Believe it or not, I'm really enjoying working on the Amy Mitten Sampler I started at her workshop a few weeks ago. As many of you know, I was not a big fan of counted work. It was difficult and I have struggled with it in the past.

In the past week I've been embroidering the sampler exclusively. As with anything, practice has improved my sills.

I've also learned (figured out) a few things along the way.

Since I rarely work from a kit, the idea of saving the ends of threads to use again wasn't something I'd thought very much about. Amy includes 1 and ½ times the amount of thread in each kit that she uses to stitch the model. It should be more than enough. However, I may be making more mistakes that the more experienced stitcher, so I needed a way to save those ends to use later...just in case.

I decided to use my hole punch and put a hole directly across each color on the thread card for the ends. It works a treat for me!

Of course I make mistakes, and sometimes I don't notice them until I'm quite a few stitches along. Rats! At first I used the eye end of my needle to take out the few stitches I needed to remove. One day, I was digging around in my little work box and my "stitch fixer" popped up to the top. I had totally forgotten about it! I hadn't used it since I'd done my Canvas Work Module at the RSN!

This is a great little tool for pulling out stitches! If you look at the left end of the tool in the photo above, you can see an angled metal piece. that's what pulls out the stitches.

It works almost effortlessly and doesn't unravel the thread! It's saved me a few time this last week! I picked mine up at Stitchville USA in Minneapolis, MN but I know if you look online you will find them.

Now that I've made good progress on my sampler and I feel more confident about my skills (meaning I won't forget what I've learned!) I'm going to begin a new crewel work project.

If anyone has any tips for me concerning counted thread work, I'd LOVE to hear them!