Making a start on a tapestry by me, is I can see not like starting a tapestry for the Tinker.
Me - see in book start an hour later with little or no preparation...it goes wrong... I stop
The Tinker - studies the chart for several days... gets it enlarged... marks it up as a grid...gets the right sized canvas (13 to the inch) ... does a lot of counting and transfers his grid to his canvas ... orders the right wool... switches off the TV and swaps to radio and audio books... sorts out his light and his magnifyer... settles into a daily routine of so many inches done per day... something most worthy of village show entry follows.
In fact we have several to choose from so this is not the one that has been entered today.
So although I have gone for very easy mickey mouse tapestry by numbers I have taken the sage advice on preparation offered by my guru and spent an afternoon at the kitchen table getting this Ehrman kit thing properly set up.
I wonder if Kath and Gillian really do pack the wool or is this a ploy to give it all the personal touch and make you feel a little more involved in the whole thing?
Because really I'll be letting Kath and Gillian down if I get this next bit wrong, to say nothing of the Spirit of Rocky who can't wait to be immortalized in a cushion, so I have made up my shade card as instructed and it took me ages.
Who knew beige and khaki came in quite so many shades? But thanks Kath and Gillian, it was all there, no queries or discrepancies so I shouldn't need to contact you at this early stage but please do stay on the end of the phone in case I need you at a later date.
Then came the stitching to the frame and I'll admit in the past I may just have hoped that one edge would stay in place with a prayer and some judicious rolling, but not this time because this has to see me through an entire series of Strictly. I sat and diligently stitched both ends to the rollers whilst listening to that nice little afternoon play on Radio 4 yesterday, about Sherlock Holmes and starring Richard Briers and Stanley Baxter.
So now I'm framed...
...and wondering if I dare do as Erika suggested in comments yesterday and go off-piste with the white to make it more Rocky-like??
But best not to run before I can walk because rather embarrassingly I had completely forgotten how to do tent stitch, or petit point as I think it might be known. I worked a row that looked really flimsy and according to the instructions was half cross-stitch and not to be recommended if one requires substance. For the life of me I couldn't make sense of the picture of the stitch and I don't know who packed that so I can't ring them to ask, and short of getting in the car and going to see my guru I have resorted to a book and now have it sorted.
So I'm launched, may god save this tapestry and all who work on it.
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