Tuesday, January 17, 2012

It's Not Anal, It's Organized

After finishing the colors on the sampler (See post below.), I decided I could put away all the other colors as the only thing left to do is outline everything and that's done in black. Because I had to buy 8 skeins as I didn't have those colors, I needed to integrate those new colors into my DMC floss boxes. That proved to be an hour's job.

Years and years ago, when there was more of an income to dispose of, I decided one of the things I wanted to do was get every color DMC made. That way, when I did another project, there wasn't a mad dash to the store for 632 because it was the one color I didn't have. I dutifully watched sales and when floss was 20 cents or 4/$1.00, I would buy $5.00 worth. I carried a list of color numbers and crossed off the ones I bought.

Somewhere along the line, that notion, to have all colors, faded. I quit doing cross-stich. Things languished. It was too much work to assemble the fabric and colors and find the time to sit down and stitch. Dust gathered on the boxes of books and supplies.

But now I've come back to cross-stitch because I enjoy doing it. I enjoy creating. I've been looking for this sampler for over 3 months to make for Daniel but it seems it's been discontinued. That means I am going to have to make this up on my own. I carry a mental list of people who have received some cross-stitched item from me and it's not a very long list. I found something perfect for April and Perry and this item should be made for my daughter. Plus, there's the almost finished project for Lisa that has languished in all it's incomplete glory for a few years. The problem, once the sampler is done, is what to pick up next, something new or finish something started.

In either case, I need to be organized. I wound up moving thread from container to container so it all stayed in numerical order. That also meant the number on the tag on top of the box was wrong and had to be changed so, when I'm looking for 809, I'll know which box it's in.

No, DMC's color flow doesn't always make a lot of sense. I think it's because, over the years, they have added to the number of colors they have. In the old cross-stitch magazines there is an add that reads, "We make 32 colors of blue because mother nature does, too." When I was buying every color, there were distinct gaps in numbers and you knew they were giving themselves a cushion to make more shades in that color. Some just seem to be orphan colors that were made once and forgotten.

I also discovered that my numerical skills leave a bit to be desired. I found two of the colors I thought I didn't have. They were out of sequence. That was 80 cents I could have saved. Oh well.

I am now fully floss organized and ready for the next cross-stitch project whatever that turns out to be.

Beverage:  Edinburgh's Finest tea

Deb

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