WIP pics - finally!

Well, whatever problems Blogger was having with my computer, they seem to have finally called a truce. Now I can finally share my cross stitch progress pictures! Yay!

My current project is a HAED pattern called Poppy Puss. I started it sometime in late 2011 and was pretty happy with my progress. However - and here I am blaming poor vision and horrible lighting to work by - I discovered that I had made so many mistakes that I could not really continue comfortably. I'm willing to let the odd counting mistake go, but the amount I had was really going to make things difficult to make things work out in the end. So I got rid of my contact lenses and discovered that I could see much better up close without any help at all, and bought myself a really good Ott lamp. Then I ripped out all of my progress, and with some tips that I picked up from some other blogs, I started over.

Here is where I was when I decided to rip it all out:

I'm sure you can imagine my angst at spending an entire day pulling out all of those stitches. But, I felt it had to be done, so there you are. I started over and this time used a water-soluable ink pen to mark the grid on the fabric. I was really amazed at how much that helps! Here is my progress to date:

If you look closely, you can still see the shadow of the other stitches I pulled out. They should be erased by either the new stitches, or the final washing once the project is completed. Cross your fingers for me!

My other project is a Country Sampler. Here is my progress so far on that one:

You may recall that I have mentioned that my bedroom is actually a storage room with a bed in it? It makes it very difficult to stitch in that environment. I cannot sit on the bed and stitch because it makes my back ache; I can't sit in the living room and stitch because I can't keep the dogs off my lap; the dining room is also out because the lighting is horrible, and that Ott lamp weighs too much to carry around the house. I got sick of it one day and decided to find a niche in my room somewhere; and here it is:

It's not pretty, but there is a window behind the chair that lets in some nice natural light, and combined with the Ott light, I see quite well!

Well, despite the truce, it has taken me bloody ages to do this post. I was going to talk about books, but I think I will do that post tomorrow since there won't be any pictures in it to mess with.

Take care!

TTFN