Foo Dog Needlepoint

Done! 

Foo Dog Needlepoint

This project started out as a gift. The recipient of the gift did a truly wonderful thing (for me) – she completed 80% of the background. Then the project went into her stash for years and years.

The primary issue with the project is actually the canvas itself. It’s a printed canvas, and the registration on the print colors is skewed by as much as 3 mm. This may not sound like much, but it means that it’s darn near impossible to tell what color your supposed to be using about 10% of the time. Add to this the teeny tiny scale (20 stitches to the inch), and you have a recipe for a long term UFO.

I worked on this project in fits and starts until I realized I was running out of two colors of yarn, and then took a long break. As needlepoint yarn isn’t easily available where I live, I managed to pick some up on a recent business trip to Paris. There is a truly adorable little shop called Le Bucherie on the left bank. It’s small and perfect – full of gorgeous canvases, beautiful yarn, and the owner is as helpful as she is adorable.

Armed with my two missing colors and stranded in my hotel due to the ash cloud, This project made major headway. Toss in a few week’s worth of lunch hours and a nasty cold, and voila – done!