A heart vs head dilemma for Mr X Stitch.
We had a very positive response to the first blog from 'manbroiderer' Jamie Chalmers, aka Mr X Stitch, back in April. He's an advocate of all things cool and modern in the cross stitch universe - check out his latest finds on his website.
We're pleased that he's come back to share some more of his cross stitching adventures. Don't forget to email us and tell us what you think - Jamie and the team would love to hear from you.
And don't miss issue 213, out on Thursday 18th June, in which Jamie is one of the stars of our urban cross stitch feature. Let us know what you think of alternative cross stitch, too!
“It wasn’t long into my stitching adventures that I realised I needed to get a grip.
I’d completed three or four small kits, and one larger piece, and had several bags of threads lying around tormenting me. They had the potential to be used for something else, but without being arranged in some kind of order, I felt stifled about what to do with them.
Something had to be done!
So I bought my first bobbin box, and distinctly remember spending one Saturday night in front of the telly, winding bobbins up and arranging them in numeric order. And boy, did I feel good by the time I finished! My little friends stared up at me from their spaces and invited me to engage with them in the joy of stitching. Which I duly did.
Time passed and the number of stitcheries increased. And so did the number of thread colours. So I got a second box. And then a third. And now I operate a four box strategy..! That’s a lot of threads…
Herein lies my dilemma – do I stick to keeping my bobbins in number order, or do I throw caution to the wind and arrange them by colour and shade?
The obsessive-compulsive part of me puts up a strong argument, stating that the thread companies wouldn’t provide number codes for the threads if they weren’t meant to be organised thusly, and it is this argument I have followed so far.
But the creative side of me sees pictures of people’s bobbin boxes, where the bobbins are arranged by colour, and thinks it would be wonderful to be able to run my finger over all the different colours and pick whichever shade takes my fancy.
But then (says my head) if you’re following a pattern, you need to find the right threads according to number… But then that (says my heart) limits your capacity to make creative changes to the pattern, changes that would come from choosing a slightly different shade to the prescribed pattern…
And on and on… The dilemma of head versus heart continues to this day.
Part of me wants to spend a day organising the bobbins by colour, so that I can then re-organise them by number at a later date. But that part of me doesn’t get out much.
And don’t even ask me about people who use the “putting the thread in a plastic wallet with a hole in the corner” system – I’ll keep you here all day!
Faithful readers, help me move forward with my quandary. Tell me your top tips and what works for you. And I’ll share the best ideas with you the next time we meet."
