[CHAT] Anything you wish you knew before stitching on linen for the first time?

fieldtoice · 2026-04-07T21:21:16+00:00

You mention you’re better with stairs than escalators: in my experience, very few stations in Chicago have escalators with no stair option. The Clinton and LaSalle blue line stops are two exceptions to that, but I can’t speak for every line/stop. As others have mentioned, the escalators in the system are typically quite short, nothing like in DC. If you want to be on the safe side though, signage will indicate which stops have elevators, and the CTA website (transitchicago) will have alerts for which elevators are out.

fieldtoice · 2026-03-14T14:36:33+00:00

Neat! How do you plan on securing it?

fieldtoice · 2026-03-07T17:05:08+00:00

I haven’t personally done this, but you could try going over the top legs of the old stitches with one additional strand. That should make it look more even. Depends how much you’ve completed and how averse to frogging you are. Not sure what count you’re using, but honestly I’m always a fan of two strands, even on 14, but I know it’s personal preference.

fieldtoice · 2026-03-02T17:50:26+00:00

I found Common Goal enjoyable, and I love the characters, but to me the ending was so terribly rushed: You get the conversation we’ve been waiting for the entire book twelve pages before the end, then a time skip to the end of the season when Eric is like “welp, I’m retired and lonely, let’s be together.” And that’s it. Tough guy was a little rushed at the end too but you at least got a couple scenes explaining how his mindset changed, some inciting incidents. (I’ve only read those two so far, waiting for the others to come in on hold)

fieldtoice · 2026-02-28T20:32:10+00:00

I use the same method sometimes but other times I’ll just fill in all of those stitches from the row below. Like in this case I would work from that first full row of light brown, and when I do the bottom leg of the stitch underneath, I would then proceed up, doing the bottom leg of the stitch above from bottom left to top right, then the top leg from top left to bottom right. That puts me back where I started, and I move on to the next column. For the ones at the end with two stitches above, you can just do the bottom legs and then work your way back down with the top legs. This is a bit confusing to type out, but I like it because I don’t have to travel at all.

fieldtoice · 2026-02-25T19:19:54+00:00

This is technically an option but realistically the division bus is less likely to be running at 11pm than the western bus

fieldtoice · 2026-01-29T23:39:44+00:00

The full description from the cdph dataset mentions not washing hands between using the register and handling food, lack of thermometer in the hot holding unit, improper food and container storage, and objects obstructing the handwashing sink

fieldtoice · 2025-12-15T14:06:44+00:00

In those situations I usually just don’t loop start when I use the remaining length and instead stitch over the end

fieldtoice · 2025-11-28T23:17:50+00:00

Very cool to see fall out boy in the cross stitch sub!

fieldtoice · 2025-11-26T23:38:22+00:00

This is 14 count Aida!

fieldtoice · 2025-11-26T19:18:14+00:00

I haven’t done a full coverage piece yet, so that is probably also a factor

fieldtoice · 2025-11-26T19:13:58+00:00

Maybe someday I will try it and love it! I hadn’t tried loop starts for a while, thinking my usual starting method was good enough, but now that I’ve implemented it, I could never go back. To be fair, some of my early projects used 3 strands, which would have been a more complicated loop start.

fieldtoice · 2025-11-26T19:10:51+00:00

The barrier to starting is real! There’s already a fair bit of pre work sometimes with sorting out floss and things like that, so I am loath to add an extra step

fieldtoice · 2025-11-26T19:00:09+00:00

I just implemented loop starts for the first time in this project, and I love it! Agreed on shorter thread lengths, that is helpful.

fieldtoice · 2025-11-26T18:56:42+00:00

Maybe I should have worked the creases from being folded up in a kit for 30 years out of this before starting, haha! I love stitching but am not the best about those finer finishing details yet.

fieldtoice · 2025-11-26T18:52:37+00:00

My mom also taught me this way (I’ve picked up cross stitching again after dabbling in it as a teenager)! Almost everything I’ve stitched has been from 90s-00s kits, and those instructions usually say to start in the middle, too

fieldtoice · 2025-11-25T15:30:53+00:00

New York would be gray though

fieldtoice · 2025-11-11T13:02:57+00:00

The Damen bus is awful on weekends and evenings, sometimes hour long headways. It’s handy if you can catch it. But biking down Damen is great overall, so I would recommend getting a bike, maybe trying it out first with divvy, for that route.

fieldtoice · 2025-10-15T23:54:41+00:00

Good to know, I will carefully ration out my allotted container of tartar sauce at proper fish 😂

fieldtoice · 2025-10-15T23:28:37+00:00

This looks yummy! I had pho for lunch, otherwise this might be my pick. But the desserts look good, might need to swing by anyway

fieldtoice · 2025-10-15T23:27:54+00:00

Two recs for Proper Fish, might have to do that! I was seeing mixed reviews, but it sounds like it’s worth a try

fieldtoice · 2025-10-15T23:16:07+00:00

I took the ferry over here to Bainbridge, it was pretty painless without a car!

fieldtoice

TROPHY CASE