This week I kicked off my first craft project of the year!

I saw the wave ball pattern on etsy and could not resist it. I absolutely love the colours and the Japanese-ish vibe of the design.

But gosh! I really underestimated how challenging this would be – definitely a brain stretch and leaning into new ways of working.

The pattern covers 6 separate pdf pages, rather than being a single consolidated large pdf page. I’ve taken to using the laptop rather than the ipad to view the pattern and track my stitches. It means I can see much more of the design at once. I tried printing out on A3 and doing it old school – but that’s a big nope from me.

The pattern is mostly very small blocks of colour, which means very slow stitching – a lot of colour changes and needle threading. I’m trying work with a few of the colours in one area, which is a new thing for me and working well. Usually I try to do as much of one colour as I can before switching to the next.

I’m also using the English method (where you make individual Xs one by one). I usually use the Danish method ( //// then \\\\), but English seems to work better for this design.

After cutting it a bit fine with Mr Sparkle, I’m using way too much fabric and it is a little unwieldy. I like to stitch in hand rather than using a hoop or frame, so there’s a bit of juggling required.

There are roughly 20,000 stitches (double that of Mr Sparkle) – I’m giving myself at least a year to finish.

Now that I’ve settled into something that works, I’m enjoying the process! It’s definitely not a mindless stitch.

On with the (very basic) pix

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Pattern on laptop (pink means I’ve stitched that bit) and progress

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Colours I’m working with. I probably would benefit from slightly larger tiny bags.

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Pattern printed on A3. I’m not going to use it, but it’s a good reminder of what I’m committing to!

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I’m definitely going to need to add other projects into the mix!

Books next?