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Monday, January 21, 2013

Which WIP?

Hi everyone!  Don't you just love holidays?  Not necessarily the extended Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Years extravaganza (although don't get me wrong, that's the holiday sequence the entire rest of the year revolves around!), but the easy, 3 day MLK's birthday sort that mellows out the weekend before-hand and shortens the rest of the week to follow? I couldn't think of a better way to mark the day than to spend it stitching and updating the blog, so here I am.

On to first things first - let's get up to speed on Ann Grimshaw.  This is how her top row is looking right now.....


A few things need explaining.  You're probably wondering why the medallion second from the left is so much darker that the others?  It's not 2 different thread colorways, just two different dye lots.  When I decided to go with Finnegan's Fog, it was because I had the one dark skein of it already on hand and thought it would be an intriguing alternative to the plain old black silk the design called for.  Knowing the single skein wouldn't be nearly enough to complete Ann in all her immensity, I ordered 2 more for her without even considering the fact that the skein I had on hand was bought several years ago and might look different from what would arrive in the mail..  But I've decided to roll with the differences and use the darker skein in strategic spots to accent the overall design.  Let's just hope now that the skeins I have at this point are sufficient to get her done, because  I don't know that any further variations in tone are going to work so well. 


In my haste to get as much done on Ann as I possibly could while yesterday's football hype was on, I plunged on ahead with the center design of the unfinished medallion on the far left.  Such great progress! All that solid stitching was flying into place, right up until the point where it became apparent that something was not going to work.  Oh crap, what have I done?!  Sure enough, the entire pointy cornered center of that half circle is off by a thread.  Of course, I can't live with it that way, and of course, the entire thing will have to come out.  But instead of pulling it out in a fit of fury, I calmly left it as is for the time being and went off to work on a nice friendly-looking bouquet  of ivy on the other end.   Sooner or later I know I'll have to suck it up and pull it out, but if I have to do it right now, I might just put the whole thing down and go back to knitting socks...

The incident did send me off to my WIPs box though, where I comforted myself by retrieving two golden oldies, both of which only need a little bit of love in order to be entered into the finished column.  I was thinking it might be fun to take an informal survey here - which one would you work on if it were your choice?

Option number 1: 



Blue Dwelling is My Station, by Little by Little Designs.  It's been so long since I've worked on this that I couldn't remember why I didn't finish it?  But then I realized that even though there was a multitude of floss skeins inside the chart sleeve, none of them corresponded to what the design actually called for.  Hhhmmmm.....I must have not had what I needed and made a sorry attempt at improvising before I gave up and moved on to greener pastures.  Well, I'm wiser now. A a quick trip to Michael's this afternoon and I could be back in business.  

Or, there's Option number 2:



Birds and Beasts Sampler, by the Drawn Thread.  There is absolutely no reason in the world why this cool little piece isn't done already.  You can see it's two thirds of the way stitched, and it wouldn't take more that a few evenings to knock it out of the park.  Could it be that some of it is worked up with a skein of Needle Necessities that's gone AWOL and finishing it without that same said skein is too distasteful to consider? 

So, please help me out here! Should I:

1. Put on the big girl panties and get on with the dirty work of Ann Grimshaw's bungled motif?
2.  Get in my car and make the run to Michael's for the missing DMC's needed for Blue Dwelling is my Station?
or
3. Spend the afternoon rooting around in the stash depths for that one missing Needle Necessities skein that will be the only acceptable choice for Birds and the Beasts? 


As always, thanks so much for taking the time to stop by.  However you choose to spend you MLK Day, I hope it involves a needle and thread!

10 comments:

Krista said...

All your WIPs look like fun but....I vote for Ann Grimshaw! :) It is looking so pretty in the color you chose. I am going to start her today! I have chosen a solid dmc color but will add a few colors here and there I think. Enjoy your day off stitching!

Bertie said...

I would advise to do them all in your big girl panties LOL, it's all part of the fun and stitching should be. They are fabulous. I did wonder if you ever got your little ornaments fixed, looking through your blog I saw what you did and haven't we all been there!! Marly's advice was quite good and might use it myself:))
Have a fabulous 2013!

Margaret said...

Oh so pretty!! Bummer about the ripping necessary in Ann. And the different dye lots -- I hate when that happens! Love your other two WIPs too! It's hard to choose between the three -- they're all wonderful! I might go with Ann though.

Teresa S. said...

Oh, my, your choices are tough ones. But I vote for going the easiest route to a finish!
So #3-start digging for the missing thread and get this one into the finish column.
(But I love them all)

Nicola said...

Definitely Ann. Can you giggle the motif as it is only out by one thread.

Siobhán said...

I'm with Nicola, I'd frog out Ann. I am lax about a lot of things but for whatever reason, I tend to frog out my mistakes right away, but I think it's because given the chance, I'd wrap up the piece in a ball and never get back to it. BTW, I like it with the different skeins. I find that I spend so much time getting overdyed threads and overdyed linens that sometimes it's nice to have the different dye lots.

Lois said...

I love the contrast of the different dye lots and think it will work fine. Sorry to hear that you're facing some frogging. I've been doing the same thing with the LA D Da piece. Seems like every time I work on it I make an error but only realise later on! As for the other two you've unearthed.....both deserve to be finished but sounds like the kind of day to just sit and stitch on Ann.

HollyXSing said...

You better get those big girl panties on;)

I vote for Ann!

-Holly in VA

Carol said...

I guess I'm in the minority--I think I'd take a break from Ann and get the needed DMC to work on Blue Dwelling for a while. Sometimes we need some "comfort stitching" to soothe us after making a mistake in our stitching and then we can return to it with renewed interest :)

All of these looks so pretty, Mary!

Linda said...

Take out the threads first and redo that portion. Because it will hang in the back of your mind and haunt you! LOL! Once that is done, then you can move on to running to Michaels to get your threads and see what else you might find to capture your fancy!

Linda in VA