Noah's Ark

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Part of the reason why I have been showing more knitting than cross stitch lately is that I was stuck on working on this piece. I have come to dread working on all of the over-one animals. It can be very discouraging to work for such a long time and have only a brown mass of stitches to show for it. It must be time to do some work on the ark vignette.

I didn’t think that I would actually finish the musk ox. There were so many stitches and I was so demoralized that I was tempted to just quit early. However, I finished all of the stitches and decided that I could at least start backstitching. When I realized that I was over ten hours, I had such a small part left to stitch that I just finished.

Note to self: It helps to be watching a movie when working on a section that is causing so many problems.

Up until now I have avoided backstitching the over-one animals on this piece, partly because I didn’t feel up to the task. This time through the rotation I decided that the time had come to so some outlining. As I began working on the camels, I realized that I should have been doing this earlier. Backstitching around such small stitches is laborious and dispiriting. Making French knots as small as possible so that they can pass as eyes is even worse. So I have spent the whole rotation in backstitch and French knot purgatory. If I had waited until all of the animals were stitched, I honestly don’t know if I would have had the courage to actually finish the piece. From now on, when a pair of animals have been completed, they will be backstitched as well.

This piece represents my first attempt at over-one cross stitching. I have had to get used to working forever on an itty-bitty area without much to show for it. I still haven’t got the courage to try backstitching one of those little animals. The last time I worked on this piece, I decided to actually work on the ark scene. Judging by how much I got done, there is the potential for finishing all of the “big” crosses and being stuck with just having the animals left. I guess that I will have to ration my time on the middle of the piece.