Revisiting the irises

The yarn on order arrived this week. I've finished stitching the main pattern and I'm now working on the outside border. It's goes pretty quickly and I expect to be finished sometime in the coming week.

Scrolling back the tapestry on it's frame, to access the borders, I've come across the Irises that I "made work" a while back due to the pale yellow yarn having run out. Although happy enough with the choice to use a gold-ish color to stitch the shadow areas of that Iris, I have not been thoroughly pleased with the out come; I thought it looked a bit 'messy'. The contrast was too stark and obvious, in my opinion, and not in keeping with the Medieval look and feel of the pattern.

When I placed the order for extra yarn, the Iris had been out of mind for a while and it did not occur to me to order a few threads of the pale yellow. Never mind. But as I pondered the situation this morning, I decided to have another look at my stash of yarns. I had found some light gold tapestry wool at the thrift shop a month or so ago, and as is my habit, took it home for my stash. On closer inspection, this color would seem to work better than the darker gold I used.

So I tore out the gold. Finished needlepoint does not frog easily, let's just say that. It takes patience and great care and attention not to cut into, or dislodge any stitches that are to remain. But I got the gold removed and stitched in the lighter yarn.

Oh, I think the result is a huge improvement and now I'm happy in a settled way. The difference between the pale yellow and the pale gold is very slight, almost unnoticeable. So much better. Mind you, I would have been fine keeping my original 'make do' had an alternative not been available. Glad I took the time to revisit this Iris.

The original "make it work" solution (I can see from the date of the picture, this was March 17th!):

How it looks now with the lighter, closer, match: