Spring Into Summer New Start Binge - #1 In The Gloaming

Hi all!

This is the beginning of a completely bonkers 17 weekend-long new start binge which came about mostly, but not inclusively, as a result of the postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Stitching Challenge planned for later this year (which has now been rescheduled in line with the Olympic dates for 2021 if you're interested).

Tiff will be joining me for the whole 17 weekends, and you are more than welcome to join in and stitch along for as many or as few weekends as you wish, be it with new starts, WIPs or a combination of both.

So let's get going with new start number one.

This is a project both Tiff and I were desperate to stitch, so we thought it would make the perfect first new start. It is In The Gloaming by Whispered By The Wind.

But it was definitely not a straight-forward start.

I thought it would be fun to start with the top of the monument but what a disappointment the colours were! I really like the sandstone colours in the cover picture, but the suggested threads were far too dull and, I think you'll agree, NOTHING like the photo:

Tiff had bought the kit of In The Gloaming, and it just so happened to include the 'yellow' conversion for the cover colours. Brilliant! Only these are the colours suggested... the palest two looked OK but the other two? Far too orange and, I think you'll agree again, NOTHING like the cover picture! How could the threads suggested by the actual designer be so wrong?

So, Tiff and I went thread diving for the two darker colours and came up with our own combination. They weren't perfect but they're so much better than those recommended by the designer. You can see them on the left in the picture below.

I restarted the project late Saturday and continued into Sunday but, guess what? I still wasn't completely happy! I thought the 'white' looked a bit too harsh so frogged that and replaced it with the yellow, which meant frogging the yellow already stitched (there wasn't much) and replacing that with another colour. But that 'another colour' was too close to the yellow when stitched and so I ended up frogging both again!

To cut a long story short (I know, too late!) I tried numerous combinations in order to find two colours which were dissimilar enough to actually show the difference but as close to the cover picture as possible. And guess what? I ended up returning to the white I had frogged in the first place! The threads in the photo below don't look as if they match the stitched piece but they do in real life; my camera's just rubbish at picking up colours correctly.

So, after stitching and deliberating and restarting and frogging and stitching and frogging and deliberating and stitching and frogging and stitching again, this is how much I actually achieved over the weekend - not a lot really considering how much time I spent on it in total!

Stitched on 32ct Vintage Grey murano evenweave 2 over 2

Stitching time to date - 2 hours 40 minutes
(plus goodness knows how long frogging, deliberating and restitching!)

I'm still not completely happy as I think the brown behind the skull isn't quite dark enough, but I'll wait until I pick this up again before even thinking about changing that. The top of the monument is sort of separate from the rest so I may be able to change colour without frogging what I've done. If not, oh well, it's about the only part which hasn't been frogged to date so is probably feeling left out!

I'm already looking forward to my next new start on Saturday, although sincerely hope it doesn't turn out to be as dramatic as this one!

Take care,
Rachel x