Cross-stitch rediscovered

[nanila]

I got bored with the 365 question meme after the end of February and have no plans to restart it. I can, however, thank it for one thing: reigniting my interest in cross-stitch. I was taught to cross-stitch by an eccentric great-aunt when I was around eight years old, on the plastic frames with thick yarn. As I grew older, I graduated to the Aida cloth patterns, and eventually to linen before I lost interest in my teens.

The offhand answer to one of the meme questions prompted an Etsy search and I purchased a couple of beginner-level kits from KnitKnotKrafts (UK). Behold, my first cross-stitch in over twenty years:

  Map of Africa


The back is a hot mess because I had forgotten that you don't tie knots in the thread, you just leave a tail and stitch over it:



I just completed a second, which is a gift for my Cthulhu-loving sister-out-law.

Octopus (sans eyes)


Much tidier back:



I feel this is an excellent step to be taking toward my bonkers blue-rinse little-old-lady aspirations.

I'm spending my Easter break on a more difficult pattern with flowers and hummingbirds. Once I've finished that, I'll get some more from Fandom Cross Stitchery. No prizes for guessing which is my favourite.

Comments

[angrboda]

In my opinion how you start or finish your threads in nobody's business but yours. I don't hold with making the back look super-duper tidy at all costs. So long as no carried thread is visible from the front, I do what is easier. I don't intend to show off the back of my work, so who cares how it looks?
I can however recommend the loop start if you're stitching with an even number of threads. It's a super easy way to start a thread because you don't have to make sure you're stitching over the end, and there's no wasted thread.

[nanila]

Oh, that is a top tip, thank you! I'll try it. :)

[perennialanna]

The loop start is absolutely brilliant for isolated stitches too.

My backs are very neat because my paternal grandmother was terrifying and would always turn a piece of work over to castigate you for sloppiness. Ten years of that treatment as I learned to stitch mean that I cannot but stitch neatly now. I am a lot less inclined to think it matters now.