One stitch at a time

the @hidinginyourwifizine is out today! it's a free PDF of different reimaginings of my girl Hatsune Miku, and of course I had to make mine a cross-stitch one 🪡

My kid is repairing a Hallowe'en costume (that I made for the one evening, not for the amount of wear that they've put into it). They have bias binding to cover where the neckline hem has come out, and because we couldn't find a perfect colour she wants to embroider something geometric (repeating) on it.

a few other borders from the same site, plate 10 looks promising

How is the back of your piece looking?

I was always told the back should be as neat as the front but I have NEVER managed it. And I can't even say it can't be done because my mum had a piece she flat framed between two panes of glass so she could show it off. She has also kept such wizardry to herself (she hasn't stitched in like 30+ years at this point so she also just might not remember) can anyone give a girl a few tips?

Also that is a stress you don't need to add to the hobby. I've stitched over 100 pieces and I can not look at most of them and tell you if the back is messy or not.

twin peaks sampler is complete!! now I need to stitch it actually… hopefully it won’t take 1000 years.

This is a incredibly rare find. A ball of yarn made from stinging nettle fibers in the Late Neolithic (5900 years old) in what’s now Marin-Epagnier in Switzerland. The thread has been preserved by being carbonized. Look at how much thread that is! And how fine and even it is spun! The skill going into this is absolutely incredible. Imagine the incredible textile work that must’ve been made with that. For a reference here’s a ball of nettle yarn I managed to make with a drop spindle. That took me 300 hours of work.

reference:

the proportions on the header band have improved, but I think I maybe should have doubled the weft threads for the warp.

I started weaving the spear, penelope, and the right border via double-weave with the intent to leave the remaining warp threads unwoven (as they would be on penelope's loom on the pot), but predictably this is giving me tension problems. I either need to increase the loom weights or just weave the black layer and leave the orange warp threads unwoven, and then switch colors once I get to the heddle bars in the drawing, with the black warp threads floating on top. (I guess weft-faced tapestry would be a third option, if I add a ton more tension.)