The last stitch

The last stitch went into the needlepoint project on Thursday; it is done!

I'm glad I decided to jump into it again, back in January. To be honest, there was a hint of possibility that I would tire and decide to put it away again, but once it got started I was into it. Many hours were spent re-viewing several old Britcom series that I especially enjoy. The experiment of hanging the frame from the ceiling, although a good idea and exciting, didn't pan out over time because the sofa was too low. Having sat for too long a while with my knees almost higher than my pelvis was taking it's toll.

It was fun meeting the challenge of coming up with yarn matches when the supply started running out and I was yet unsure how much I wanted to order. In the end, I ordered all the dark green for the thin border all around the tapestry, At 162 strands (36" long) that made up the bulk of my order. The remaining 70 strands consisted of a few different shades of green, a bit of burgandy, a bit of gold, and a bit of yellow.

My stitches improved during the course of working on this project. Stitching with a doubled yarn has a few challenges that single threads don't. Keeping the two threads lying nicely needs constant attention. It doesn't look good when one thread is directly on top of the other in the stitch. But one nice thing about doubled thread is that the thread never pulls out of the needle because the thread is looped. The pillow that I'm working on now is single thread and when the working thread becomes shorter than four or five inches, it has a tendency to get pulled out of the eye of the needle.

On the next sunny spell lasting at least a few days I will soak it and block it. I want to sew a backing onto it before hanging on the wall.