Another One Bites The Dust

I finished the ornaments! Now I just need a place for them to go.  As usual, I have supplies left over.  I think I will just toss the extra bit of plastic canvas, because really, I will not be doing much with plastic canvas, and if I do, I have a large piece in my crafting stash.  I was hoping to use the yarns for felting designs onto things, maybe making very simple hats and felting a cute design on them for my sisters for Christmas, but alas, they are acrylic.  I suppose I could embroider the designs on, but I was really hoping to felt them, and the bright colors would have been perfect for such a use.  Thus far, they are knotted by color and are hanging out in my scraps bag.  Too much to toss, too little to be of much use.  Maybe I'll make some of those glass ball ornaments for Christmas and use that for inside...

Ornaments on my mini tree, how cute!

Details: Bucilla kit from forever ago, threw out the pertinent info in a happy dance after completion!

Materials: Acrylic yarn and cotton thread on plastic canvas, tapestry needle that came with the kit.

Timeline: Approximately 3.5 years.  I bought them my third year in college, fall I think, and I believe I tore into them right away, because they were new! shiny! and looked quick and easy at first.

With this finished, and still in the throes of the cross stitching bug, I have moved on to the Mickey Mouse and Fireman Art of Disney cross stitch.  I'm going with this one next because out of the two Art of Disney designs I've started stitching, this one is smaller, even though it is not as far along percentage-wise.  It's 16" x 20" frame size, but only161 x 224 (36,064 total) stitches versus the Past, Present, Forever design which is an 18" x 24" frame size with about 220 x 265 (58,300 total) stitches.  More than 50% more stitches because there is almost no "white" space (non-stitched seafoam green canvas) while in the first one there is a lot of white space.

I've mentioned before the issues I've had with this one.  There was some sort of dyeing error, or they just put the wrong color in for one of the colors.  Along with the correct color; I wouldn't have noticed if it had been all the incorrect color.  I know that Stoney Creek is really good about sending additional thread if you run out or if there is a problem, but since I needed so

little, the postage would have cost more than just getting it when I was at Jo-Ann Fabrics.  The kits list the DMC thread color for everything, so finding the correct thread color was not a problem.  DMC's dye lots are so consistent that everything that was already stitched in the old color matched so well I have no need to rip and re-do.  I did need to figure out which of the two colors was incorrect, and since I'd used both in the piece already, rip out all of the incorrect areas.  Luckily for me, out of the seven strands of DMC 370, three were incorrect, and I'd caught it before using two of them.  I didn't use it for the blended areas, just some of the plain areas, so was able to take that out and re-stitch.  See the one that is more brown versus the greener color?  The brown one is incorrect.

Of course, I ripped out the problem section and started right in before taking a picture of the now correctly stitched canvas, so here's a picture after I took out the incorrect thread and added the fireman's helmet.  There's also more yellow on the jacket, the same yellow that is used in the helmet.  Sad to take out so much work, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been, so not too many complaints.  I'm passed it, and it's been re-stitched already.  At this point, I'm quite far along since I just haven't wanted to work on either of my non-traveling knitting projects.  I have my Absinthe in my purse for when I'm out and about, and then an alpaca lace stole and stranded sport-weight wool.  Both patterns, while not actually complex, are more complex than I'm interested in, and the deliciousness of the fibers is not so amazing in the summertime.  I'm on the torso of the cardigan, so a lap full of thick wool is not appealing, and while I love the lace and beading, the alpaca is just a bit sticky while I'm sitting on the couch sans air conditioning.  I don't think I'll be finishing the cross stitch this year, since I have some more sample knitting to attend to once it arrives in the mail, but any progress is good progress, so I'm happy to keep on going while the mood stays!