Made it: Mesmerizing

I mentioned last time that I had gotten some awesome cross stitching magazines recently and they couldn't have come at a better time. I'd finally finished with a couple February birthday presents, the last gift holdovers after all my holiday season crafting, and now I am at a loss, adrift in an ocean of possible projects. 

I haven't made anything purely for myself for what feels like ages so I was a little overwhelmed- the possibilities are endless and I'm primed to try something new. What I needed at the time though, was a small project to keep myself busy until I made those bigger plans, and I found it in the first issue of XStitch. 

Buy it here!

The first issue's theme is "revolution," (obviously) which they explore using all definitions of the word. What I chose to make involved some basic stitching onto a plastic mesh circle, which I inexplicably had (not really, I'm a craft hoarder), and which I pictured below:

source

Since the holes are bigger, my embroidery thread wasn't going to work unless I used all 6 strands. I didn't feel like using up that much of my regular embroidery stash so instead, I used up some of a lone skein of thinnish cotton yarn as well as some embroidery thread that I accidentally bought the wrong size of so I never use it. Definitely the more economical choice, especially for something completely random.

Buy that super awesome pouch HERE by the way. It's the perfect size (9" x 6") for my sewing essentials (needles, scissors, thread conditioner, water soluble markers, etc) to schlepp between projects. Also, they had so many amazing book-related designs that it took me days to decide which one to get. 

Anyhoo, the project just involved essentially stitching backstitch around the circle with a plastic yarn needle (I have these from my brief foray into crocheting and the smallest one worked really well). The above picture is what it looked like when I was finished with the colorful yarn and had just started adding the black. Note that I skipped down a line at the diameter line (per the magazine's pattern) for a little more interesting effect.

Annnnnd the final product! I really like it even though I have no idea what to do with it or why I made it. I think all my gift-making made me forget that really, I just make things for the sake of making things. because I enjoy it and the point is the creation itself. In the end, I threaded a loop of leftover yarn and hung it on the door in my living room. I think it complements my weird knick knacks and books pretty well, maybe I should make one for the other door...

This picture also features a shot of another cross stitch I did a few years ago, based on a quote from the best-because-its-the-most-ridiculous Star Trek movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. I got that pattern from this amazing book (why is that so expensive?! Definitely picked that up several years ago in a small bookstore for normal cover price). Fittingly, I put my Bird-of-Prey next to it, which I found at an antique/junk store, complete/working and still in the box (it makes cool shooty noises!).

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This was a pretty good mind-clearing project and since making that, I bought more plastic grid pieces to use up more of my rogue yarn. Its a fun thing to do when you want to do something, possibly while re-watching some Star Trek movies or something, but also don't want to use your brain too much, its very relaxing. 

I've since gathered supplies to make another, bigger project from the Space edition of the magazine. I don't mean to go on about those magazines by the way, but craft-inspirational magazines plus a pandemic equals me getting jazzed up about stuff like that. I'm sure I'll share the final results of that at some point down the road. 

As for future projects, here's a list of what I'm thinking about tackling:

• Something Lord of the Rings related. I've started making versions of "home sweet home" cross stitch pieces for near my front door (I have "TARDIS sweet TARDIS" and "Enterprise sweet Enterprise" so far) and I think I could make one for the Shire. There's so many LOTR patterns out there though, it's hard to settle on one thing...
• Along the same lines, in the book I mentioned above they have a pattern for Qo'noS sweet Qo'noS.
• I'm almost done a Vonnegut book (to be announced soon) and that reminded me I've wanted to make a sampler based on this quote for ages.
• ...Or maybe this one from one of my favorite Vonnegut books, Cat's Craddle.
• The Litany Against Fear from Dune.

I could go on, but I'll stop there for now. Feel free to offer suggestions!