***
Two words describe my tartan plaid progress: SLOW GOING
Stewart Hunting plaid needlepoint coaster
designed for Scottish teacup & saucer
If I hadn't convinced myself that the charting of the plaid was the ONLY hard part of this project, I probably would have approached the actually stitching more mindfully, BUT, me being me, whenever I've had two spare minutes, I grab the stretcher bars, glance at my notes, rip off some thread and start a new line of color. It pains me to admit that on more than one occasion, okay two occasions, maybe three occasions, okay, actually four times I've discovered that I didn't follow my notes and had to take out several rows of stitches, each time. So, I'd be much further along if I would simply force myself to slow down, relax, look at my notes/chart for more than 0.25 seconds before I start a new line of stitching. I can be a real idi-o-TA, sometimes! Mom would have said, no dear, just pig-headed. :-)
It is an interesting plaid, if you ask me, because it is irregular (like someone else I know, like, really really well). I've learned a lot about plaids since I started my research for this project (check out The Scottish Registry of Tartans if you too have ever had the desire to learn more about them), but I won't bore you with the "clan, set and pivot points" stuff.. I will tell you that when I tested my 7th grade algebra memory and figured the area of the circle in order to discover the number of stitches the coaster would contain upon completion, I about passed out.
Area of a circle = pi x radius squared, or 3.14159 x (63 x 63) = 12,469
Seriously! 12,469 stitches to fill a 7" circle on 18 count canvas.
To most of you, that may not be a big deal, but it kinda rocked me! I then started thinking about the hours it would take for me to do 12,469 stitches, and what ELSE I might do with said hours versus making a silly coaster for a teacup. Then, I shook it off, grabbed my canvas, glanced at my pattern and whipped out another row..
Here's hoping you are having a wonderful early Autumn (or early Spring) week, wherever you are!
Hugs,
