This is my first needlepoint project. I attended my first needlepoint workshop Halloween weekend 2021 in Las Vegas with Margaret Bendig. I was told she would be an excellent teacher for my first project ever. And she was wonderful. She explained everything and came around checking on all of us students and made sure me and the other newbie in the class were understanding what we were supposed to be doing. The problem, I found, (and it’s a totally me issue), that my lines above are off. Reading needlepoint is a little different than reading cross stitch. It’s hard to explain. I’ll have to try to one day but suffice it to say I read the pattern wrong and my lines are all off above. So, I’m working my way from left to right to make sure those from left to right are correct. Then I’ll work my way down. Each of those blocks correspond to a number on the pattern and the blocks from left to right do not go in numerical order. So I have to figure out what number it is and then go to the appropriate page in the pattern (there’s over 30 pages) to determine what I’m doing. So far, I’ve been working on things that we learned in class.

In class, the instructor can’t go through everything. She started us off, and then went over the blocks that were different than “normal” stuff. So Margaret went over techniques that may be new for the average class attendee. Since it was all new, my brain exploded and I just kept going on what I knew. Also my lines were off and I didn’t want to jump to a different block and potentially put the stitches in the wrong place. During class I kept going with what I was doing. I tried to pay attention but I’m sure I didn’t catch nearly enough to get me started. Margaret was so nice and friendly. She told me to get in touch with her if I have any questions. Which really pleases me since I am positive I will need help.

~Happy needlepoint!

~Stay Safe.

~Melanie