HAED SK History of Chocolate by Randal Spangler

[SteveM]

Both of my other WIPs have me stitching pages of background for at least another year or two so I decided I needed something smaller that would give immediate satisfaction as the page was completed. I decided on the HAED Story Keep History of Chocolate by Randal Spangler and so far it has delivered. The 50% off sale that HAED was running had nothing to do with it of course.

I'm also using it as a means to try new things so this is stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28 count Lugana even though I previously determined that 25 count was faster and easier to stitch on. I must confess that once I adjusted to the 28 count I didn't feel like it was any more difficult than 25 count. I also stitched cross country over the whole page one color at a time as if participating in the HAED challenge. Boy, that sure did have its advantages and disadvantages. The biggest disadvantage is that I had two counting errors and the biggest advantage is that since I worked from fewest to most number of stitches the last color in an area could be stitched without referring to the chart. For one symbol I put in ~800 stitches in about 3 hours because of this (not that large amounts of a single color add much detail though).


28 June 2016
28 March 2017
12 April 2020
24 January 2022

[wendywombat]

That's funny!

Enjoy!

[lavenderbee]

This is an interesting design. Sorry you made the errors but am looking forward to seeing you progress with this one

[rcperryls]

Great progress! Spangler designs are so much fun to stitch. I am looking forward to your updates on this one!

Carole

[richardandtracy]

Must be nice to have this fun little one in rotation for when the others bore you.
Must raise a smile.

However, at the rate you are going, it won't last the year...

Looks nice.

Regards,

Richard

[karen4bells]

Nice progress on this!!! Such a cute design

[vanessanjf]

Great design I am looking forward to seeing more

[Squirrel]

An interesting design and it will look beautiful when it is stitched. A great idea to give yourself something different to work on from time to time.

[fccs]

I love Spangler's dragons and you're doing a beautiful job on it. And so fast, too!!! I can't wait to see more of this.

[phoebefreckle]

Lovely

[sina28]

Wow, great progress!
It must be so hard to stitch 1 over 1 on 28 ct, sometimes I am having trouble with 2 over 2 on 28 ct.

[richardandtracy]

In some ways, 2 over 2 full crosses is more difficult. There are 8 threads going through each hole, while in 1 over 1 full cross or 2 over 1 tent there are only 4 threads going through each hole. Admittedly the size of the stitches are tiny, but it's do-able as Steve is showing.

Regards,

Richard

[SteveM]

Thank you all for your kind words and for checking in on my work.

I should clarify that I didn't have counting errors so much as pattern recognition errors. Up in the top near the blue gem there are many symbols used and after a while the stitching starts to be a random scattering of similar colored stitches and on two occasions I thought I had located the correct location for a stitch, but was actually off by a row or column. One of them was a single stitch of a color similar to the correct stitch so it stayed put. The other was a column of 3 stitches and it would have looked glaringly wrong so it got ripped. No errors were made in the lower 3/4's of the page where the existing stitches used as landmarks are less random looking.

For me the key to working over 1 on 25 and 28 count fabric is lots of bright light. I can work 18 count by the light of a typical room light, table lamp, or daylight through a window, but even sitting outside working on 28 count in the shade of the patio I still had to sit where the sunlight was brightest. Indoors I use an ordinary floor lamp with an arm that can be adjusted to be horizontal and extend over the chair/couch and be directly over my work. Magnification is not currently necessary.

It seems that I forgot to note that date I started this WIP, but it couldn't have been more than 5 weeks ago and was probably closer to 4 weeks. It sure didn't feel like it took that long though, especially that bottom area once the lettering was completed. The lesson I've learned is that I'm going to try doing my background areas cross-country and the confetti areas with parking to get the best of both. And some day I'm going to drape a piece of 18 count aida the size of a tablecloth over my lap and try to figure out how Vanessa does it.

[fccs]

Magnification is not currently necessary.

Lucky you. I don't mind having to use a magnifier, it just sometimes limits where and what I stitch.

And some day I'm going to drape a piece of 18 count aida the size of a tablecloth over my lap and try to figure out how Vanessa does it.

That is a mystery I'd like to solve as well.

[SteveM]

Racing onward at the pace of a snail, I have completed page 2 plus 30 rows on page 3 for the HAED challenge. It was nice to finally get some color and the detail of the dragon's head, but I am convinced that every symbol in the chart appears in this area which made for slow going at times.

[fccs]

Fabulous update!!!!

[karen4bells]

Very nice update!!

[vanessanjf]

Wonderful work

[rcperryls]

Looks great!!

Carole

[richardandtracy]

Looking good.
But if you're having problems with this little one, it doesn't bode that well for 350 colours while on a certain mission...

Regards,

Richard.