On My Needlework Stand

STITCHING UPDATE #2



Hi again, things have been going well here... I hope you've been well too.

The Violet

There was a bit more ripping out and one colour needed to be changed but, overall, this area needed very little adjustment.

Here's how it went while stitching the Violet...

NOTE TO SELF #1 reads "Erase these stitches". One of the Violet's petals was a bit clumsy... removing a few stitches created a more streamlined contour.

NOTE TO SELF #2 "These 2 purples are too close". I'd chosen three shades of purple for the Violet and, already, two of them appeared so close that they may as well have been stitched with the same colour. (Actually, using fewer shades would be an option in a larger needlework design but, since this is a very small piece, each shade is essential to creating detail.) I've replaced DMC 550 with DMC 327 Dark Violet and I must remember to adjust the chart, key and thread list to show this substitution.

The top picture (over there on the right) shows the 3 purple shades that I'd originally selected... DMC 154, 550 and 333.

Hmm, that was interesting. None of DMC's palest purple-lilac-lavenders really fill the position of the third shade of purple very well. But, DMC 341 (Hydrangea Blue) shows like the perfect pale lavender when it's right beside DMC 327 and 154. I'll use it here but will have to keep an open mind later on when a pale lavender is needed for the Pansy... it may require a fourth purple-ish colour. Unfortunately, it's was very cloudy when I took these photos (not to mention a bitter-cold that measured Windchill -30 Celcius!) I hope you're able to see that the middle purple in the lower picture is quite lighter than the one in the first photo. And I'm afraid that you'll just have to believe me when I say that the palest thread colour (DMC 341) appears lilac in this context.

You may have noticed that I've been using some new colour descriptions for the DMC threads. Although DMC states that it identifies colours solely by number, I've found a couple of sources that give word descriptions for the thread colours. Since first starting to design needlework charts, I've used the descriptions that are shown on DMC's North American website. Go to dmc-usa.com and click on "Quick References". This list has been useful but I've always found the names a bit mundane.

Then, I stumbled upon DMC's European site and was delighted by the descriptions they provided. After all, who wouldn't rather stitch with Lettuce Heart Green (3348); Cappuccino Brown (3790) and Igloo Blue (3841) than Light Yellow Green; Ultra Dark Beige Grey and Pale Baby Blue? I realize that these rather exotic names might not be precise enough for all charts, but I'll use them whenever it's convenient and appropriate.

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