. I practiced the clipped velvet stitches and while they do look pretty awesome, they don't really have a feeling of fitting in with the rest of the piece. Perhaps I need to think more on it. If anything, they'd have to wait until the piece is washed or they'd get a weird stiff sort of feeling I would guess.

Which brings me to a question. To wash or not to wash? I'm still (relatively) new at this, so more experienced stitchers stopping by, please let me know what you think. I think the piece needs a bath as it has been on the frame for 5½ months. It's a bit dusty and has a few kitty helper hairs. I've washed other pieces with no trouble, but I'm afraid of washing this piece with its abundance of bright reds (floss is DMC cotton). I'd probably shrivel up into a little dust heap if the colors bled.

Technical Details

• Chart designed with KG-Chart and featured 46 colors originally. In my tweaking, however, it actually wound up being ~15. Yeah. I discovered early on that KG-Chart likes to go crazy with artifacts in web images and can't handle blending or fading.
  
• 1 over 1 on white 22 count (hardanger). Black 2 over 1.
  
• Finished size: 11" x 14" (26.5cm x 35cm)
• Started: April 1, 2011, Finished: September 18, 2011. Roughly 60-70 hours.

Lessons Learned
(hopefully)

• Tweak chart. Tweak again. Tweak five more times. Tweak. Think you're done? Tough, tweak more. No matter how much you tweak, once you start stitching, things will look different and you'll tweak some more.
  
• Confetti color transitions.
  
• Half stitches are so much easier to pick out when a mistake is found and make it much easier to discover areas that aren't going to look right. Exception: black.
• Work black one line at a time, preferably up. My eyesight is horrible to begin with and I darn near went blind stitching black that had been tent stitched first.
  
• Maybe bright lights and magnifiers would be helpful.
  
• For the love of potatoes, GRID, YOU FOOL.
  

The "artsy photo" attempt.

The timing for finishing this is pretty awesome. I should be getting a new OS drive today which will allow me to set up my desktop computer again (it has all my charts on it). I'm pretty sure which one I'd like to stitch next but feel free to speculate. :D