Owl Embroidery

Last Christmas a friend of mine gave me this adorable owl embroidery kit from Kiriki Press.

I finally cracked in to it this summer after I caught the embroidery bug from the totally cute patterns over at Red Letter Day Stitches.

I've made some progress since the days of long sunshine and occasionally oppressive heat, but the owl sits still on my desk, waiting.

I'd never devoted any real time to embroidery before this year. So really, my friend was expressing great confidence in me by purchasing an embroidery kit that's "level 3" as in, the most difficult offered by this particular company.

I sort of ignored that rating level and just jumped on in. And really, embroidery isn't all that difficult! Don't be intimidated! There's plenty of fantastic stitch dictionaries and techniques demonstrated online. I've been referring to this one pretty heavily since I've begun.

There are a number of stitches I've had to practice a few times, and go to a variety of sources to get a better understanding of (french knots!! Tricky but soooo pretty!).
But with patience and a modicum of research, I've found that embroidery is a great brain-resetting sort of activity when I need a break from knitting.

I have a Pinterest board with a variety of needlecrafts pinned to it. Search around for the embroidery, but beware: there's plenty there to distract you from knitting! My current favourite embroidery project is this one, and I reaaaally want to start it now! If only I had some neon embroidery floss...