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That is looking very impressive.
I think there is no need to adjust the brightness, looks good as is and we can see the detail visible.

Must be satisfying to have done such a good job.

Regards

Richard

Awesome!

I do believe this is going to be everything you wanted it to be.

A fabulous update on this fascinating one. You are going well with it.

Looking fantastic!!

Fabulous update!!

Amazing update!!!!

Carole

What majesty - this will be a true treasure once it's finished! HAED is always an adventure, good luck!

Also I like the ideas that people give me throughout this forum - the shortcut to the latest update is a very useful thing to have so I will have to figure that out too! Thanks!

HaED's are an adventure. This is so far beyond a HaED it's into uncharted territory.

Except there is a chart... and only Steve has it.

Regards,

Richard

Kibakyu wrote:... HAED is always an adventure, good luck! ...

HaED?!?!? This is so far beyond anything HaED could possibly do.

richardandtracy wrote:...Except there is a chart... and only Steve has it.

And there is only one program and Richard did it.

Kibakyu,
As you can see this isn't a HAED pattern though one of my WIPs is a HAED. A typical HAED pattern uses about 90 solid colors and was created with a software tool called Pattern Maker which I think usually does a good job of making a pattern that only uses about 100 colors or less. On the other hand this pattern uses 351 different symbols and only a handful are solid colors as the bulk of them are a blend of DMC, Anchor, or both. In fact that entire first page used no solid colors. It was created using Richard's software and benefited from several feature requests made by the members of this forum. As a male I'll point out one other important to me difference between this pattern and a typical HAED pattern - no faeries or other "cute" creatures.


Richard,
I thought you might appreciate this peek at another project that was stealing some time away from my cross stitching. The rough boards from the lumber yard were planed to thickness with a power tool, but from there the rest of this oak stool was made using hand tools (some of which are visible).



Thank you again to all that have made such kind comments. I neglected to mention before that I'm now rotating back to my HAED WIP and due to their larger pages and the busy summer months ahead it may be a few months before I get back to this one.

Steve,

I love the stool. Lovely finish & beautiful wood you've used.
I'm such a klutz with my hands that I have given up on hand planes. I can never get them sharp enough for softwood and always seem to dig an edge in just as I'm almost finished, so end up having to use power tools. I do envy you the ability to do that by hand.

Since we moved to our current house 12 years ago, I've made all sorts of tables(6), benches (3) & stools (2) for the garden, made from softwood pallets. Not cost me a penny apart from time and a few screws, as my work was only too glad to get rid of them. My workshop has a nice 1/4" thick steel topped bench all from the garbage skip & pallets. I made a 200kg swl crane from pallet bits too for when I bought a small metal shaper, but forgot it in a corner & after a winter outdoors I wouldn't trust it any more. There was a woman at my wife's workplace who wanted to get rid of some decking. We collected it (so she avoided disposal costs) and combined with a shed roof we stripped back, the kids ended up with a tree house...
For our bookshelves indoors I bought a 'thicknesser' - basically a big power plane, and fed pallet planks through it. The cost of the thicknesser was less than the 60 yards of planking I'd have needed.
Much to my disgust, I did need to buy some timber a couple of years ago - when we dismantled an old building shown on an 1890 map and used the bricks to make this playroom for the kids, but the roof timbers had to be new:

It was a very useful exercise. The girls saw a big building project and helped with every stage, dismantling the old building, laying the base, blockwork, brickwork and slating. The only thing I didn't get them to help with was the electrics. I hope, now, that the girls won't be frightened by a bit of DIY when they move out on their own.

Regards,

Richard.

Oh my goodness! Steve I missed this when it first came round and have only just seen it because Richard nominated it for the Most Ambitious Start award, which I must say is a bit of an understatement. Have you had any chance to work on this since May? Looking forward to seeing it progress!

Thank you to you and Richard. I'm afraid not, but I am very close to picking it up again. After the previous page finish I did a page on a HAED bookmark to give me a break from background stitching work then started the second page of my HAED. About halfway through that page my daughter was born and all stitching halted for a few months. I'm stitching again for the time being and am just 600 stitches from finishing that page and resuming this WIP.

A new-born daughter seems to me an excellent reason for a temporary break from stitching - congratulations!

The stool is totally beautiful (my DH uses hand tools and makes spoons along with other things. How did you finish it?

And congratulations on becoming a father! I think this calls for wetting the baby's head in the Stash & Grab, don't you??

Mabel Figworthy wrote:A new-born daughter seems to me an excellent reason for a temporary break from stitching - congratulations!

I agree! When you find time to stitch again, don't forget to post pictures for us. In the meantime, we'll know that you have more immediate places for your attention!

Carole

Congratulations on the birth of your daughter Steve and WELL DONE on the stool, it looks amazing.

Richard - love the play house and you are quite right about the girls not being afraid of DIY when they grow up.

Thanks everyone. Having an infant and toddler is quite the handful at times and limits the free time.

Serinde - It is a tung oil based wiping varnish called Waterlox. I like it as it doesn't have a thick film yet is still very water resistant. It was to be a shop stool for reaching the top shelf, but my son stole it and took it into the house to be his to sit and stand on.

I've just finished the page of my HAED WIP and am now switching to this one. Hopefully I will have the page done in a few weeks as I am on vacation/holiday and doing a lot of stitching.

Page 2 is now done and I must report that it contains two stitches of a solid color. I was so excited to get to do a loop start then I forgot how and messed it up and had to the loop start and resort to a waste knot .

Fabulous to see this one again Steve and CONGRATULATIONS on a PAGE FINISH. Always good to get another page done and dusted.

Loop starts - take the 2 ends and put them together and thread through your needle Bring needle up in your stitching hole and go down but don't pull the thread all the way. Go to the back thread through the loop and pull but not too tightly - just your usual tension. If it pulls out it just means you have put the needle through the loop on the wrong side. To 'fix' that I usually pull the thread until just a small loop is on the back and not twisted and slip the needle through.
Hope that helps. It took me lots of tries to get it right but I did - well 99% of the time anyway. I still sometimes get it wrong.