On the second day of the new year

 I'm really glad that the first day of the new year did not go the way the second day did. If it had, I might have given up on needlework for the remainder of the year.

I may have mentioned that I want to spend at least an hour on Harmony every day. I got ready to set up the "scaffold" for the next detached element to be stitched. This requires couching a very thin, silk-covered wire around a shape that is mounted on a pad made of layers of muslin and covered with a thin sheet of Contact paper. To get through the layers of muslin and the Contact paper, you need a needle with a sharp point.

And with the first stitch, I stuck the needle straight into the pad of my finger.

I stick myself all the time. Sometimes I end up leaving some DNA behind, sometimes I just stick the pudgy end of one of my fingers. This time I could have donated blood. I left blood all over the muslin pad and the silk-covered wire. So I had to get the Neosporin and a bandaid and then clean up the muslin pad and cut off the wire and by that time, I had lost all desire to work on Harmony for today.

Well, I have a project that I've been working on for a designer that is close to being finished. It's almost all Queen stitches, and I do love Queen stitches. That sounded like a very good thing to do.

I sailed through the first color and then the second, then flipped the frame over to end off the threads. And, on the back of the work, was one of those big blobby knots of thread that try the patience of any stitcher. It was knotted into the work but good. 

So I took out the last two Queen stitches and attacked the knot. There was no attacking it and gaining victory. I ended up clipping it out and removing even more Queens--and then even more stitches because I accidentally cut a thread in the previous row of stitches. Right in the middle of the previous row of stitches.

Sigh . . .

And that is why I stitched some plain old cross stitches on Carmen. The upside-down vase now has some upside down stems and leaves.

I think I'm going to bed early tonight with my book and try again tomorrow.