Leftovers

Day 43: You may recall from a post I made two weeks ago that I was worried I was going to run out of one of the purples in a counted cross-stitch kit, and that I expressed a negative opinion of kits in general due to the fact that many of them seem to always run short of one or more colours. I have only one four-inch line of backstitch to do before the piece is complete, so I have brought together all the leftovers to make my point. What you see in the background in this photo is the excess, colours for which the company supplied an overabundance. In the foreground, however, the needle holds the very last fragment of purple #14223 which predictably does not match any of the standard brands of embroidery floss on the market. That said, it was enough for all the charted stitches, if only barely. If I'd had to make one more backstitch, I'd have needed to unthread and rethread the needle to get it through the canvas. Surfeit and shortage! The incongruity boggles my mind.

Cross-stitch Cross-eyed

Day 30: Some time ago, a friend was clearing out her project stash and asked me if I could use any of the kits she was preparing to take to a thrift shop. I don't generally like to work from kits for several reasons, but the primary one is that they are invariably short on one or more colours. This factor aside, even the most experienced and skilled needleworker can make mistakes. As far as I am concerned, mistakes are not allowed. If they are noticed, they must be picked back and replaced with the correct stitches. When picking back, it's not always possible to salvage the thread. If you're already working with a kit which is short on one colour, this can be disastrous, especially if the kit has been manufactured using custom colours (and many of them are). Nevertheless, I accepted my friend's offer of her discards and brought home several which I thought would make nice gifts for specific friends. They've sat on the shelf for six or seven years now, so I figured it was time to get at least one of them out of the way. I've been pecking away at this one for several months now, and yes, I've hit the dreaded Kit Shortage in a colour which can't be matched in DMC. I think I will have enough to complete the project, but I am down to saving every two-inch long "tail." The irony is that while I may run out of dark purple, I am going to wind up with an overage of at least a dozen strands of cream!