Now, on to today's post. Not last weekend, but the one before, I spent the whole time working on hemming up some drapes that I bought online. I had planned to purchase these drapes in 2017, but Hubby came home with the news that he was laid off. The drapes were kind of expensive, so I cancelled my plans. Then, 3 weeks ago or so I was just browsing drapes, wishing, and I came across my favorite ones on clearance sale for $10 bucks a panel for the 95 inch long ones. The length I actually needed, 84 inches, was not on sale. "Well!" I thought. "I have a sewing machine and I know how to use it!". I ordered them. I got eight panels for 4 windows. Two windows in the living area, and two in the dining area. (These are one giant room.)
Each panel is 51 inches wide. They are made of Voile, which is a slippery fabric to work with. I chickened out on doing them on the sewing machine and decided to do them by hand. That's 408 inches of drape I hemmed. It took the whole weekend, but I got them done and now they're hanging. Here's a crappy pic. There is quite a bit more daylight in the house now.
Anyway, to get to the point, on Monday morning my right thumb was sore and very swollen. Apparently, it was too much hemming. So I didn't do any stitching on the bicycle picture for a few days. I did a bit of knitting, which didn't hurt anything at all. I'm working on the first sleeve of the cardigan.
I was trying to make the purl side the right side because it looked so pretty, but after frogging the sleeve 3 times, I gave up on that idea. Just couldn't seem to make it look nice at the row changes. So, knit side it is.
This past weekend, my thumb was still a little sore, but I figured it was safe to work on the cross stitch a little bit. Here's where I am on it. Working on the window in the background.
Unfortunately, I seem to have over done it, and now my thumb is super swollen and hurting. I've been plying it with ice packs, which is helping. Sigh. No stitching this week for sure. 😒
While I was stitching away, I got to thinking about laying tools. I sold them when I had my shop. I started wondering how they work and looked them up on YouTube. That is when I learned about Railroad.
A laying tool is used to keep the strands of thread parallel to each other while stitching. This allows for maximum coverage of each square and looks a lot neater. (They're also great for doing satin stitch.) I want to improve the look of my cross stitch, cuz sometimes it gets to looking quite sloppy with strands twisting and crossing each other. However, after watching videos, I'm not interested in laying tools. To much effort. Railroad, on the other hand...
Railroad is a simple technique to get the strands to lay parallel without using a special tool. It works best when using 2 strands of thread, which is the most commonly used in cross stitch.
You start by putting your needle between the two strands,
push the needle through the hole and draw the thread through,
then finish the stitch. You can see here how the strands lay parallel and flat.
It's a little slower going, but looks so much nicer. Definitely worth the trouble. I'm so glad I got curious about laying tools. I love it when I learn something new and useful.
We got some much needed rain over this last weekend. Yay! It knocked down the smoke in the air, and the temperature has dropped considerably. The heat wave is over. It's going to be cooler the rest of the week. Perfect deck knitting weather. Also helpful in putting out wild fires. There are a lot of them around us.
My husband has a job! He's been hired by North Idaho College to teach 3 computer programming classes. It's not much money. Practically nothing, and no benefits, but it could lead to a full time position if he plays his cards right. He announced this morning he's going for his doctorate at the same time. So he's set himself up for some very busy weeks ahead.
The North Idaho State Fair opened over the weekend. Me and Ruth should figure out which day we're going. Today I have knitting at the library.
Live long and prosper. \\//
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