My cross-stitch progress has slowed somewhat, after a busy Saturday and even busier week at work. I spent a bit of Sunday working away though, and am hoping to work a little more this weekend if I can.

I got a bit tired of all the black and gray parts and switched over to the orange, which is actually a blend or orange and yellow and only half of a cross stitch. I haven’t done much of blending thread colors before, or varying stitches, but the effect is really quite nice.

I also tried to make some stickers last weekend, using Japanese papers (yuzen), a paper punch, and an adhesive machine. I was thinking of selling some on my Etsy store, just to see if there’s interest, but first I need to make a few more and take photos.

I also sent off my part of the Paper Swap a few weeks ago (cards and envelopes I made), and since then have been getting various parts from the other folks in the swap. My favorites have been some prints of various images, including a card from Frantic Meerkat and an assortment of prints from Snow Owl.

It was so hot yesterday that I just couldn’t sit and cross-stitch, or read, or do much else last night. I did a few stitches and then gave up, because it was so uncomfortable. It’s not too bad today, but the whole week is expected to be pretty hot, so it’ll be a repeat of yesterday I’m sure. That and I have plans in the evening.

I had a slow day at work though, so I ended up messing around with a few cross-stitch-related things. First, I tried playing around with an image in Photoshop, to see how difficult it would be. It isn’t so bad, but I didn’t have an easy way of figuring out the floss colors, so I let that sit.

At home later I fixed PC Stitch on my new laptop and it is so much easier than messing with Photoshop! I had an old copy that I bought off of eBay awhile ago, and once I sorted out some errors, I was generating patterns like nothing. I’ll need to clean a few up, but this will make it pretty easy, once I find my images. I think I might use something from a Japanese web graphics site I like, called Fool Lovers.

In the middle of my playing around, I ended up on the DMC web site, to find info on their flosses. It turns out that they’ve created a line of Hello Kitty stitching kits and patterns, including some cross-stitch. I’m not really enamored with Hello Kitty for the most part, but if you are, you should take a look at the new collection. (If you’d rather go for free Sanrio patterns though, I would highly recommend Sanrio DIY Crafts.)

On a non-cross-stitch note, I woke up this morning to find an Etsy order for a few handmade items in my store. I haven’t sold anything handmade there in what feels like such a long time, so that was nice. Not that I’ve been adding anything new to it, or doing very anything much to promote it, so I guess that’s not a surprise. It’s funny because I’m trying to close down my eBay store for now, because I’d like a break from it, but I think I’m ok with leaving my Etsy store open. I’ve had some ideas for new things I could make and post there, and maybe eventually I’ll get around to doing that.

I worked on my new cross-stitch project a little further today, and here’s where I was as of this afternoon:

I also tried searching around for some more interesting patterns, and had a little bit of luck on some Korean and Japanese sites. Nothing more than a small image here or there, but enough to get me thinking that maybe I should just sit down and find some images to make my own patterns with.

I did also order a kit designed by Pinn Stitch, the company that made the Ganesh one I did awhile ago. It’s a bit larger than I realized though, so I don’t know if I’ll jump right into that one after the current one is done, but we’ll see. The previous kit I had from them was really well done though, so that’s good at least.

Thanks for everyone’s comments on yesterday’s post by the way. Ismoyo recommended the Knitpro tool for converting images into charts; it’s similar to another tool I remember trying out, though that one has been taken down and turned into a craft store instead.

And Distel guessed that the design might be of a butterfly; it’s not, but I can see how it might look that way. What does it look like today?

Well, I picked out a cross-stitch kit, even if it’s not really my thing. It was the least awful one I could find, and not too large, though it seems that it has a bit of extra stitching too. I’m not really looking forward to the french knots, but I have a bit to go until then.

I don’t want to reveal the design just yet, but here’s my progress so far:

I worked on it for an hour or two (maybe more) last night, and about the same today so far, so I thought it would be good to check in. I’ve never really tracked this sort of thing before, so I thought I’d at least take photos as I go along. I won’t be counting hours or anything though.

I never thought I’d be saying this, but I think I’d like to work on a new cross-stitch project. After the months it took to complete “Ganesh,” I felt pretty done with any sort of embroidery, but now I could use something like that to work on again. The only problem is finding a design I like.

I know I’ve complained about this before, how it’s so hard to find good cross-stitch projects. I tried looking for kits online, and stopped at a few local craft stores as well, but it’s all the same stuff. Fantasy scenes, teddy bears, nature, and religious themes, none of which is my thing. I’ve made my own patterns before, but it takes some work to do. I’d really like to just pick up a kit and get going with it.

I’d be surprised if I were the only one who doesn’t like the styles or designs out there today, but maybe I am. If someone were to come up with some fun, modern kits for cross-stitch, I would totally buy some. For now, I’ll just try and find the least ugly design I can and go with that.