This is Teresa Layman's "Outstanding in their Field". I've been wanting to start this for a while and I was kinda dreading all the backstitching that's left on Gentle St. Nick. :b Drew fell in love with this when we were at a stitching store, and I decided to try it even though I usually hate French Knots.
Yes. The whole design is filled with French and Colonial Knots! It's done on a weaver's cloth with the design drawn on. You do the design in a specific order, doing the detail areas first and then filling in the bigger spaces; very similar to punch needle. Well, I'm really getting the hang of those freakin' french knots now! I think I hated them so much because I was wrapping too many times around the needle and they looked "floppy". The instructions with this said you should make bigger knots with more plys of thread. Each of these knots are done with one ply, so they're pretty small. With this many knots in a small area (2000/square inch!) one weird looking one doesn't stand out too much.

After having my first finish of the year with Splendor IX, I thought about going back to Cirque des Cercles or my "Gentle St. Nick" stocking, but I felt like starting something new.

I decided to do Brightneedle's "Welcome" and love the soft colors on the higer count linen. I've actually gotten alot done on this since the picture, while being home sick with the flu. It's nice to work on a smaller project!

After starting this, I ran across Juls' progress picture of her Cirque. I love the colors she chose & am hoping mine turn out as nicely (I'm doing blues/aqua in Caron's Waterlilies "Monsoon").