Petit-point Kits...

 

 

 Old and New...

Some of you, Dear Readers, will recognize the completed piece of stitching in the above picture, which is the fourth seat of this pattern that I have completed! I have yet to start building the chairs themselves, a lovely set of Chippendale style dining chairs that came with the stitching kits. I will be making them all at the same time, so I need to clear some space on my messy worktable. But meanwhile, I was unable to resist the lure of starting another stitching project, and what better one than the smaller of my recent purchases at the Guild Show? The silk is 40 count, so it is on the fine side, but it was already stretched into a card frame and ready to begin right away.

Sorry about the dark photo... it was a gloomy day!

You can see right away the small size I am working with,

 and fortunately the instructions are large!

I was also very pleased that they came with both 

the symbols and the colors for the pattern

 printed on the same page.

So far in my stitching (being a relative newcomer to the art)

 I have only stitched from color printed charts.

But recently I have come across some kits

 that only have the symbols on the chart... 

and it seems daunting to my unaccustomed eyes!

Of course, these are older kits from the days before

 color printing was at everyone's fingertips!

So I was merrily stitching along on the new cushion

and making good progress...

as you can see below.... when I noticed a problem...

I had glanced again at the picture on the front of the kit

(which is a little blurry...)

And I thought it was odd that I wasn't seeing the pale pistachio green

 that I had been stitching in the part of the pattern where I thought it should be!

I checked my chart...

And I examined the threads....

There was only one thread on the group that could pass 

for the color I thought I was supposed to use... 

(because I was only paying attention to the color, not the symbols!)

And that was the light green there in the middle of the threads.

But when I looked at it's symbol... the "carat" on the green color

 and then looked at the chart again...

 

That "carat" symbol was nowhere to be found on the chart! 

It took me a long time to puzzle this out, Dear Readers!

The "light pistachio green" that I can see on the kit photo

 appears on the chart as very pale green with a circle symbol in it. 

It forms the outline of most of the designs...

But it has no corresponding color and symbol

 in the threads that came with the kit!

Somewhere in all this muddle I had to find a solution!

And eventually I decided that the stitching is too fine 

and I had already done too much with the "wrong" color

 to even consider un-stitching it all.

And besides, I sort of thought I would like the pattern better

 with the green in the lozenges the way it was on the chart 

rather than the lighter gray-blue color that appeared in the kit photo.

So we shall see how it looks once I am a little further along in the stitching!

And I really might have to find another small project

 to practice stitching that only has the symbols to go by.

I tend to see only the color in the chart!

But rest assured, Dear Readers,

I will be stitching Petit-point kits,

both Old and New

For years to come!