SBQ - Magnifying glass

Have you ever used a magnifying glass with your stitching? If so, do you find it helpful?

I've never needed one for the stitching thankfully. My eyes have mostly held up under the strain. I have been tempted on occasion to use one for the actual charts, because sometimes even with a good light, it's hard to tell similar symbols apart, especially ones combined with colors. I noticed this again working on a Charles Craft freebie. The symbol for black is a black box, which is nice and clear. However there's another symbol for a dark grey which is black with a dark X inside. Usually they're right next to each other, so you think it's all black. I'm thinking I should stick to black and white charts if I keep having this issue continually crop up.

It's an art

Trends come and go. Needlework is no different. I've noticed a growing one on Livejournal's cross_stitch group. The theme should be "think big". Cute small pocket projects are passe. No one does angels anymore, unless they're UFOs or older charts they're finally getting around to. No, what everyone wants to do is paint. Everyone is doing these massive projects charted from fine art, requiring hours of gridding and prep work. Finishing a whole page is a big deal to these stitchers, which I can understand if the final project has 60 pages! Wayback when I was last paying attention to cross stitch, places like Uncharted Territory were unusual. Now they appear to be a dime a dozen. While I adore Pre-Raphaelite art like whoa, I'm not sure I have the time or patience or endurance to do one of those projects. It seems like it'd be easier to just buy a print. Besides, it's almost like needlepoint where you cover the entire canvas, losing the fun of picking an interesting piece of fabric.

This week's SBQ is slightly more involved, requiring either camera or scanner. I may wait until the weekend to put up anything, if at all.