Sauntering Vaguely Downward

Or at least, I can focus my rage down to a tiny point and stab a piece of cloth a thousand times.



I'm happy to be finished with those cream-coloured stitches, apart from a few solos. I've started on the figures. The back-stitching feels like it may actually be in view, instead of a distant dream!

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.