Knitting: Stockinette Cardigan

I have continued working on a plain stockinette stitch cardigan from Cast-On magazine that I started early in the winter. It is a seamed piece done in straightforward k1p1 ribbing and stockinette stitch. I have completed the back and left front panel. Now I have just started the right front panel (and have gotten about 2 rows done but I confess I was sucked in by Dancing with the Stars which does not lend itself to fiber arts as you must stare at the screen to pass judgment).

As I have worked on it, I realize how much easier this piece would probably be to do in the round. Well, you couldn't do it in the round because it is a cardigan, but you could knit the body in a single seamless piece using circular needles and avoid the seaming business. I am terribly anti-seaming. However, I have already made a lot of progress so I will follow it through to completion. Because it is in stockinette stitch, is not too interesting once you understand what you are doing, but it goes FAST.

Working on it reminds me that I have a goal to do an Alice Starmore sweater. I have two of her books, including the much coveted Aran Sweater, but have not yet got up the nerve to start one. They require DK or thinner yarn and are extremely complex, so a bit overwhelming. I always tell myself I have too many UFOs to start a new project and thus put Starmore off a little longer. However, if I can finish the Russian Coat, the Stockinette Cardigan and an Aran hoodie I have been working on, I'll be ready to go.

Turnberry Ridge: Tent Stitch

I have progressed on Turnberry Ridge to the tent stitch (aka basketweave) in the middle of the piece. At first, this was a very interesting endeavor as a seemingly simple stitch is quite complex in execution, mostly from a planning standpoint. I was very cautious in starting and fortunately have not seen any canvas warping that apparently can come with tent stitch even when correctly done.

However, I have found, now that I have the basics down, that it is a pretty boring stitch to me. I greatly admire people who can do entire canvases in tent stitch because I. Would. Go. Insane. As a result, I've been focusing on knitting more than needlepoint recently, I think. I need to buckle down and get through it, as it looks like the following stitches are going to be really fun.

Turnberry Ridge: Four-Way Continental

I finished the Four-Way Continental around the inner diamond of Turnberry Ridge. Although I started out using a vertical orientation for stitching, I moved to a horizontal one, as I found it much easier to manage against all the diagonals and stepping eyelet stitches. It looks good and I finally got the hang of managing the tension of Fiesta -- I don't have any actual lessons to impart there other than to be firm yet gentle. Helpful, eh?

The next stitch I am working on is framing the eyelets. I believe it is a back stitch. The stitching guide provides for fully framing each eyelet in a square before moving on to the next one, but I found that that involved a lot of carrying of thread across the back of the work (through the gobelins, an overworked row of stitches if there ever was one). Instead, I've modified the instructions to do the back stitches down a cascading step, framing two sides of each eyelet on the way down. Once I've completed on cascade, I start at the middle left and do the stitches down the other sides of the eyelets, making them completely framed. I am still able to follow the stitching guide, just in longer lines of stitches without any carrying of thread. Since this is also in Fiesta, it is very helpful for managing the tension, as I think every time I have to carry it, it slips somewhat.

I am only a quarter done with the eyelet framing. I am very anxious to make progress, as I received the first batch of Jim Wurth's Dodecahedron kits and am dying to start those too!

Russian Coat: The Big Error

For the Russian Coat, I am almost done with one of the underarm diamonds in Peruvia. It's gone very easily, I am quite used to the pattern and can dash each section off pretty quickly. With only two repeats of the pattern, also, the diamonds are a snap.

I did discover a huge error which I cannot describe too well here. Basically, when I started each side of the bodice, I did a triangle in Peruvia, than began the first hexagon with Jasper. When that hexagon is finished, I started the next hexagon by picking up along the edge of the first one. WELL, on one side of the bodice, I discovered that I picked up stitches for the second hexagon on the wrong side of the hexagon. This makes it impossible for me to pick up the stitches for the Peruvia diamond. D'oh!

However, I have determined I can fix this problem by cutting off and unraveling the very first Peruvia diamond. Then I'll pick up stitches on the correct edge of the first hexagon in order to rebalance the entire piece. This should work but hurts me, what a terrible error I made so early on and did not notice until now. It really kills momentum. However, I am very relieved that the fix is entirely doable and I don't have to frog the entire piece. Ouch.

Turnberry Ridge: Eyelets, Part 2

I have completed the eyelets portion of Turnberry Ridge and moved onto the four-way continental just outside the center diamond. Jean put a lot of helpful information of things to avoid when doing eyelets in her book. Did I read this information? Yes. Did I actually heed it? No. I am both blessed and cursed by the need to actually make mistakes on my own in order to learn. For some reason, I guess I sometimes unconsciously think I will beat nature when it comes to rules.

The particular problems I had were with the size of the eyelet hole. I was supposed to stop and enlarge the hole while part-way through the stitch in order to assure it stays a good size. I did not do this. By the time I really understood I needed to do this, it would have caused the piece to look lopsided (some holes small, some large). So I learned the lesson but did not really apply it to this piece. Luckily it still looks good.

The other error I made was not paying attention to the direction of the thread when carrying it across the gobelins to the next stitch. This ends up being important because if you carry the thread in the wrong direction, it can end up stretched across the eyelet hole. Fortunately, I only made this mistake one time and it is not very noticeable at all.

The four-way continental I am really enjoying. I am not sure the back of the work looks as good as it is supposed to in terms of stitch placement but I am gaining consistency. The one thing I have learned is that Fiesta! is a very slippery thread, more so than any I have worked with up until this point (perhaps not quite as slippery as Neon Rays). When burying the ends I have to really make sure I turn it a few times while weaving it in. I hope that the one I didn't bury that well hangs in there!

Turnberry Ridge: Eyelets

I have been working on Turnberry Ridge and I have to confess -- I have deviated from the stitch order presented in the booklet. I skipped two of the corner triangles done in Neon Rays for two reasons:

- I love the look of Neon Rays but was getting frustrated working with it. I decided to move on to something I felt I could be more successful with to rebuild my confidence and then go back.
- The two remaining triangle patterns are not as appealing to me. Granted, I can substitute patterns in here, but I really want to experience all the stitches in the project.

Instead I have been working the eyelet stitches. These stitches use a very light-hued, lightweight thread but still standout quite well (although not so much from a distance). I thought they would be a snap but since each one is made up of about 12 sub-stitches, it actually takes quite awhile (and quite a few lengths of thread).

I am not quite done with them but my next effort will probably be to weave in the ends from all my away knots. I usually let them build up quite a bit -- unless they are very dark colored threads) in the hopes they will gradually get buried as I work further. Sometimes this works out but normally it does not.

Russian Coat: Progress!

I have finished the last trapezoid on the back of the Russian Coat. Next I will start on the diamonds on the sleeves which ought to go pretty fast. I am not looking forward to the long part of the back -- it requires casting on hundreds of stitches .. hundreds!

My #1 Fiber Arts Rule

It's true that I haven't had much to say over the past month. This is mostly because I have not done as much needlepoint (or knitting) as I was before the holidays. I can explain this by offering my One Simple Rule for fiber arts (or any hobby, really):

"Do not practice [Fiber Arts|Other Hobby] at any time unless the activity is appealing and exciting at that moment."

I developed this rule after my first bout of knitting. I taught myself to knit, loved it, and threw myself into several projects of various complexity. I forced myself to knit. Every day. No matter what. At first this was easy -- I was loving it, I was learning new things, I was making progress. But then my energy started to flag. I wasn't doing other things. I began to view knitting as a chore. Eventually I burned out and just stopped altogether. For years!

When I got the knitting bug again, after several years of Not-Knitting, I resolved that I would approach it differently. I like to knit (and do other crafts) because it is fun and rewarding. I gain a personal sense of accomplishment with each completed step, garment, and new skill. But I only gain these benefits if I choose to knit. If I force myself to knit, then any of those accomplishments are just completed chores.

So for the past few weeks I haven't done as much knitting or needlepoint. I did make some progress on a sleeve of a hooded aran sweater I have been working on for quite awhile, but not much else. When I get home in the evening, I look at the various projects I have, do an internal soul search and decide, "Nope, tonight is for [catching up on magazines|watching Amazing Race|lying face down on the carpet with a pint of ice cream next to my face]."

However, I have been gazing at Turnberry Ridge for a few days and my boyfriend is out of town, so.. who knows what tonight will bring?

Russian Coat Progress

After Christmas, I had a houseguest and I discovered that doing needlepoint and anything else (watching a movie, talking to another human being) is impossible because of the concentration I have to exert. I think this will change as I gain confidence and experience, but for right now I am squinty and speechless when working on canvas. So I set aside the Turnberry Ridge for awhile and focused on the Russian Coat, because I could knit through an earthquake, tornado, etc and still turn out an acceptable garment.

Working in the round rather than back and forth has helped the look of the piece immensely. My seaming is, to be frank, crappy, so avoiding seams wherever possible is quite beneficial. At this point, I have finished all the hexagons for the bodice and have joined both shoulders at the back. I am currently working on the trapezoids that make up the back. My only problem is when I picked up the stitches for the second trapezoid, I ended up short of the final edge. Oh no! I picked up some extra stitches and my plan is to decrease them back to the right number very quickly. This will probably look rather strange when it is finished but (a) may be masked by the collar which will pick up along that edge and partially straighten it out; and (b) I have very long hair so no one will see it.

Turnberry Ridge

Soon after my last post (okay, it was weeks ago, I am guilty), I received a kit for Turnberry Ridge in the mail from the Needle Nook of La Jolla. I say "kit" because, although what I ordered was the booklet and threads, they actually sent me an email about it and offered to send the canvas as well. Imagine my delight when I opened the box to find not only did they send the right-sized canvas, but they bound it AND attached a needle to it. The threads were all carefully collected into a ziploc bag with a xerox of the thread inventory included, and the booklet itself was in another ziploc. I was impressed and thrilled! When I go out for another kit (which may be quite awhile) I will definitely go back to them.

So, anyway, Turnberry Ridge is a booklet by Jean Hilton that was designed/written for a cyberclass and is geared toward the very beginner. A lot of background information on threads, canvas, and laying tools is provided in addition to the pattern. Each stitch has an excellent write-up on how to do it, alternative methods, what NOT to do, etc. It is an excellent learning tool.

The Bucilla kit was carefully packed away so I can pick it up again if I want to, but I'm really focused on Turnberry Ridge. I would say I am about 33% complete. I have only had to rip out one section -- but only because I chose the wrong color thread, not because I really made a mistake.

More Bucilla Kit Work

Last night I continued working on the Bucilla kit. Today I focused on work in wool, completing a satin stitch section and also a second lamppost. The second lamppost went much better than the first. It is much easier to do the split stitch in wool as the wool seems to keep its tension better during the process (or perhaps I got better overnight).

I am currently trying to decide if I should work down or across from the left corner. My inclination is to go across because there is a huge section of satin stitch there, as opposed to the huge section of French and Colonial knots.

I am not afraid to say I will switch to one of the beginner kits I have on the way -- I am really looking forward to Turnberry Ridge by Jean Hilton. I can only hope they come this week!

Weekend Activities: Shading and a Kit

This weekend I spent a serious amount of time with needlepoint. I was only interrupted by a holiday outing to see a play, which was fun so I didn't complain.

I tried out some shading between two different color families. Using the Bound Cross stitch with 4 strands of floss, I tried shading downwards within a family and across between families. The colors were the purple family and the blue family. It didn't have a good start, the shading between the families look distinctly jarring. However, I persevered and I found that over a number of stitches with very gradual shading, the effect actually became pleasing. I think that the relationship between the specific colors chosen in each family is absolutely critical, however.

I did that particular exercise on my sampler. On Saturday I set that aside in favor of trying out the kit I bought a few weeks ago. I had purchased a Bucilla kit showing a house with garden. I am not particularly fond of the design, but it seemed to have enough going on that it would be a challenge and a learning experience. I am not sure how to categorize it, so I'll simply say that it is an art project worked with needle and thread on some sort of textile ground.

We picked up appropriately sized stretcher bars at Michael's, plus a staple gun which I did not previously have. My companion (a man) insisted that tacks would be too hard to push into the wood and the stapling with a staple gun is much more satisfying. I think these things are true. I had a little trouble getting the hang of the staple gun, but now that I've stapled my carpet to.. itself (accidentally) and successfully mounted the kit's textile on the stretcher bars, I think I've got confidence with it.

The next thing I did was divide up the fibers by type (floss, wool) and by color family. Some colors were quite difficult -- what's the difference between grey and dusty grey? Is pale yellow actually a cream color? But I got it done by process of elimination and guessing.

Finally, I got started. I started in the upper left (not heeding my own previous advice to start in the upper right since I'm left handed). The work involved a number of new stitches:

Satin stitch -- has gone off like a charm. I like this stitch a lot and it is very easy to do if you are just staying in the lines.

Split stitch -- I had a lot more trouble with this one. My problem is that when I bring the needle back through the canvas and split the previous stitch, that previous stitch actually becomes loose. There doesn't seem to be a way that I could manage to retighten this stitch once it is split and the new stitch is being worked. Not all of the stitches turned out this way so it might be practice.

French knot -- Again, I had some trouble with this one, which is a shame because it is used in every flower on the canvas, it seems like. I think I need to practice this a little bit on my sampler and also look at a couple of different sites with diagrams or descriptions to see if a little variation in the instructions will help me find a way to make it work.

The design is machine-stamped so following the lines is sometimes a bit of guesswork. I also think the person who did the stitchery for the enclosed completed photograph cheated and used wool for a lantern instead of floss as the instructions specified -- as the photo shows a much larger and fuzzier lantern post than what I ended up with for floss.

Design Idea: Shading Study

While I was working my Bound Crosses and shading them, I thought that it might be interesting to do a full piece focusing on shading. The effect of shading by varying strand color is fascinating, and quite effective. My idea involves using very few stitch types, but instead focusing on color variation.

The top would be black all the way across the top, with columns going down that gradate in color to white. The arrangement across the canvas would be ROY G BIV, with a grey gradation bracketing it on either side. The trickiness would be in shading between the color families. For instance, the Red -> Orange border. I think you could do complicated shading like this, even with 4 strands, by slowly substituting the new color family into the strands of the previous. With 4 strands, you don't have much to work with, but if you pay attention to the directional flows (up, down, left, right) you could choose adequate combinations. The effect would be a very large gradual blend in any direction.

The result, of course, would be tiny stitch areas for each color combination. The design would have to accommodate all those switchovers by:

• Choosing stitches with adequate backing to bury both ends of the thread
• Have enough stitches to deal with the burial of threads, and prevent insanity. Can you imagine rethreading the needle for one or two stitches over and over? That would be bad.
  

Currently I am thinking that the stitches need to vary between the columns and the cross-column blendings -- a relatively flat stitch versus a "textured" or fat stitch. For example, Cashmere or Mosaic versus Bound Cross.

This weekend I will probably try some tri-color and quad-color shading as described above on my sampler, basically extending my current Bound Cross area. I'll also try Bound Cross with Mosaic or Cashmere to see how they look in relation to each other.

While looking around the web at shading information in needlepoint, I encountered Sphere on a Table, a shading study done by a beginning needlepointer using only black and white thread. His accompanying information says it took a very long time to finish and has numerous beginner's mistakes, but wow, what a labor. That takes nerves of steel.

Bound Cross, Six Trip Herringbone, Shading

Last night I tried two new stitches and played around with shading a bit more.

First, I tried a Six Trip Herringbone using 4 strands of floss in five shades. It started out okay, but I actually abandoned after two trips. First, I didn't pay attention to the stitching diagram closely enough and did not realize that there really wasn't much backing for burying the thread ends. I may end up ripping it out of the sampler (although I'd rather not) because it's just not secure at the moment.

The other problem I had was tension. The stitches are so long that it's easy for them to slip and slide and come loose even while still stitching. I tried to correct this mid-course without much luck. I probably need additional practice. I think this stitch might work better with a "sticky" fiber like wool rather than cotton or silk. The stickiness would help the stitch stay put to the canvas and to the other stitches over it. I'm not sure, I don't have any wool at the moment to experiment with (unless I raid the sock yarn stash).

The second stitch I tried was the Bound Cross. It's a nice fat stitch -- I did with 4 strands of floss but I bet one could get away with less. Its fatness on 4 strands is somewhat nice though, If you were doing a pattern of squares where you want to go from flat to fat, it would work well being included.

In this section of Bound Cross, I also experimented with stranded shading as described in "The Needlepoint Book." I started with a row of four Bound Crosses in a dark maroon. I did three more rows of four stitches, each row had a strand of dark maroon replaced with a lighter maroon, so that by row four it was 3 strands lighter maroon and 1 strand dark maroon. I was skeptical at first that the shading would actually be visible, but it really was -- a very nice effect, both close up and at a distance. I can see that this type of shading really requires effective use of the laying tool. Although I am getting the hang of it, the shading suffers if you cut corners and don't spend that extra second laying things flat.

The Russian Coat Adjustment

I have been working on Vogue Knitting's "Russian Coat" pattern -- it's #5 in the Holiday 2007 issue. This is a gorgeous one-size-for-all coat knit out of joined hexagons and triangles in two beautiful yarns.

I have made one adjustment to the pattern to accommodate what I see as a small weakness: each hexagon is knit back-and-forth and then seamed into a flat polygon. That means that while five of the spokes are formed by the decrease pattern, one is formed by a seam. You have to be really good at seaming to make it look identical to the other spokes. As someone who is, well, deficient in the seaming department, I protest! Also, one of the beauties of this pattern is that you pick up stitches from previously knit hexagons to begin the next -- thus avoiding seaming. Why add any when you can avoid it?

I modified the hexagon patterns to be done on double-pointed needles. This was fairly simple.. cast on the required number of stitches, MINUS the two selvage stitches. Distribute among the desired number of DPNs (I use 4), join without twisting and go, just adjust the instructions to ignore the selvage stitches. This means where you normally would have knit your selvage stitches, you are doing another decrease section for the spoke. When you get near the end, you want to stop and bind off according to the instructions when you have (PublishedStitches - 2) since you don't have the selvage anymore.

This does require some care in paying attention to where you are beginning a round, since the decrease pattern calls for being conscious of what row you are on. But it much simpler overall than doing the seaming at the end.

More Cashmere, Shading, Waste Knots

I have continued quite successfully with the Van Dyke and Cashmere stitches. Once the Van Dyke columns are lined up side-by-side, the disproportion I was seeing between the right and left sides disappears, which is good to know. As I create larger sections of stitches, I'm appreciating the effect of laying the threads -- even from a distance, the reflection of light enhances the pattern so that the stitch definition can still be discerned -- and these are tiny stitches!

Combining Cashmere with Mosaic was helpful in creating continuity in an unusually shaped space. Since they look very similar but differ in dimension (rectangle v. square) they can be paired together at those odd issues.

I had some fun using two colors of threads in my Cashmere stitch. I was thinking about ways to transition colors and didn't bother to look in "The Needlepoint Book" first. My mistake, I made it much harder than it is. What I tried to do was stitch Cashmere stitches partially with one color (there are four diagonal stitches in a Cashmere, I would stitch between 1 - 3, leaving blank space for the other color) in areas where I eventually wanted to transition. Then I when I was ready to move on to the next color, I would stitch in the blank spaces.

Here's two things I learned about this:

• It's really important that the shades by very close to each other in order to make the transition subtle. I can imagine situations where you would want a striking transition from one color to another, but if you are looking for subtlety, shade differences should be minimal.
• "The Needlepoint Book" has a great section on shading. The revolutionary idea I couldn't come up with on my own: use strand combinations of different colors to transition WITHIN stitches. Angels flew down from heaven to sing and strum harps while I reveled in this discovery.
• This is a third point but has nothing to do with shading. "The Needlepoint Book" has an entire section about the necessity of stripping threads and using a laying tool. Its a bit later in the book about projects and design, so I glossed over it in my eagerness to get started.
  

I've also gotten pretty good with the waste knot. This is much easier than holding the thread end under the canvas until it gets buried, although it does require that you have a "plan" when you get started stitching. Also, I suspect it would not work as well with line stitches. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, I think.

Van Dyke, Slanted Gobelin, Cashmere

After learning how to strip strands and use a laying tool, I was ready to tackle some more stitches. There are so many to choose from in "The Needlepoint Book" it was pretty difficult -- but I settled on the "Van Dyke."

My first attempt was done with 6 strands of stripped floss. I also had the column of stitches abut up to the previous work I had done with the Straight Gobelin and the Hungarian. I encountered two problems.

The first problem was that by abutting it next to my 9-strand monstrosity stitches, it was very difficult to see the canvas clearly on the left side. I am not sure every stitch made it into the right hole -- even though I used the laying tool to push strands aside to see better. Although this may be an unavoidable problem for "real" projects that I will have to practice to overcome, I think for the sampler it is a good idea to try new stitches away from others or at least against fairly thin or flat stitch groupings.

The other problem was that 6 strands was way too thick. Instead of being an attractive pseudo-braid marching down the canvas, I have a rather lumpy and decidedly off-kilter caterpillar... thing. Frustrated with this, I ended the stitch pattern prematurely and did a little randomly-placed Slanted Gobelin instead, which is much easier and was therefore more satisfactory.

Not to be undone, I tackled the Van Dyke a second time. This time, I used a much lighter-hued floss so as to better see the stitch and reduced the strand count to 4. I also started in a blank space to the right of my previous work so I would have a clear view of the canvas. Success! The stitch came out MUCH clearer and less lumpy -- the caterpillar became a butterfly. The second column's backing did not turn out as well, I stopped looking at the book and unconsciously changed the stitch order. Although the right-side of the canvas looks correct, the backside does not have as good a backing because of my changes. I definitely need to refer to the stitch instructions more frequently until the order is burnt into my brain.

In order to fill the space between the Van Dyke and the rest of the sampler, I did some 4-stranded Cashmere stitches, along with some more Slanted Gobelin. I really like the appearance of the Cashmere stitch, and it had good coverage of the canvas. I think it would be worth giving the Mosaic a retry with only 4 strands.

Solving the Problem: Strip Strands and a Laying Tool

The problem I had with the Hungarian and Mosaic stitches' appearance was solved in this way: I reduced the number of strands to 6, and I stripped them prior to stitching. I also began using a laying tool (a large tapestry needle) to keep the strands separate and parallel when putting down each stitch. This has solved the problem almost completely, although I can see that different stitches may require different number of strands depending on the canvas. This is only going to be figured out by experimentation.

How did I come to the solution? I consulted a mailing list (ang list) I discovered on the American Needlepoint Guild website. At first I thought it was members-only but when I saw the fine print saying anyone could join, HUZZAH! I read the rules and a couple weeks of digests and then fired away. All I can say is: What a great group of people. In one day, I got faster, smarter, better -- if I had resigned myself to trial and error, I'd still be trying to solve my problem.

Here are two pages on using Laying Tools given to me by the ANG listserv folks or that I found:

How to Use a Laying Tool
Laying Threads

Hungarian and Mosaic

For my second stitch, after the Straight Gobelin, I chose the Hungarian. It is a series of straight stitches of different sizes to achieve a patterned effect that's quite striking.

Because I had a problem with canvas coverage on the Straight Gobelin, I thought a bit on how to solve this problem before starting the Hungarian. My only thought was perhaps I needed additional strands of floss in order to ensure adequate coverage. My reading of "The Needlepoint Book" indicated this could definitely be done, and when I looked through the instructions of the kit I purchased, I noticed it devoted some space to how many strands of fiber are needed for specific stitches and fiber type. So I started the Hungarian with a 6-strand unstripped 18" length of floss and an additional 3 strands stripped from another 18" length -- a total of 9 strands.

For awhile I was pleased. I couldn't see any canvas and the stitching was, indeed, beautiful! However, inspecting it more closely when I finished, I couldn't help feel that it was a bit fuzzy, and the pattern was not quite as defined as in the picture in the book.

However, I went on to the Mosaic stitch, a diagonal multi-stitch pattern of squares. It also turned out quite nice but by this time I really felt that my plan to use 9 strands of floss was probably flawed. Again, the stitch pattern was fuzzy, and on the diagonal stitches I really couldn't see the definition. It was pretty muddy.

A further problem was that it was very difficult to get the needle through the canvas. So much so that the pads on my thumb and finger were quite sore and I often had to put quite a bit of muscle behind each stitch. I couldn't imagine that anyone would declare needlepoint "fun" with that kind of labor, so something was amiss.

The First Stitch: Straight Gobelin

The first stitch I selected to do for my sampler is the Straight Gobelin. It seems simple, but it tossed me right into my first problem.

I selected a skein of floss from my floss purchases (a dark red), threaded a needle (size 18) and started in the upper left corner with an 18" length. Since I was a little leery of the waste knot method of starting, I instead pulled the needle and thread through until about an inch was left on the backside of the canvas, and then held it with my free hand while I did the first couple of stitches so it would be caught in the back by the work. This seems to work fairly well but is a bit of a pain because the thread has to be held.

After a row and change of stitches, I looked at it overall and felt I had a problem: the canvas was clearly visible between the stitches. This wasn't really what I was expecting, especially after reading about canvas coverage in The Needlepoint Book. However, I soldiered on. When I got near the end of my thread, I used the needle to tuck about an inch's worth underneath the stitching on the back of the canvas and trimmed it with the thread scissors.

Lessons Learned:

• Use a lighter-colored thread to see stitch definition better, at least in the case of this sampler. (Not implemented yet)
• Needles should not make the holes in the canvas permanently larger when pushed through. (Solved by later switching to a size 28 needle, and then a size 24 needle)
  
• A left hander should probably start in the upper right corner, if one is a corner kind of person. (Fix this in future projects)
  
• There's a problem with 6-strand Cotton floss on 18-count canvas. (See later posts for the solution)
  
• Holding the end of the thread at the back to catch it in the stitching on the back is an inefficient way to bury the thread because of the work it requires. (See later posts on my implementation of the waste knot).