pictured with rosh hashanah flowers. probably not looking too different from the last time you saw it. but i have been working on it a lot; in fact, it's most of the handwork i did in september.

still planning, for now, on using it in the grotto, at least to start with. we have, though, recently made some changes to our plans for the house, and are, it seems, going to have a good bit more house than we thought we were (then again, there may eventually be twice as many of us living here). the room that is now our den will probably become a dining room as the den moves up to the third floor; in that case, the canvaswork eggplant -- and perhaps some of the other vegetables in the series -- would do well in a dining room. perhaps even as chair cushion covers! as intended in the kit, i believe.

i like canvaswork. i don't know why cross-stitch is such a big ugly fuddy-duddy turnoff to me, but it is. canvaswork looks so much better to my eye. i want to make vests, and slippers, and bags, and whatnot. but moreover, i want to not have to use kits; i want artist friends to draw or paint right on my hardanger, and do custom stuff. i know folks who do this with knotted rugs and i like that too as long as it's going on a wall; i am really opposed to rugs on floors these days (too many dogs and cats to make any rug anything but a horrible, festering scrapbook of smells and cast-off bits of protein.)

so! my canvaswork eggplant. i am enjoying it. it takes a long, long time, which is always something i look for in a project.

hell yes! i mentioned looking for this a few months ago, and someone finally found it! just seeing the cover brings back memories.

for valentine's day ben gave me this kit -- an eggplant designed by kaffe fassett. i have been wanting to do canvas needlepoint for a long time. i have always loved how it looks -- much more than i like cross-stitch (which i do not really like at all).

when i was a kid, both of my parents did canvas needlepoint. i remember my mother transferring a drawing i had made when i was about four, to canvas, and stitching it -- in garish colors that were historically correct considering the photowhite drawing paper and felt tip markers i had used to make the drawing. it was never completed, this canvas, and i had it in my possession for awhile, but think i have since thrown it out.

i remember my dad working on, in fact, a chart of a green pepper. he used a book -- this is a real thing people and i am entreating him to look for it in his house to prove it -- called rosey greer's needlepoint for men. yes, that rosey greer -- the thing with two heads, o.j. simpson's spiritual counsellor, and, oh, wasn't he a football player? and needlepointer. again, i have asked my dad to look for the book but know that i run the risk of him not finding the book but instead "finding" a bunch of other things that he will then try to bring here. the man needs to learn to use ebay. (well, except for that oak sideboard, daddy).

the eggplant i believe is meant to be a seat cover or maybe a pillow but also maybe a wall hanging, so it will go on the wall down in the grotto. there is precious little info online about best practices in canvaswork. i am remembering what my parents used to do, i guess, or at least trying.