Book of Ink Circles, often called “BoINK” on blogs, was a free piece offered by Ink Circles on their website back in 2008. I remember quite a few folks stitching it back then. Folks made some alterations to the corner designs, and there were lots of color changes. Like so many pieces that have a popular season, this one seems to have quieted down, and I don’t really see any progress posts about it anymore.
I began mine sometime in 2012, but I don’t have a specific date. I’m stitching mine on an older cut of 28 ct Thunderstorm linen from Silkweaver from my days in the Fabric of the Month club around 2005/2006. I know the original palette is likely inspired by all of the bright colors in The Book of Kells. It’s a little too varied for my personal tastes though. So I’m planning on toning it down. I keep changing my mind on my colors, though. I think that’s a typical problem with Ink Circles pieces. I swear I have about 10 different colorways selected for Cirque des Cercles!
My outline for the squares is being done in Gentle Art’s Cinders. It’s a beautiful red-black thread with little pops here and there of bright red, just like the embers settling down in a dying fire. I had a bad miscount that required fixing last year. That is now complete and I’m moving forward. I’m just under halfway done working the outlines of the piece. Part of me is itching to start that upper left square, but I really do want to finish the frame first – just to get a fresh, ironed photo of it before I start adding in each of the patterns. This piece feels like a stained-glass window to me, and I want to fill in each window, just like the original SAL did.
My goal this month is to get the top right “cat” head back on, which was one of the things I had to frog off when I corrected my counting. After that I’m going to continue down that center column of squares to ensure I keep everything balanced from the center out. I think now that I have the foundation of the top half, it should be much easier to keep everything counted going forward.
I have no timeline for completing this one. Eventually this will probably be a fair submission just because it’s a pretty wild, unique piece and different than most things offered at the fair. I feel like it’s one of my goals to submit non-traditional stitching to show that cross stitch is just as wild in its themes as quilting is.
Until next time,
Melissa
1 comment
I, too, always found the original colour way a little too varied, so I’m looking forward to seeing your version of it!