Cross Stitching

I've been cross stitching for the past week or so.  Unfortunately, I'm only about a quarter of the way done with it, and I'm restless.  I knew it would be time consuming, but I underestimated just how time consuming it would be.  Or perhaps I overestimated my attention span.  I plan on keeping what I have in case I decide to come back to it later, but for now, I think I'm going to set it aside.

Here's the story, though.

I never would have considered cross stitching, since, to me anyway, it holds the stereotype of being an activity that is only done my one of two types of people: old ladies, and Victorian ladies.  Since I am neither, it wasn't an option.

But one day I stumbled on a little crafting niche of cross stitching geeky stuff, like these:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22085563@N06/

http://miloceane.deviantart.com/art/Cross-stitch-Yellow-s-Pikachu-275035689

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stopsign/3282603064/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/krupptastic/3487964783/in/set-72157614432044697/

I thought, "Hey!  That's cool!  Maybe if I'm cross stitching something that I really like, it could be fun."  I decided to give it a try.  After much pondering, I decided to cross stitch the four elemental symbols from the series "Avatar: The Last Airbender."  This was good because a) I'm in love with that show, and b) I wasn't sure how much I'd enjoy cross stitching, so I could start with just one symbol, and if I liked it, I could do the rest.

I started with the air symbol.  I've a fondness for air out of the elements of the show, because air benders are pacifists and avoid direct conflict, and that's me in a nutshell.

Since airbenders wear orange, I grabbed orange thread for a background (and that left blue reserved for water, if I got that far).  The thread changes colors down it's length from orange to yellow and back, so I thought that would look cool.  For the symbol and a border, I grabbed a very dark brown, rather than black.  I don't like using straight black much in art.  I feel like true black is somehow sort of lifeless.  I'll frequently mix it with brown or dark blue to make it either a "warm" black or a "cool" black, and that feels more comfortable in an image to me.

Anywho, I had to make my own pattern, which was a bit of a task, and involved graph paper and drawing, erasing, and redrawing little X's over and over again until I was satisfied.

This is how far I got in a week.  It's about a quarter of the background, and you can see where I intend to put in the spirals when the background is complete.

(This is about three inches across, or about thirty stitches.)

I've learned a lot from this past week.  I learned about cross stitch fabrics, and how to secure the end of your thread without trying a knot.  I learned different ways of making your own cross stitch pattern, and that cross stitch thread comes in more colors than Skittles.  And I learned that cross stitching isn't really my thing, and that's okay.

I consider myself always in a bit of flux.  I'm always learning new things about myself, and about what I like and what I don't like, and how I feel about different things.  I tend to roam from one type of art or craft to another, and sometimes I think it would be better if I just picked one thing and stuck to it.  But then I would stop learning about myself.

Here's to hoping that someday I will actually finish this.

Peace out, guys!