Well I discovered late this week, that yes I actually can stitch on the train on the way to and from work each day. There are some limitations to be taken into account. Take small projects, on large stitch counts with lots of blocks of single colours.
Don't even *think* about a BAP size or even a small TW!
I took Party Cat with me this week on the train - it is on 14 ct Aida and does indeed have large blocks of single colours. You can see how much progress I did on Thursday and Friday in my blog.
Things I learned late this week:
- Progress is much slower than normal - but hey its progress right.
- Stitches aren't quite as even as usual -but well I'm not sure anyone else will notice.
- You can only stitch during the country part of the trip - once you hit the city limits, there are too many people.
- If you have a seat on your own and stitch with long threads, people tend to find other seats wherever possible before sitting next to you.
- Embroidery scissors fit well in an inside pocket of your overcoat.
- Don't drop your orts while wearing a black woollen overcoat. The bright reds and blues stick to the coat and are very obvious when you get into work.
- You can sometimes attract nutters - one person sat next to me Thursday afternoon and started reading his bible, glancing across at my stitching and muttered about "heathen images" for the rest of the trip. Or maybe that's just because it was psychedelic ...
- Always take spare needles - I've lost two this week already. Train lurches as I'm threading the needle and out it flies .... free, free at last .... wonder where they'll be found...
Well its almost bedtime - ready for a 5am start again tomorrow morning ....
{Post edited to include a reference to Hanky Pysanky now that Tracy has given permission for the pic to me shown .....}
6 comments:
Oooh well done! I have never tried stitching on a train - I am always worried about being travel sick (having tried stitching in a car and not feeling at all well LOL).
You must be about 2/3rds done by now on this one!
Well, it sounds like you are getting acclimated to your new schedule. Glad you got some progress, nutters and crowds and stop/starts notwithstanding! And you know in the movies when someone dropped a contact, they'd shout "Stop!! I've lost a contact!" and the whole place would stop and start crawling around on the floor looking for it; you could try that with your needles :) If nothing else, it would be fun to watch. LOL
At 6:30am - they'd all wake up and grumble at being woken up ...... most people sleep on the 6am train until after the sun rises - it really is a most relaxing way to start the morning - that first half hour or so of travel .....
Unless said needle flies into their butt or other soft places [grins].
Party Cat looks great and the little HankyP motif is lovely.
Oh, it sounds like a lovely way to start the day, although I don't know as I'd be able to stitch on a train since I can't in a car. (It's not stopping me from being a wee bit jealous that you get to start your day that way, though!) Congrats on the progress!
Mel said:
"most people sleep on the 6am train until after the sun rises... "
Well, I often sleep on my my way to work, too, though I am the driver, so I don't find it that relaxing :) I think it's usually the shock of waking up and realizing that damn, I'm at work, again. As though I wasn't just there. Jeez. I don't know if I could stitch, but I could probably read, if I was facing forward.
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