Wizard Feet on the Floor (and more)

The wizard now has a felt slipper, knit socks, and a good start on his purple under-robe and two undersleeves.

The left undersleeve has a line of couched #16 braid from Kreinik in silver, held down by silver Petite Treasure Braid. I haven't started the right sleeve yet.

Our wizard, who lives in a drafty stone building, now has wool knit socks. I used the knit stitch variation of Kaleem stitch in overdyed Impressions in the same color as the undersleeves. That's the advantage of using a variety of threads from the same company (Caron in this case)--you can get a variety of textures in a similar color. Silk takes color differently than wool and cotton and synthetics, but I have a similar color in various spots, which is good for this design.

He is also wearing black felt slippers stitched in Interlocking Goblein stitch with one ply from a skein of black Baroque silk. This is a perle-type silk thread that is not particularly shiny. It is made for 13 count canvas but you can untwist the perle and use one ply on 18 count. I'm not sure I'd recommend doing this because my black ply had light spots where the dye didn't penetrate. For some things the color variation won't matter (and it won't show unless you untwist a ply from the strand) but it looked a bit odd on the black felt shoe. I had to over stitch some areas. But it looks ok if you do that and I think the overall effect looks like the black felt Chinese slippers. By the way, I chain stitched a line around the shoe top where it met the wool sock so it looked neater.

I've also made a good start on the purple under-robe. Inspired by Whimsey Gini, I made up a stitch similar to what she used on the red pants of her first lady (see the Stitching Club canvas I posted about on Sunday night). I am doing long \ slants over 5 threads in medium plum Impressions (a silk/wool blend) that are tied down with one little backwards tent stitch in my silver Petite Treasure Braid. The effect is sort of like rows of Xs if the NW to SE slant is huge and the NE to SW slant is tiny. If that makes sense.

Here's a close up of the floor. You can see the slipper and sock better and also the mistake I made on the stone flag stitch under the shoe and going left. I am now continually adjusting the stitch on the left in each row but that's ok. I like the irregular area.

But just how do you know when you should rip out a mistake and when it is ok? Well, some of this depends on your personality. Is it going to bug the life out of you forever? If so, rip out the mistake and do it right so you don't have to avert your eyes and shudder every time you look at this piece.

If you are submitting your piece to be judged, you are better off ripping out the mistake and stitching it over. Judges will almost certainly notice and you might have points deducted from the piece.

If you are more easy-going like me (or counting challenged, also like me), then look at the overall design and decide if the mistake is noticeable or not. Remember, NC Pat had to really look to see the mistake. That tells me no casual viewer will notice. I think the stitch's getting larger and more irregular on the left side draws the eye toward the left which is where our wizard is facing and probably walking. So it is ok.

But if the design is like what Jeanne is stitching, you can bet every mistake has to be corrected.

http://juststring.blogspot.com/2008/08/good-stitching-weekend.html

What I'm trying to say is that mistakes aren't fatal. Many stitches are the result of a mistake that looked so good the stitcher kept it. It all depends on your personality and the type of piece you are stitching and why.

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow