Third Time's The Charm

I think I've finally got the hang of how to do a HAED. And it only took me my third start.

This is one of this year's freebie SALs on the HAED yuku board. I narrowed my list to two and then went with the one that looked like it had less confetti: Heather



I finished half a page; which I think is the most I've done on a HAED.


Heather
25ct Antique White Lugana
I resisted block-by-block stitching and parking because I thought that my usual way of cross country by colour in large patches would be fine. And it's a method that works very well for me. But not on HAEDs. Even using multiple highlighters I would miss stitches and it never seemed like I was making any progress which was disheartening. So I finally sucked up my pride, read up on how multiple HAED finishers do and it and went block by block with parking. Because this pattern has so much black I switched to column by column after the first column. I'm not sure if it's faster, but there's progress that I can see, and I want to keep going. That alone means that this method is clearly the only way I can do a HAED.

So the lesson for the day is: don't be too proud to try something new if your old method doesn't work. Yes, you may have to eat some silent crow, but at the end of the day it might just work out better :)

That said: I'm still sticking with my usual haphazard way for everything else!

Lovely in Red

Thank you for the warm welcome back!

I've been struggling to take a decent picture of my New Year's Start. I don't have a good track record with NYS; my last two are still WIPs. But I couldn't resist.

I started Maia's Misaki, which will look like this when finished:

This is where I am right now:

Misaki
32 ct Ruby Wine Lugana
And she's already proven to be very demanding. Maia does kits, which I don't mind. BUT! The original fabric was 16ct red aida, which would have been all right except that there are a ton of quarter stitches, so I switched it out for a lovely 32ct Ruby Wine lugana. And the floss is Anchor which frays so much. I have to use lengths 1/3 of usual DMC length and I find the ends still fray a tiny bit. I don't want to go shorter because it already feels like I spend more time threading than stitching. And of course, three shades of similar reds on red fabric. Well, at least she'll look stunning when finished!

ETA: The whole piece is stitched including the background. She's in full crosses and the background is half crosses in 2-3 strands.

The Most Progress

I had a few new starts while on break and I made the most progress on Cirque des Triangles. If the colours look familiar it's because this is the exact same fabric and floss as Cirque des Cercles. I've always planned on doing all the Cirques in the same combination.

There's now also Cirque des Coeurs which I have to pick up.


Cirque des Triangles
32 ct Lemon Whip Lugana, DMC 115
As with Cercles I'm trying to make sure that dark leads to dark and light to light but it's a lot tougher on this one. Or maybe it's been so long that it just feels harder?

Also: When I went on hiatus I was still using the old Blogger interface so it was a massive shock to come back to a complete change. It took me way too long to find everything!

*Blows Off Dust*

Hello?

Is this thing still on?

Anybody still out there?

I've missed you all so much! It felt so strange being completely out of the loop. But I'm back!

I've had a couple of new starts. No finishes and progress on some WIPs since I was last here. Pictures tomorrow.