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Tuesday, January 28, 2025

2nd Evil Eye Kit

I moved straight from the first into the second of my three kits of Evil Eye protection mandalas, beginning again in the centre of the eye, this time with black thread.  

The cotton thread brand isn't marked, but whatever it is, it is mostly good. It separates easily and lays flat with a lovely sheen. The black, however, I’m less sure about, as I will discuss below.

As I mentioned last time, the metallic thread is less than satisfactory. I did try it again, just to be sure. In the photo on the right, the two solid lengths are as it went into my needle. The length on the left of the photo is what it looked like after three stitches. It simply unravels and shreds as it goes through fabric.

I swapped to Madiera and had no problem as can be seen on the left.

The next problem was of a different nature. I had an operation 8 days ago to remove a myxoid cyst on my right index finger. The bandage, as you can see, was enormous. It stayed on for 3 days after the operation. As the embroidery was in a hoop, I could stitch with my left hand, but it was slow. 
 All was good until I came to the long straight black rows at the bottom in the photo. By now the dressing on my right index finger was reduced. While I couldn’t use it, I could hold a needle between my thumb and middle finger.and stitch with reasonable accuracy. Stem stitch requires accuracy.
In addition, the thread colour appeared uneven. I tried couching the thread but couldn’t achieve a smooth effect, so undid it and persevered with stem stitch. It’s far from perfect, but a bit better than I had feared.

Once I had added the final borders, I mounted it in the display hoop and chose a piece of a shirt of Jim’s as backing. The colours work, and he would have wanted to continue to be included for as long as possible. I keep the shirt for just such a purpose.

I’m surprised how well this has come up in the end, given the conditions under which it was worked. It goes well with the first one.

I’m still enjoying stitching these, so on to the next one, with even more straight lines!

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