Count Twice, Stitch Once – Advice I Should Have Followed

You know that DIY advice about measuring twice and cutting once? Count twice, stitch once has to be the needlepoint equivalent.

I didn’t and like the guy who cuts his shelves too short, I had a mess. But I’m adapting, largely because I’m too lazy to start over. I started Down the Garden Path from Needle Delights one Sunday evening in a somewhat dark room, my only excuse.

I used the little clip on light to read the chart for the border and counted five threads across. The border stitches are all the sam so once one was in a made more. I counted (several times) the number of units in an area’s side and got those right.

Happily stitching away I wondered why the canvas seemed to be too small, I knew I had cut that right. But then, maybe I didn’t since I had counted the size of the initial stitch right.

I only realized my mistake when the striped block in the corner was wider than the charted block, which is the correct size. Finally, I went back and looked at the border chart and found out it was four threads across, not five.

So now my garden will have fewer flower beds, I’ve crossed out one block from each row and will adapt the other blocks to fit. And I will count more carefully next time.