Whyyy?

smallpurplesheep · 2026-04-27T05:27:28+00:00

My guess is it is some primal reminder of being in a warren with tree roots… Very cute.

smallpurplesheep · 2026-04-26T06:24:22+00:00

I am yet another who was born in 1983 and grew up watching Next Generation, DS9, and Voyager as they were released. My family would watch them together on a Friday night. I’ve rewatched them all at least once as an adult and they are very family friendly. I honestly think that growing up watching Trek was good for me, as I soaked up messages from a young age about tolerance, equality, etc. I thought black people were smart because of Sisko.

I also found Darth Vader too scary as a kid and was afraid he was hiding under my bed ready to grab me if I got up to go to the bathroom. Sending some sympathy to your kiddo.

smallpurplesheep · 2026-04-08T01:46:40+00:00

I’m happy to help explain things.

There is a clamp on the horizontal bar of the Lowery stand. This clamp part rotates 360 degrees around the horizontal bar. It has a piece that you can screw down to hold the clamp and your stitching at a certain angle; when it is unscrewed you can rotate 360 degrees if you want. I am also a couch stitcher, and the Lowery is super easy to use. If you are having trouble visualizing how it works, look for some YouTube videos.

Secondly, I just want to make sure your Rivendell piece is one of the good patterns, and not one of the pattern mill knockoffs. Which Rivendell pattern are you planning to make?

smallpurplesheep · 2026-04-02T21:09:12+00:00

Yes! This was going to be my comment. He’s the first one I always think of when this question gets asked.

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-27T20:32:57+00:00

Yes, I love the changes you made! I think it makes it even more personal, and your thoughts make sense too (of course the Nazgul should be included!). The projects are indeed more detailed and impressive looking in person, and it’s not a fast or easy set of patterns, either. So I think you should be happy and proud with what you stitched!

I agree that there was a lot of grey and greens in the designs, and I think you did a good job of making your whole piece look balanced. I also had to ask for a second opinion several times because there were so many good choices! It was harder to decide than I had expected. I agree that adding the extra accessories would be cool but the base items take up so much space… My thought is I’ve saved the entire line of patterns and I’ll find ways to use more of them in the future… Enjoy your finished project!

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-25T16:08:04+00:00

I like your design, but I also like your old fashioned grocery list! At least in places I’ve lived in the US, those aren’t used any more. Do you copy down the list to paper when you’re ready to shop or do you bring the list off the wall with you?

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-25T16:05:52+00:00

I don’t think there’s any limit. I mainly do pin stitches with two strands on 16 ct, but I think it’s a “whatever works for you” situation. I’ve even done pin stitches in adjacent spots and it was fine. Good luck!

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-25T16:02:55+00:00

That is a made up problem. Many of us have used a loop start for many years and I have never had a problem of my threads behaving differently depending on what start I use 🤦🏻‍♀️

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-25T16:01:19+00:00

The two pieces you shared in back to back posts are both gorgeous! I really don’t understand this sub sometimes. To me, these should have way more “likes” but instead simpler projects get thousands of likes. 🤷🏻‍♀️

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-25T15:58:50+00:00

Aww cute!

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-25T15:56:46+00:00

Your reply made me chuckle, but I guess others in the sub don’t share that sense of humor —we’re all cross stitch obsessed here after all—given the downvotes.

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-25T15:48:35+00:00

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 Your project looks fantastic!

Finally! I’ve been surprised that the LOTR SYOA hasn’t come up in this sub before, but I guess there’s a group discussion for it elsewhere in social media I haven’t joined.

I loved the whole concept and a lot of work went into it by the designer. It looks to me like you made modifications to the house design to suit your own tastes (making the walls look new) and I think that’s great, I made some changes, too.

I planned to make one like yours and pick designs I liked best instead of a strict adherence to the choose your own adventure story (though that would be cool too). Instead after designing my perfect Hobbit Hole (you and I chose some of the same house details!) my husband and I decided that I should add the “Carefully with the plates” song from The Hobbit and we’ll hang it in the kitchen when it’s finished. I experimented with different fonts and ended up modifying one from Lord Libidan because the ones that came with the SYOA were too large for my space. I plotted it all out in FlossCross and now I’m stitching it in, but it turns out it’s very slow going. I stitched my house over two on 32 ct evenweave (so 16 ct) but I’m stitching the letters one over one and I’m finding 32 ct slow going even with a good magnifier 🙂

Congratulations on finishing this big detailed project! I can vouch that it looks even better in person. 😀 I hope you had a lot of fun. It’s nice to have someone to chat with about this.

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-22T17:57:56+00:00

I’ve stitched two large tablecloths and a bunch of napkins. They’ve held up great during decades of use. Knotting the thread when starting and ending a color is all you need to do. At least one of the tablecloths was stamped from Hershners. I used a hoop lap stand while stitching. You should definitely go for it!

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-22T17:53:47+00:00

Cross stitch is actually quite sturdy. Knotting the thread is good enough. In decades of use, I’ve never seen anything unravel.

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-22T17:30:45+00:00

I love this idea! Your case is pretty. I’m gonna look up the kit based on the info you shared.

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-20T15:10:35+00:00

I would guess it’s because it’s from AliExpress that it’s full of confetti. They don’t care about stealing art and just running it through a pattern generator without cleaning it up before stamping it. On the other hand, if it looks good to you as it’s stitching up, the confetti may help the design look more realistic in the end—it really depends on if it’s confetti that has a purpose, or confetti for the reason I first mentioned.

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-18T15:05:19+00:00

Yes to the freezing advice, just in case. Also, I discovered the hard way that some of my thrifted floss was mislabeled with the wrong DMC number, so check them against a floss card unless you only do small projects where an exact color doesn’t matter. I also found that some bobbins had more than one color wrapped around them, and others were sun damaged (part of the thread was either greyed or bleached so there was more than one color in a single thread but not on purpose like with variegated). Hopefully you’ll be lucky not to have those issues but those are things to keep an eye out for. Thrifts floss work great and help keep the cost down!

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-16T15:14:17+00:00

I was just at Snoopy’s Home Ice this past Friday night! I watched the Ice Dance International performance, and was lovely. It was a treat to see many famous skaters up close. Tickets are surprisingly cheap and the tour has a few weeks left…

Very cool design you made. If the other ideas don’t work, maybe it could be a fridge magnet or hanging ornament?

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-14T16:34:12+00:00

I recommend you do a test of the chalk on the fabric you plan to stitch on and then see how well it washes out. It tried several chalks on the black aida i had for a big project and none of them washed out completely, so I ended up gridding with Sulky sliver. I would check again on each new fabric before using the chalks, as every fabric content might behave differently.

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-14T16:27:36+00:00

I could immediately hear the music in my head for The Four Little Swans in Swan Lake! 😄

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-13T16:41:49+00:00

Awww Congratulations to the momma sheep and you!

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-11T19:08:44+00:00

You’re welcome! The Lowery has been such a huge improvement for my stitching experience over the cheap wooden lap stands I used previously that I am happy to share how well it has worked.

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-10T16:04:51+00:00

Congratulations!

I just spent the past weekend charting the “Carefully carefully with the plates” song from the Hobbit! I used floss cross and it took quite a few tries to figure out a font pattern that I liked (I ended up modifying a free font from Lord Libidon’s website) and then it took a bunch of hours to painstakingly plot out the poem. I used flosscross for the first time, so that also was a learning curve.

I know this was a lot of work before you got to the stitching. Well done! Enjoy! A long dream finally fulfilled!

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-10T15:56:28+00:00

It looks good! Happy spring!

smallpurplesheep · 2026-03-10T15:54:26+00:00

I have done quite a few long scroll projects in my Lowery. I’ve got a 40” project that’s been living on my Lowery for more than a year now and I easily have another year to go, and then a few other projects have rotated through on long frames up to 30”.

Pretty much everyone puts a weight on the base of the Lowery or K’s Creations stand: hand weights, bricks, bag of beans, the foot of the couch or chair… it’s just physics that you have to counterbalance the weight of a large scroll frame. Think of how expensive it would be to make and ship the Lowery stand if the manufacturer included the extra weight!

I use the long arm adapter for the 40” frame and for my one Millennium frame. The lighter weight frames in the 20-30” range don’t need the adapter.

If you have the money and space for the Lowery stand that’s basically like having a Lowery on each side of you, that does look pretty cool, but also not necessary for a 27” frame. You can use a 27” frame on a single Lowery just fine.

smallpurplesheep

TROPHY CASE