The Monkey Sampler

I decided I am going to have a run at finishing Midsummer Night Designs' Monkey Sampler. I've had the chart forever, and it's such a fun design. Irreverent and quirky. I started it back in the fall on black, and then put it aside at Christmas. I pulled it back out again Wednesday night. Hopefully, I can get it, if not finished, then majorly worked on this month. I stitched MSN's Lady Prim and Lady Proper Sampler two years ago, and that was a pleasure to stitch. This is just the same.

I converted all the colors to Vikki Clayton silks. I used them on Lady Prim and they were loads of fun to work with. I like how vibrant they are and how they really seem to pop against the black. And they are CHEAP. I think I paid less than $1.50 per skein for these. You can't beat that for silk threads.

One thing about me, I am cheap. I hate spending large amounts of money--I drive a cheap car, my dogs were free or reduced in price, I don't do expensive shoes or clothes. I rarely use over-dyed threads because the thought of spending the money on them makes me nauseous. Especially Silk n Colors. I have a gorgeous chart by Workbasket, the Bay Sampler, and it uses Silk n Colors. I priced them out. At $5 a skein, which is what they were at the time I was doing it, it was over $100 for the threads alone. OMG. But these are cheaper. Even if I bought 3 skeins of each, it would still be way less that.

So these are fun to use. I am not doing the variegated ones, so it's going a little fast. I am working on the house, which is a lot of brown, so had to stitch part of the date in a gorgeous rose. But I'll get to do some other colors, soon. I am almost done the roof, and am moving on from there.