From the Department of "You've Got To Be Kidding Me."

Floss storage.  There are dozens of ways to store embroidery floss out there, and for each one there's someone who claims it's the One True Way.

Myself, I've liked bobbins since the first time the local Big Box carried Anchor floss already wound onto a bobbin.  Sure, winding can be a pain, but once you're done you've got your floss on this little easy to store, easy to sort piece of cardboard.  The floss isn't going to tangle and it's easy to wind off the amount you need.

Some of the other methods look promising, but they all use some sort of plastic.  I'm trying to reduce my consumption of plastic.  I won't pretend I can eliminate all plastic, but you know, the less you use, the better.

So this is where we come to the "you've got to be kidding me" part: plastic floss bobbin.  WTF?
Someone needs to explain this to me, because it makes no sense.  They're more than twice as expensive.  They take up more space than the cardboard ones.  You can't write the numbers on them except with a Sharpie marker.  And of course, most plastic never goes away.  It can break down into a state that's no longer useful, but it doesn't break down into something that normal biological processes can use.  You just get tinier and more useless particles of plastic.

Is it an archival thing?  Because I'm thinking the cardboard ones could be made of acid-free lignin-free material and still be cheaper, and frankly, your basic "hi, I'm a cheap plastic" isn't archival either.  Outgassing and breaking down and stuff.

Is it stiffness?  Because using two of the cardboard bobbins is still cheaper than one of the plastic, and again, I'm thinking using a thicker cardboard would still be cheaper than the plastic.

These are the only reasons I can think of to use the plastic bobbins instead of cardboard.  Yet of the three big craft stores in town, only one carries the cardboard.  I was afraid I was going to have to special order some.

I do not get it.

Cross Stitch: Is the Laying Tool Worth It?

That's what I'm trying to decide right now.  I've been working on the Evil Tiger Cross Stitch of Doom.  It's one of those projects that I pull out whenever I get into cross stitch, and I work on it for a few weeks until I get so frustrated that I shove it back in the bag until the next cross stitch phase.  (The chart isn't well designed, in my opinion.)

I got myself a stand for help with the big projects.  Now, I'm short overall (and thus have short arms), and I'm extremely short-waisted proportion-wise on top of that, and I stitch sitting back on the couch. Each of these makes a frame a bit of a difficult decision, so finding a stand that suits me with all of them is a tricky proposal.  Add to it that I don't have a local needlework shop, means I basically have to buy to try, and most needlework frames aren't cheap.
That said, I think I got about 80% positive on my first try, and I don't expect that I could get much better.

So, I'm working on the Evil Tiger Cross Stitch of Doom with a stand.  This piece is 3 strands on 14-count Aida cloth, so the stitching is pretty dense.  Three strands mean it isn't really suitable for railroading.  To be honest, I'm somewhat dubious about railroading in general, although I do use it on pieces when I'm doing 2 strands and working in-hand.  It seems to affect the amount of twist in the individual plies, though, and that's not easy to correct.

So, I've been using a laying tool (OK, a hair stick) with the Evil Tiger Cross Stitch of Doom, and I will absolutely admit that it makes the individual stitches look better.  It also makes the work progress at a speed usually only seen in tectonic plate movements.  If I'm getting even a hundred stitches an hour I'd be shocked, and when you're doing a piece with more than 30,000 stitches...  That isn't pretty math.

I got kind of fed up this evening, put the laying tool down and started doing the work two-handed since I am working in a stand.  Whoo!  Much faster!  We're at least up to glacial speed here.  Of course, the individual stitches don't always look as nice.  But it occurs to me, there's this thing called "gallery distance".  Gallery distance is the distance from which an object is meant to be viewed, and in fine arts should at least theoretically be kept in mind when working details.  Details that are too coarse for their gallery distance appear rough, and details that are too fine can't be seen.

This thing I'm working on is a 10" by 28" picture.  It is intended to go on a wall.    Its "gallery distance" is between 2 and 15 feet.  Individual stitches are most assuredly in the "too fine to be seen" category; hell, I'm still thinking I should get a magnifier to be making them.  Now, there will be a difference in how light reflects off stitches depending on whether they are laid or not, and that may cause a difference at the gallery distance.  But if I'm observant and careful to untwist my floss when the stitches start to twist, I'm thinking that's not enough difference to be worth my sanity.

I would feel differently if I were entering competitions, but I'm not.  I do this for fun, and I can't have fun while being the level of anal required to win a dedicated cross stitch competition.  (Besides, competitions require that there be no pet hair, and that ain't happening in this house.  I do my best, but cat hairs are sneaky.)

In any event, I've got a trolley needle and a Best Laying Tool coming to me, so when they arrive I'll give them a try and see what I like.  The trolley needle in particular may get a "best of both worlds" going where I can do two-handed stitching without as much slow-down.  If not, gallery distance.  And the fact that I do this for fun, not for other people.

OMG Squee!

Hansi Singh has a book!

Hansi Singh is the mastermind behind Hansigurumi and hands down the best pattern writer in modern knitting.  I've done her squid and started her octopus, and you absolutely can not beat her for creativity or for completeness.  She documents the hell out of how to make her stuff.  I really can't say enough good things about the way she writes her patterns. 

And she's got a book out!  Amigurumi Knits!  Brand new.  The knitting store just got it in today, and they don't have it anymore, because I bought it.  (Well, hopefully they have more copies.)

I'm super glad I stayed late, because I hadn't seen it on the table earlier.  I'm not sure if Lynn or someone brought it over to look at or if Deb had set it out for perusing, but I look down and I see a book with Hansigurumi's octopus on the cover.  Oh hey, she must have contributed to a book.  Wait, that's her praying mantis.  And her hermit crab.  Oh, she's the author; it's all her stuff.  *snatch*

There's tons of stuff in here I've wanted to do, but couldn't really justify buying the individual patterns for until I was ready to make them.  The mantis, the hermit crab, the Loch Ness monster, the jackalope, and several more.  But to have a whole book of them right there in front of my face and in my hot little hand...  Yarn stores are dangerous.  It HAD to come home with me.

Now, flipping through the book I can see that not all of the photos in the stand-alone patterns were put into the book, but it looks to me like the most crucial are.  The mantis especially has tons.  So if you're a knitter and you like awesome toys, go buy this.  I'm sure you will not be disappointed.  And she's got even more in her Etsy store.

Hee, how fun!

I ordered The Best of Teresa Wentzler Fantasy Collection, Vol. 2 and it arrived today.  I'm so excited.  I want to do The Storyteller.  Or maybe The Guardian.  Or maybe start a little smaller with Above the Clouds, which is sort of a smaller and easier-to-acquire version of The Castle to my eyes.

Are y'all seeing a theme here?

I don't plan to start a new big project for a couple/three months yet.  November's NaNoWriMo, and I intend to take a go at it (with a "can bail without shame" disclaimer), which may not leave much project time or energy.  Also, I've never worked cross stitch on even weave, so I'm thinking of starting small.  My plan is to get some next time I'm out shopping (I know Hobby Lobby carries it if Michael's doesn't) and do a few Christmas ornaments for practice.  And I do need more Christmas ornaments; I still don't have very many.

But, one of these would be great to start the New Year with.  I can buy/order the supplies as a Christmas present to myself.

Blog Division

Some of you may have noticed that some entries have disappeared.  I've decided to break this blog up into three seperate ones, based on topic.

This one here will be dedicated to my hobbies, mostly various forms of handicraft (although occassional collections may slip in as well).  Hopefully I can think of a better name for it. :)

A Fine Line is dedicated to fiction.  This is where I will have my movie and book reviews, and also talk about my own writing and events like Nanowrimo.

And finally, Fire and Spice will be for my socio-political writings.

Hope I haven't messed your bookmarks up too much.

This Week In WIPs.

I thought it would be fun to show the projects I've worked on this week.  So, in no particular order...

First up, a ginormous cross stitch of a mama tiger and a few cubs.  Ultimately it will by 10" by 28" and look like this:

You can see I've got a long way to go.  I didn't do all that this week, either.  I started this thing way back maybe even in college, and I usually work on it for a few weeks, get fed up with it and shove it away somewhere for a few years before going at it again.  It's been excruciately slow.  I hope it speeds up a bit once I'm not having to sort through floss and add several new colors a row, but I think it's always going to be slow.

This time around I'm using the parking method.  I was so excited when I found out about this method.  "Oh wow, you mean the cross stitch police won't come after me if I do this?!  Yay!"  When I was taught to cross stitch, that way was verboten, but it's very logical to me.  I think it's come about because computer use in cross stitch design has resulted in a large number of modern patterns that are beautiful, but not what I would call well-designed.  I'll go into what I consider a well-designed pattern in a later entry.  For now, though, this one is not terribly well designed IMHO.

Also cross-stitching is this little kimono card.

Also started long ago and picked up again.  This little guy is living in my bed to work on while waiting for appointments and what not.  Since I have a kimono hanging on my wall, I am regularly laughing my ass off at how completely not accurate that silouhette is.  But at the same time, the actually outline of a kimono hanging with the side panels spread wouldn't translate well to cross stitch, so I can maybe forgive it.  Although they could have been a little less extreme in the wrongness.

Also worked on a piece of crazy quilting:

I need to put the cross stitch down and work on this a bit more.  The size of the tracing paper transfer isn't much smaller than the hoop, so I can't really take the hoop off between stitching.  I don't want to leave it on indefinitely, though, because it can distort the fabric.

This is part of a piece that's going to be made into a duffle bag.  The white basting you can see is lining out approximate cutting lines and where the straps will be.  This are blocks that were originally intended for a coverlet back before I had a queen-sized bed, and now I'm trying to use them in other ways.  Another week maybe I'll think to lay it out on the floor and take a picture of the whole thing.

And of course, there is the infamous Spiderman blanket:

Growth functions suck.  You can see I'm really far along on this.  I only have to do two more wide stripes, one in blue and one in red.  The problem?  Thanks to the growth function, on a stitch-count basis this is only about halfway done.  I still have 46% of this bastard to finish. :P
It's TV and social knitting.  Luckily it's a super-simple pattern; I hardly have to look at it.

Ack, I'm going blind!

I am in the midst of a Hobby Hop.

I have a tendency to dedicate myself to a craft almost exclusively for a period of time ranging from a couple of months to a couple of years, and then switch with almost no warning. The "no warning" bit is actually rather annoying, because I have a bad habit of buying the materials for the next 5 projects or so, and then they don't happen. They usually don't happen on the next round, either, because they no longer interest me.

Well, it appears that knitting is swiftly being relegated to a social and movie-watching activity while crazy-quilting and cross stitch duke it out for new art-of-choice. Cross stitching appears to be winning. This is actually kind of unfortunate, because I have a plethora of crazy quilting materials and a use for the finished objects, whereas cross stitching just sorts of sits there being a picture.

Then again, I have wall space. Pictures are nice.

So anyway, I pull out this little cross stitch kit intended to be made into a greeting card (like I'm going to send that many hours of work to someone as a throw-away card. Pfph.) that I'd started during the last cross stitch round years ago and not gotten far on, and OMG! The stitches are so small! Were they always this small? Gosh, I'm getting old!

Actually, perceptually they weren't always that small. When I first started the project, I was wearing glasses with a weaker prescription. I love my contact lenses, but the convenience and improved distance vision comes at the price of near objects appearing smaller. Not blurry, just smaller. When I could only wear them for 10-to-12 hours a day I just gave up trying to estimate sizes of anything ever, because size perception between my glasses and contacts was just too different. Now that I can wear contacts all the time, I'm getting better at guesstimating sizes again, but yes, the this project does appear smaller, and it has little to do with me getting old.

So, that feeling that you're old when you're actually not? When you've got more than half your expected lifespan left, it's just that for the first time in your life, music you listened to when it was released is now on the oldies stations and childhood toys are now collector's items and clothing styles you've worn before are back in fashion? When does that feeling stop? When does it actually get into the deep part of your brain that this is normal adulthood and not "old", and the 'everything is new' was actually part of being really terribly young?

Because academically I know I'm not old; I've hardly started. But the deep down part doesn't always listen. I'd like it to get on the bandwagon and stop the whining, please.

Barring that, you kids get off my lawn. ^_~