invisible?

 I'm almost through with the bottom of the Christmas Etui.

If you look very, very closely, you can see white cross stitches that represent the berries on the mistletoe. Under artificial light, they almost disappear.

I thought about that as I was stitching them. I started thinking about working with double strands, which would likely distort the linen a bit. Then I thought about Smyrna crosses. Not only would that give more thread that would intensify the color, it would also provide texture and slightly raise the stitches about the surface.

Luckily, I had a head-slap moment before I did that. This is the bottom of the etui. I don't necessarily want it raised. In fact, I want it to sit flat.

So no Smyrna crosses.

And I kept myself from having to rip out! Win-win!