Another new start

I must confess to another new start yesterday. Through my wanderings through my Yahoo! Groups I saw a post stating that Ink Circles was starting a new mystery. A Celtic mystery! I went over to look and was completely lost. I immediately printed it out and went home and kitted it up. Well, partially kitted.

Being that it is supposed to look like the book of Kells, I decided that rich colors were indeed called for. It was suggested to use gold metallic for the yellow/gold portion of the chart and I do have two partial spools of Kreinik 002 HL, so I pulled those. There's a large amount of black called for so I decided to use DMC for that. I was going to use Rayon for the orange and purple but I found two colors by The Dye Is Cast that would work just as well. (Unfortunately, I'm afraid this company is no longer in business. I looked at several online stores to find that they do not carry this line of thread. I also tried using the website stated on the skeincards and the website had nothing to do with cross stitch thread.) I don't have quite enough of the orange that the design calls for. But it's close enough to a DMC color that I will blend the two and I will have plenty. I'm sure I have enough of the purple. If it turns out that I do not then I have a Weeks Dye Works color that is almost exactly the same thing and I will use that if I have to. Next is red. I have LOTS of reds as that is a fun color to stitch with. I was going to use my Louisiana Hot Sauce (WDW if I'm not mistaken) but I only have one skein and I'm sure I'll need two. I decided that I would use a much richer red and chose In The Burgundy by Thread Gatherer. I used it on another project and I'm sure I have plenty.

The final colors are green, light blue and dark blue. I do not have the amounts that these colors call for so I'm going to have to purchase them. (Oh darn! But really 18, 8, and 10 yards is a lot and I only buy 1 skein at a time usually which is only around 5 yards.) When I go shopping (either this friday/saturday or next friday/saturday) I will be taking the whole thing with me so I can make sure the colors all go together. I really don't want to pick the wrong shade.

I need to go print out another copy because I want a good one to keep and one working copy (which I started on last night). I started the top left hand corner last night. I worked in one length of black/border just to be fair. I didn't want to leave out my obligation stitching and I had spent enough time trying to pick out colors that I wanted to use.

I have a month to get as far along as I care to get before the next installment is released. I can't wait!