I have always needed something to distract restless limbs. More so now with the winter evenings drawing when my study is too chilly to work. I have always read a great deal because the act of immersing myself in fiction stills the restless tiger within. Jigsaws, knitting, hand sewing applique (illo right) and wool tapestries have also provided a distraction while watching TV. With cool nights coming on I realised I needed a project to get me through to spring and raided my stack of craft supplies for inspiration and unearthed hidden treasure.

Well over a decade ago I started a somewhat ambitious counted-crossstitch kit depicting wolves in  a beech wood, titled Guardians of the Wood. This was shelved when packing up to move house, and left in one of my ‘craft boxes’ while the great ‘hand stitched embroidered bed quilt’ marathon was completed.

A couple of weeks ago I raided the craft box and dragged the wolves out of hibernation.

First thing to note was the tiny stitching – which I swear has got smaller since I last laid eyes on it.Back upstairs to dig out my lighted magnifying lens.Then the realisation that as the threads (floss) were all carefully labelled with the yarn number and suspended from cards they were bound to wind themselves into colourful birds nests that would, under my careless hands, very quickly become grubby and frayed.Off to Abakhans – the milliner/craft shop – for a case and floss cards to tidy them away.Start sewing – and realise this was very different from wool tapestry kits or embroidery where the pattern is printed onto the canvas/cloth. As the name suggests I need to count stitches in holes that are just 1mm apart. The recognised solution is, of course, to tack grid lines onto the canvas as guides from which to translate/count the stitches from the chart to canvas without going completely cross eyed and potentially insane.  When I first started this all those years back I had managed, with my customary impatience to dive straight in without any preparation, and yes I did sew the wolf head without them – but my eyes were better back then!

This is my winter project. Whether my patience holds out long enough to finish it is another matter but so long as its sitting on the end of the couch reminding/prodding me into picking it up it should go well – though if Mother, an accomplished embroiderer, was to have seen the rat’s nest of threads on the back of the work she’s be unpicking it and starting again… but hey – if it didn’t involve a little chaos it wouldn’t be me!