Sunday 1 March 2020

February WIPocalypse

Well, fun facts first: as I start writing this post, it's actually 11:59pm on February 29th, so I am technically on time for this second WIPocalypse post of the year! And now the minute has passed, it's March 1st, and I'm officially late, hahaha :D

Okay, joke aside, it's time for the leap year WIPocalpyse - yes, Measi gave us an extra week this month (so we're posting on leap day instead of last Sunday) and I did my best to make good use of it. The question of the month was In honor of “Leap Year,” tell the story of a time you had to make some sort of a “leap” in stitching – taking the chance on a new style of stitching, attending a meetup or class, etc. I think my biggest leap happened when I decided to start a Teresa Wentzler less than a year after getting back into stitching (after first starting aged ten or so, and a 10+ year break after that). I just joines deviantArt and met some great people there, who had just decided to make 2014 the 'Year of TW'. So I just took the plunge, bought a ton of patterns and kits and finally settled on starting Peacock Tapestry on January 1st! Where is it now, you ask? Well...here's the last picture I have, sometime in...still 2014, probably? And I haven't really touched it since:


But then that was also the year I finished my first TW because my grandma had fallen in love with Angel of Frost, so that was my first time really dealing with specialty stitches and beads and OHMYGOD all those blends and backstitching and...you know the drill.


I think I was never really scared to try out new stuff and jumped right into every challenge (except for Hardanger. Like, cutting your stitching? That shit is scary!) along the way. Which sounds much braver than I actually am, I just enjoy traing out new stuff!

So, now for some actual new stitching. I am SALing The Loneliness of Autumn with Rachel the TenHourStitcher. We're both using different versions of the chart by different designers, but we're both stitching extreme cross country starting with the most used colour. You can see her 20 hour/two month update here, and my progress right here: 


Hers looks like so much more progress, but I swear we're about the same way in! So some stats, I'm stitching with DMC 939, which has a total 16.670 stitches. So far I have done 4.794 of them, which amounts to a total of 4.03% of the project. This design is 5 and a bit pages across, and five and a bit from top to bottom, and so far I've done the 939 on almost five of them...quite a bits to go yet! It has taken me 26:07h to get this far. So...on to the next 2000 stitches or so? So far I've managed to work on this every day, because January and February have been really quiet, but starting March, it seems I'm getting back to my traveling-to-people-and.being-traveled-to ways, at least a bit, so we'll see how I'll hold up!

6 comments:

Pamela said...

The TW pieces are gorgeous. I used to do quite a bit of cross stitch, before I discovered other counted techniques (like hardanger!). Maybe I'll get a TW chart one of these days. It might be hard to decide on only one.

I don't know how you can keep such accurate track of your stitches and time. I wouldn't last a day trying to track it before I'd be hopelessly confused by it all.

Rachel said...

TWs are definitely a leap of faith... or so I've heard... but so worth the effort, as your beautiful Angel Of Frost shows.
All the SALs you join in with are also a leap of faith when you think about it - trusting the host to keep going and other SAL-ers to join in.
TLOA is looking good. I think my 310 and 939 cover about the same sort of area as just your 939 alone, so mine will look more dense and like yours once I start the second colour. :)

Rachel said...

PS Congratulations for being so close to getting this post up on the actual day!! :)

Carol said...

Good luck with your TW piece, Leonore! They are really so very lovely, but so intricate--I knew I would never have the patience for one. I've always been too scared to try hardanger, too. I'm running out of time at my age :)

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

Jumping into a TW is a real leap! The border looks lovely, you should get back to that one soon!
But at least you finished the Angel of Frost instead.
Nice progress on the Autumn SAL.

Astrids dragon said...

So does that mean you're going to start Peacock Tapestry again?
No wonder your Grandma loved Angel of Frost, she's gorgeous!
It will be nice to see your Loneliness of Autumn come together, Rachel's too!