Celtic cross stitch...

I don't know how many posts this spring I've mentioned rain in, but another week has come and gone and we've gotten several more dousings.  A week or so ago, I finally did complete my garden planting (or, at least, I've decided I'm finished for now), so all the rain is very welcome from this point on.

With so much rain and resulting mosquitos, I've come inside earlier most evenings than I might otherwise, and I've found more opportunity to do some handcrafts. Wanting to stitch up a quick project to replace the May pillow that was in my mini-pillow display from last week, I went looking through some books for something that might fit the bill.

I was torn between some floral patterns in another book, and the Celtic knots in the book below that eldest son gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago:

Probably because I thought they'd be quicker makes, the knots won out and I've picked out two to stitch up on this very open-weaved linen fabric:  

I'm here to report that stitching an outline first does not make for quick stitching.  Perhaps especially on an image like this, one can't fudge when filling in later if a mistake has been made in the outline.  The need to do this perfectly meant almost as much time counting, recounting, and often recounting stitches again, as it took to actually stitch the outline.  It was exhausting, and like a kid with a new coloring book, I was so glad to be able to start filling in the design.

For the first knot design, I decided to stitch a dark-ish olive-colored outline, and fill in the two solid pieces with different shades and tints of the same olive color.

Only about half-way finished with this one, I'm really itching to stitch the second knot pattern I've picked out, as it has shading markings and will look more dimensional.  When I started the above knot (which did not have shaded markings in the pattern), I thought to self, "You can add the shading as you go. It's pretty obvious, afterall."  Well, shading with needle and floss turned out to be a huge headache without having plotted out ahead of time where to place the shading stitches.  I know... even looking at the picture above, it's pretty obvious where shading would go, but trying to place those stitches as I stitched (without a reference) was just too challenging for my brain.  So I gave up on that and started over.  At this point, I realize I should have stitched up the shaded pattern first, and I might have been more motivated to plot out the shading on this one before I started it.

But it's okay...  I've been watching Sarah Homfrey on YouTube and she mentions often, to keep stitching instead of ripping out and starting over.  One only learns and improves their stitches by making more stitches and moving forward.  (That's probably a paraphrase of what Sarah says exactly, but it's close.)  Of course, the over-thinker in me wants to argue that point.  I prefer to rip out and do over most mistakes I make no matter the craft, and I know I learn things in that process.  But I've decided to listen to Sarah and just keep stitching away with this.  We'll soon see how it turns out.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to resist other embroidery projects that Sarah's videos inspire me to want to jump into.  The urge to start another new thing is sooo strong.