What's Wrong With This?

 

Sometimes just trying something is all you need to get moving.  

In September 2021 I decided I would just whip up a quick little thread painting in a tiny 4" hoop I picked up. It looked so simple that I figured I could do it. I was in the middle of crocheting some Christmas gifts, but I thought it would be a little break for me.

That makes me laugh now. Boy, did I have a lot to learn!

So, what's wrong with this hoop? Well, it isn't horrible. Looking at it now I see things to like:

• The gradation of purple and peach colors in the clouds. 
• The little cloud in the middle of the big one that stands apart. 
• The falling rain. 
• The slope of the mountain. 
• The French knots forming pinons. 
• The tiny flowers. 

But there are things that didn't work:

• The threads in the cloud sag badly when it's vertical. I didn't understand how to do a satin stitch, made the stitches too long, and had never even heard of long and short stitch. 
• I used too many threads in each stitch, making the image kind of thick looking. 
• I didn't know how the direction of the threads could be used to shape things. 
• The worm-like blue clouds are odd and confusing. 
• The too-white path slopes to one side, making it look treacherous. 
• The foreground plane looks as vertical as the mountains. 

Not to mention that I kept getting my needle trapped trying to pull it up close to the edge of the hoop. 

But I was completely intrigued and vowed to try another one once Christmas was over.