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Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Striking fear into a counted-thread lover's heart

Two words:  RANDOM and NATURAL.

Those two words are part of the reason that Cinders has lingered in the WIP pile. While most of the design is counted, her hair is not. The hair is stitched in three shades of DMC floche using stem stitch, and it's up to the stitcher to place those lines of stem stitch more or less randomly such that it looks natural. Aack!

I cheated a bit when I started. I looked at Marion's picture of the original, and I used a pencil to sketch in the general flow that would be stitched in the darkest shade. For subsequent rows of stem stitch, I've tried to keep  random and natural in mind. Yes, I ripped out a bit, but I think I'm done.

What do you think? Do I need to fill in any of the spaces? Does anything look really odd?


10 comments:

Jane said...

I think her hair looks very lovely. Don't think you should add any more, it seems very balanced to me.

Cindy said...

I agree with Jane, hair looks great! I echo your thoughts on the dreaded words "random" and "natural".

The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure said...

Here's where I differ as a painted canvas person. Random or natural are just another set of instructions to me. And easier ones, too, because I can refer to nature instead of having to count up three, over four, etc. and miss the count a lot.

It's just a different mindset I have, that's all. I can learn to count, you can learn to do "random."

I think the hair looks good. Let it be!

Katrina said...

I think her hair is perfect and very natural.

Karen said...

"Random" and "natural" -- I don't know which word is scarier. I just know that my random stitches generally don't end up looking very natural!

That said, yours is absolutely spot on. The hair looks great -- she's beautiful.

(And I AM going to try your sugar & olive oil mixture from the previous post!)

Carol said...

I also have an abnormal fear of the instruction "random"!

I think the hair looks ownderful. It's finished... leave it.

Anonymous said...

I think you did a great job with her hair. RANDOM and NATURAL are words that stretch us and help us grow. They do give me pause when I see them in instructions but once I get started I find I enjoy the challenge.

Missy Ann said...

She's beautiful. I should have hair so lovely.

Kathy A. said...

Oh she is gorgeous. I love her hair just the way it is.

Lindsay said...

I think her hair looks wonderful and you should leave it as it is