I suppose that someone has already done a time-lapse series of a needlepoint piece being worked -- anyway, I obviously didn't take a daily photo, but it amused me to imagine the piece just sort of filling itself in, as though it were being worked in the middle of the night by elves or something.
I picked up my "Small-patterned Holbein" carpet after some months of neglect (plus somehow losing the ball of red wool and having to wait for a replacement), and took it with me to a Fourth of July do at a friend's house, and worked on it while keeping an eye on the kids in the pool. The top photo is the results of that day, which was a pleasing improvement on where it had been since I'd picked it up last, but then I got into the rhythm of it and didn't have to keep looking at the chart, and got quite far. I've just now finished the first "border" around the center section -- that solid line in a sort of brownish-purple. There are two patterned borders to come.
The canvas is just a little too small for this wool, as I have to tug rather firmly sometimes to pull it through, and my stitches do not lie as smoothly as I'd like, though that may just be me. I hope that a good blocking will take care of at least some of that -- I'm afraid the canvas is stretching dreadfully. On the other hand, much as I'd like to, I can't take all of the responsibility for uneven coverage, when Appleton's provides this:
Oh well. The colors are a bit deeper in real life -- it is already quite lovely, and will make a somberly beautiful little carpet.
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